Self-Isolation Day 35
Our road has had a slow start to Bin Isolation Outing but the tempo is picking up. Last night at the pre-arranged time some of my neighbours came out together so to speak. I was invited but turned up without costume. I have always hated fancy dress and frankly I do not need to make even more of an arse of myself according to my wife.
Lady Margaret at no. 135 came out in her best frock circa 1965 with hat and white gloves. Just the style of Grace Kelly. Lady Margaret arrived from Britain in 1969 with her husband who must have done something very important as he was knighted. Lady Margaret always insists on being called Lady Margaret. I do not mind as she makes a spectacular Mint Slice and she is always generous with her portions.
Not that this cut the mustard with Marco ‘The Makeover King’, who lives at no.137. Marco is a builder with a nice line in renovations but titles are not his thing and he always referred to Lady Margaret as Marge. He turned up as a Scotsman or at least I think it was: T-shirt, kilt and thongs finished off with a ginger wig and beard. Strange choice really as he is Italian.
Then at no.136 we had Mr. McNulty, who is a recently retired progressive headmaster with a belief in befriending the pupils. Treat them like adults and they will behave like adults. He clearly had not met many adults either. The children with the usual steely eye for an angle took full advantage and the school was a shambles. Even the teachers ran amok. It took some time for us to recognize Mr. McNulty’s costume as he came as a bear with a shirt.
Our final crewmates were Donald and Daisy Chang at no.138 recently emigrated from China. Determined to fit into their new country they had approached their costumes with appropriate gusto. Donald dressed as Elvis Presley and Daisy as Lady Gaga they had clearly spared no expense in hiring the costumes. Make-up was not bad either.
With this motley crew we thought we had done our bit for Bin Isolation Outing but Mr. McNulty had a surprise for us. On bringing out his sound system he played ‘I wanna be like you’ from the Jungle Book. Then we got it: he was Baloo the bear. With this catchy tune the street was suddenly swinging though not in the traditional Medindie sense of threesome swinging.
Marco, who had clearly had a long lunch, then started to expose his wares to Lady Margaret. Luckily she had forgotten her glasses and she just waved back. Not getting the response he wanted Marco instilled some vigour into his performance and approached Lady Margaret to give her a good eyeful. However it was not to be. With a pirouette that would have done a tango dancer proud, Lady Margaret was slipping through her front gate as Baloo was singing his last line.