If there is one huge advantage to completing the Butter Mouse’s quest in 2020, it is that modern technology means you do not need to faff with egg timers and physical maps. I timed my shuffling on my phone, and used Google for the postcode challenge.
But you still need some level of physicality. Shuffling cards for fifty two minutes cannot be faked.
I undertook the task on my bed, the sun shining through the window. My cards are a novelty pack, each one about the size of a flyer. Every so often the backs of the cards flashed yellow from the light outside. The whole concept was so ridiculous that I laughed to an empty room.
My goodness you learn about shuffling. You run through every shuffling cliche. Pushing the cards around in large chunks, splitting them into piles and putting them back together. Taking cards out one at a time, and moving them from place to place. I go from a blackjack dealer to a granny dealing happy families, and back again .You memorise the design on the back of the cards like your reflection.
Boredom sets in after twenty minutes. But on the shuffling must go, if you are going to complete the Butter Mouse’s task. So the shuffling goes on.
Thank goodness I live alone.
An odd side effect of all this work is that with five minutes to go, I start to panic. There is the illusion that time is running out, and although the cards are now set in a unique pattern, I sense that none of my work will mean anything if I cannot find the right order.
When the electronic chirps of my alarm call out, the cards have a new weight to them, like a current runs through each one.
Turning over the first four cards had a Christmas Day level of excitement. Working with Clifton, BS8 was the obvious choice for the first half of the postcode. Here are the results:
The four of clubs (Translated as BS8 4BX- Princess Victoria Street)
The ace of diamonds (Translated as BS8 1LN- Richmond Building, Queens Road)
The jack of clubs (Translated as BS8 1AD- Richmond Terrace)
The ace of spades (Translated as BS8 1BN- Clifton Hill)
I am aware that you could slice these results a thousand different ways. However, I Victoria Street is the place where I first saw the Butter Mouse. And the other streets provide me with a direct path to get there.
I had never taken a walk round these streets before that was so casual and yet so purposeful. They were all familiar, and this worked well for observing minor details. A group of hi-vis clad builders marching up scaffolding. A grown man clothed in t-shirt with a unicorn riding a dinosaur, with ‘go to the disco’ written underneath A pastel bread bin with fresh flowers poking out the top. A wall once tattooed with graffiti painted over with beige paint. A young girl in a jacket two sizes too big.
At one point I walk up the stairs near Hanover lane, and my head goes so light I might as well be flying.
The final stretch in Victoria Street is like entering a magnetic field. A deep pressure in the air forces me down a route that ends where I first met the Butter Mouse. At that exact spot the whole world relaxes, and my quest is over.
A weird but exciting first day. The atmosphere described above may be imaginary. But I am pleased to say the walk provided the spark of life for my new piece. You can read it next week.
