As we throw eggs & flour into a bowl this evening and deliberate on how many pancakes is too many, ‘carnival’ or ‘Mardi Gras’ celebrations are filling cities around the world with colour, music and lavishness. Across Ecuador, as a show of gluttony ahead of 40 days of fasting, the ‘carnaval’ festivities have traditionally involved people throwing eggs, flour and water at each other! What fun! In Colombia, Baranquilla’s colourful folkloric celebrations have been proclaimed by UNESCO to be a ‘Masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity’…And the Venetian masked carnival celebrations are still on our bucket-list.

So back to Shrove Tuesday….how many is too many?