Slow progress

Chapter 13 creeps ever onward… The reason being is I have to stop and check facts quite a lot during this chapter, as it is written around a real life event, and so it would be absolutely awful to get anything wrong. So far I feel like I stop and research every five sentences. This is a sample of my day so far…

Oh the weather was wet… did they have plastic rain hoods? What were they called? What sandwiches would people have packed? Were thermoses around? Was rationing still in force? Did they get extra rations for Coronation day? Were plastic cups around? Was foil and Clingfilm? What time in the morning should they leave? What time did transport run? If you got into central London by eight in the morning, where on the route would you go? Where would be closed? Where would be too packed? Why are some people saying they got a ‘ticket’ to stand places? How did people get a ticket? Would you have feasibly seen anything? Is it still raining? Where did people go to the loo? What were those Rosetta things called? What countries were in the procession? If you have fought in the Second World War, would you wear your uniform (as a crowd member) or just your best suit? Can you make periscopes? What would the tube map look like… oh, no Victoria line. Where was Marshall & Snelgrove? Was Charing Cross station decorated?

This is just a small snippet – I feel like a child constantly asking questions that lead into more questions, until the Internet responds like an adult and says no more!/crashes on me. And then of course I am weaving my story around all this, which is sort of like throwing mud at the walls to see what sticks… haha, what a nice way to describe it. My life's work yer Honour, and it be mud, aye...

But good news – I have managed 3255 words, it’s sort of fun to research/write, and I’ll have a specialist subject should Mastermind ever want me to enliven their show. Coronation Day, 1953, is in the bag.

Scaramouche!

The old saying goes ‘you learn something new everyday’ - and people wouldn’t say it so much if it wasn’t true. I was recently reading a story about the circus that mentioned Scaramouche, who is a commedia dell'arte character (Comedy of Humours), whose companions included Harlequin and Pierrot. These characters are considered the ancestors of the modern clown, but it wasn’t that fact that pleased me. No, it was the fact now I knew what Queen was banging on about in Bohemian Rhapsody!

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?

Ah-ha!

I’m not totally sure how old I was when I first saw the video to Bohemian Rhapsody, but I do remember being convinced that Roger Taylor was a girl. I was pretty young at the time, and my brother would laugh his socks off.

Cue video…

Cue brother, sitting with friends. “Go on then, which one is the girl?”

Me, confidently: “That one!” (Points to the right).

Sound of laughter for a while. Listen to Freddie giving it his all.

Brother: “You still think it’s a girl playing the drums?”

Me: “Yeap.”

Brother’s mate (that I not-s0-secretly fancied): “Why, his name is Roger?”

Me: “She has long hair.”

Brother: “They all have long hair.”

Me: (a bit confused) “She sings like a girl!”

Brother and his mates go a bit quiet, as that is a definite high note Roger reaches there, so I have a point. Brother checks where mum and dad are and surreptitiously turns the volume up for the rock bit.

Brother: (after the rock bit) "He’s not a girl, you’ll see in a minute."

Me: "Girl."

Brother: (smugly) "Watch the person banging the gong."

Me: (thinking) Gosh that is rude, that girl has her top off…

I may be older and wiser now, but I still say 'girl'. Happy Sunday!