Happy Bissextile Day!

Much like the Olympics or my best mate’s missus, February 29^th only comes once every four years. It eats, shoots and leaves without much fanfare, and isn’t really all that significant unless you were born on this date. Having read up on it, it has something to do with Gregorian monks, but suffice to say, you don’t want to know why we have this rogue day in our calendars.

Traditionally, a leap day is the one day that a woman can propose to her partner and historically a refusal would lead to the fella copping a fine - anything from a kiss to money for some ice (the sparkly kind). In Greece, there is a superstition that it is bad luck to marry on a leap year, which severely affects the revenues of many function centres and wedding DJ’s forcing several into closure/retirement. Possibly. 

In further trivial news, Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ‘Pirates of Penzance’ revolves around the hero Frederic being contracted to a pirate king until he reaches his 21^st birthday. However, as he was born on Feb 29 and only has a birthday every 4 years, he will be 88 years old upon his release from the contract - something I fear with my current job.

There are even communities for parents of leap year babies, insurance/license issues pages and even a ‘Using Your Extra Day Wisely’ page, all to be found at the fantastic timewaster  www.leapyearday.com.

Other famous leaplings include talking dolphin Dawn Fraser, heat-packing entrepreneur Ja Rule and mistress of sleaze Joan Collins.

Leaptastic. Make it count people.