What I did in my hols part I

The plans for Christmas went a bit agley. We had originally intended to drive down to M's houseparty on Christmas Eve, but the combination of road conditions and numbers of people travelling meant that I chickened out: instead, we set off first thing Christmas morning. Even so, I needed both passengers to help push me round the corner to the main road as the sidestreet was like a skating rink.

The drive down was pretty good - apart from the fog first thing, and driving into the sun at frequent intervals; we got down by 12, but couldn't get up the drive to M's house. Once we were there and unpacked, though, everything went back to normal: a walk up on the Malvern Hills in the afternoon, which turned out to be hideously slippery (fortunately both G and I had brought our walking poles). Then we turned to and cooked the Christmas dinner; there was a truly glorious turkey that J, another guest, had provided, and G and I sorted the vegetables (I did the special carrot dish that I learned from my mother in law: puree the cooked carrots, mix in cream and something powerful and alcoholic, put in the oven for a bit).

The really big thing, though, was sorting out the mumming play. For the benefit of those unacquainted with this institution, it is a traditional form of acting, usually at pubs, on special occasions. Pace Egg plays are usually performed in the spring ("pace" is commonly supposed to derive from Paschal), but the plays are also performed around Christmas. The main common elements are that there is a fight between two players, one is killed and brought back to life by the Doctor, and often the Devil comes in at the end to beg for money.

The variant we used was a bit different from the ones I'm used to. It was introduced by the Fool, who also provided transition comments. St George and the Turkish knight, known as Bold Slasher, come on; then the dragon appears. St George fights and kills the dragon, and as a reward is given the hand of the daughter of the king/queen of Egypt (depending on how the casting goes) in marriage. He then fights Bold Slasher, but is killed by him. The king/queen of Egypt, who confusingly claims to be St George's actual parent, then pleads for a doctor to cure him. Once a high enough fee is offered the Doctor enters, boasts about the countries he has been in and the ailments he has cured, examines St George (usually a bit of ribaldry here) and brings him back to life with a combination of his magic elixir and the dance of the other actors. Beelzebub then enters accompanied by Little Devil Doubt who goes round with a pan for the money.

On the chance that I would be the queen of Egypt I took my best shalwar khameez (which I wore on Christmas day after getting back from the walk), which is turquoise with gold embroidery; it came in useful for the part, though I actually played the Doctor - and got a truly dramatic reaction on the first performance from St George when he took a sip of the elixir and discovered that it was brandy! The biggest problem with the props was that they had to be big enough to attach lines to; G and I were the only ones good enough at memorising to learn our lines in time. Shields were useful for this; so was the queen of Egypt's fan.

On Boxing Day we went for a long walk - not on the Malverns, but that wasn't to say that there wasn't a lot of going uphill; though the biggest hazard was mud, not snow. At lunchtime we stopped at a disused pub and did a few Border Morris dances, so we were either walking or dancing for over four hours. For a change, we actually managed to tire Toby. We had to go off the marked path at one point as it took us through a farmyard which was at the time full of cows. The rest of us might have been able to get through, but not with Toby on the lead, so we went round via the edges of the midden.

More eating and drinking etc in the evening; G had brought a big pork joint.

There weren't many vacant minutes. Cooking, washing up and games filled in most of the time.

Next instalment to follow.