May morning in Oxford

So yesterday housemate Dave and myself got up at 4am and headed to Oxford (we cycled there in the pouring rain, which was as you can imagine delightful...). The rain however subsided and it was all worth it as I finally got to hear the Magdalen hymn, which despite going into Oxford on May day for the last 4 years as early as I could, I managed to miss. This year as we cycled in we were early enough to get the right side of the barriers and hear it. It was pretty special, the hymn itself has an erie quality and I think it's made all the more weird/special by the changing light. Unfortunately at this point I mislayed Dave the housemate but managed to bump into another friend (also called Dave and quite a few Morris folk). After we had heard the Magdalen hymn, a few other hymns and a short sermon type thing from the college rector (who thank goodness kept it short) we wandered off into the city to check out all the Morris men. My friend Andy (from awesome local band telling the bees) seemed to have put together some type of green man band and they were playing just outside the Sheldonian.
I also ran into Lizzie from my old rapper side Mabel Gubbins and me and t'other Dave headed to the Kings appendage to watch them dance and imbine our first pint of the morning. Dave had decided to keep a few May day traditions alive himself and had stayed up all the way through the previous night, so by the time I found him he was (understandably) flagging. He managed till 8am then went home to bed and I found my friend Nicola and her American boyfriend Eric, and we all went for tea at Blackwells (you can never get in the cafe there at lunchtime but we had our pick of the tables as it was horrendously early). An earl grey revived me enough to be able to cycle to Botley to dance with my original morris side Cry Havoc. I wasn't planning on going home so I was walking around in my morris whites all morning and was quite suprised by the number of people who found the need to tell me they loved me cause I was a Morris dancer (I think I've missed something here???). It was brilliant fun (Nicola has never seen me dance before and seemed really suprised that I was grinning broadly throughout). Sadly after the dancing was over I found out I had a flat tyre on Sven my bike (meaning the 6 mile cycle back to Abingdon would be hard, if not impossible). I managed to walk 2 miles but finally conceeded I needed help. I phoned housemate Dave but he was still in Oxford with his bike (and hence carless), I phoned my friend Trish who has a fairly big car but she was in Winchester shopping , she did however suggested I phone her husband Malcolm the physist. Malc is awesome, so I phoned him, the only car he had access to was the mini so it was all about logistics, could we get me and Sven the bike into the mini? The answer thank goodness was yes. I have to admit I didn't do much when I got back, it's been a week of fairly intense Morris practices and the back of my knees hurt quite a bit cause of the jumping. So myself and witchcat sat and watched the snooker and then caught up on our Dr Who and The Vampire Diaries. My sleep patterns definitely back to normal this morning as I somehow managed to steep in till midday! Lots of rain going on in the Oxford area however so I've been trying to get some writing done while witchcat continues her attempts to invade my desk. Happy 1st of May everyone, I hope this spring brings you joy.