Today began at 6.30 with an alarm clock jolting me out of a brief sleep I had drifted into after having been awake for several hours. A lot of tossing and turning had had to done!

It was about as rubbish weather-wise this morning as it could be, it was cold, it was wet, and it was windy. By the time we had been standing around waiting for an hour for the procession to start I was cold to the core and for the rest of the day I couldn’t completely shake off the chill. That didn’t stop me enjoying myself! There was a bare fraction of the numbers for the release of the Jack from the Fisherman’s Museum and I have never seen so few people around for the start of the procession – members of Joe public that is, because there were more than enough oddly attired, bell clad, hanky wavers. But the rain clouds gave way to blue skies and sunshine just before midday and the crowds came out to play. We had a grand time. The biggest surprise of the day was the boy tapping me on the shoulder shortly before we went on stage to dance. The same one who said he would never acknowledge that I Morris let alone watch me do it! Moments like that are for treasuring. That’s not to say I took it for granted that the rest of my family were supporting me. I was deeply touched that they all turned out especially those of them that braved a wet, cold and windy bank holiday Monday morning.

Afterwards there was a get-together at the house of a Morris couple and it was a bizarre spectacle to see a kitchen full of butch blokes covered in green make-up and ladies in various states of Morris undress. Glorious.

I have had a bath and finally restored myself to a comfortable temperature but I still hear drums…………….