I hope you had a wonderful Bank Holiday Friday yesterday.
We don't get them very often. (other than at Easter, when we get them every year)
(and at Christmas, when we get them two years in seven)
(and at New Year, when we get them one year in seven)
(and for the Royal Wedding in 2011, which was a one-off)
(in fact 18% of the bank holidays so far this century have been Fridays)
(but this is the first ever Bank Holiday Friday in May)
It's only the fourth time we've had a VE Day public holiday. (the first two were 8th and 9th May 1945)
(the third was in 1995, when the normal bank holiday on 1st May was shifted to the following Monday)
The bank holiday weather was absolutely perfect. (almost as warm as the weather on VE Day 1945, if you remember)
(whereas the VE Day bank holiday in 1995 was cloudy, and much cooler than the heatwave the day before)
(the chief difference being we were allowed outside to enjoy that one properly)
I went out to see the Red Arrowsfly over. (although they were following the Thames, so they were quite small from Bow)
(and they hadn't turned their red and blue smoke on yet, because that's only for central London)
(but, yay, Red Arrows!)
(nobody in my local community had decorated their house red white and blue)
(during my daily exercise I didn't see a scrap of bunting anywhere)
(I saw 'Thank You NHS' banners, but nothing even vaguely patriotic)
At 11am we were supposed to stand on our doorstep for the two minutes silence. (I share my doorstep with about 50 other people, so none of us went outside)
(I stayed in and watched the silence on the BBC, rather than virtue-signalling in public)
(the lady on the balcony above mine carried on talking on her phone all the way through)
At 3pm we were supposed to raise a toast to Winston Churchill. (I forgot to switch to BBC1, so totally missed Winston's speech)
(also I don't have any bottles of bubbly in the flat)
(actually I have two, but I didn't want to open one for a single glass)
Then we were supposed to head to our front garden with a picnic. (I don't have a front garden, only a patch of pavement)
(what with social distancing, I didn't think a picnic on the pavement would be very popular)
(it seems the people who devised these celebrations have made some sweeping assumptions)
At 4pm we were supposed to have tea and scones (or coffee and cake). (I don't have any scones, so I wasn't allowed tea)
(I don't like coffee, so I wasn't allowed cake)
At 6pm we were supposed to have dinner and raise a glass to our neighbours. (I hadn't been to the supermarket since these plans were announced so I didn't have any picnic food)
(I can't believe they wanted us to sit in our front gardens for three hours)
(and anyway I don't have a front garden, so raising a glass to my neighbours indoors would have been futile)
At 9pm we were supposed to sing We'll Meet Again with the rest of the nation. (from where I was sitting, none of the rest of the nation joined in)
(maybe the people who live near me don't know any of the words)
(I didn't join in either, because I don't let people dictate how I commemorate)
Maybe the next VE Day bank holiday will go more smoothly. (assuming these continue to happen every 25 years, the next one should be in 2045)
(May 8th 2045 will be a Monday, so creating a bank holiday should be easy)
(although I'll be 80 by then, and nobody who took part in WW2 will still be alive)
(which is perhaps all the better reason for remembering, with thanks)
