Friday Thoughts 39 - Poisson d'Avril

It’s April already!

I feel like I have done the ‘serious’ termly round-up with my letter to parents so decided to go with a more light-hearted theme for you instead.

I have to admit that I’m not particularly an ‘April Fool’s’ person, although I do have a few memories from childhood. One in particular springs to mind. It was a Saturday morning and I had stayed at a friend’s house overnight. We were watching Saturday morning TV (most probably Going Live with a very young Philip Schofield and Sarah Greene) and I can still picture the two of us standing on one leg leaning towards the television trying to smell what was on the screen… in my defence, it was back in 1989 (we didn’t have a colour TV, so it was quite a treat) and I wasn’t very old…

It got me wondering how the whole thing came about, however there isn’t much actually known about it. Here is what History.com has to say:

Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. In the Julian Calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1. 

People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes and were called “April fools.” These pranks included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as “poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.

So there you have it. I can honestly say I have not ever come across paper fish myself, but will definitely be wary next year!

Music? I had a great chat with some colleagues at yesterday’s staff social about the eclectic mix of tunes available to us. The techno definitely took me back to some of my clubbing days, although my preference was to frequent some of the less mainstream clubs on offer to me in Birmingham when I was back home. I did rather enjoy a night out at Snob’s and Flares but could also be found in Edwards No 8 (a place my brother described as ‘wipe your feet on the way out’!) I was definitely more into the indie scene than the 90s techno, and all of my experiences were pre-smoking ban… I don’t think I’ve been into one in the UK since; I really can’t imagine what the smoke was hiding, and really not convinced I want to find out!

Having listened to a YouTube ‘mixtape’ made especially for me by YouTube, essentially a mix of David Gray, Oasis and the like, I decided to branch out and try Billie Eilish Acoustic. It’s one long playlist and so I can’t actually tell you which exact song I’m on but it is very calming background music. Definitely good for chill time.

That really is all from me, so it just leaves me to say a huge thank you for everything and have a really well-deserved and relaxing holiday!

P.S.

Last week I wrote to you about my little spot of confidence. On Saturday, I had a WhatsApp message from my friend Rachel asking if I had sent the book to her (she couldn’t remember whether she had bought it herself) because Harry had been very emotional and down on himself. He was in his bedroom crying saying he was not good at anything and couldn’t do anything, so she slipped it under his door. He’s 8... ☹ I hope the book made a difference to him because it sure did to me!