May 19th: Royal Wedding Day

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We had scanned the internet  and the local papers to see what celebrations were on locally, but could find very little - no street parties, parties in village halls, nothing like that. So, we took ourselves off for a full English breakfast at The Woolpack pub, planning to stay and watch the wedding on tv. The breakfast of fried eggs, chips, sausages, grilled tomato, mushrooms, baked beans and real bacon was such a treat and filled us up for the entire day! American sausages and bacon simply do not compare; I remember buying bacon for the first time in America and wondering why they only sold streaky bacon. The pub was quiet but that didn’t stop the landlord and staff from goofing around wearing Harry and Meghan masks and hawking their Royal ale. We watched the wedding guests arrive and, as none present keep up with either the royals or celebrities, it was a bit of a guessing game. We did recognise John Major, George & Amal Clooney, Elton John and Fergie! The pub remained quiet so RL left to check out activities in the Cathedral. They had set up a tv in the nave, and were serving champagne, tea and biscuits - and there were plenty of people. I ran down to the Cathedral, impressed that after three weeks I kinda sorta know my way around. The Cathedral was full, but not packed. Everyone sang along with the hymns, the kids chased each other around the font, and families had packed picnic baskets for after the wedding. It was a lovely atmosphere.

With the wedding over, we raced across town to the Catholic Cathedral for the weekly  1.30pm tour of the tower... 280 narrow, winding, steps to a gorgeous view of the City, and another 280 steps back down. Gosh those steps really were narrow; I have small feet (size 3UK, 36 European, 6 USA) and the steps were too narrow to accommodate them. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the steps were only about 2ft wide. How they wound around in a dark and seemingly endless upward spiral, until suddenly we were on the rooftop, in the blinding sunlight, with a glorious view of Norwich. We had debated this excursion, wondering if it was a foolhardy adventure the day of a Barn Dance. But, surveying the view, we were glad we had seized this opportunity. Of course, the 280 steps down had us wondering about our sanity… we walked home at a leisurely pace and determined that a pot of tea and a couple of hours of nothingness was what was required before the Barn Dance.

Rl had reserved the car to get us to the Barn Dance at the Lingwood Village Hall & Social Club. He had never been to this dance, had never heard the band, and the caller was not mentioned on the flyer … but it was a dance, and it was nearby! The hall seemed relatively new, 60 tickets had been sold, and the attendance was a nice mix of old and young - including very young children who caught on very quickly and happily danced every dance. A man named Biggles was the caller, and Willowspin the band. The music was fantastic and the programme consisted of simple barn dance favourites: The OXO reel, Scatter promenade, Strip the willow, Johnson’s surprise, Walpole Cottage, Farandole, and others - many of which I call at dances, and a couple of simple ones that were new to me. It was a great evening, filled with laughter - just like a barn dance should be.