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Mar. 28th, 2007 10:20 pmToday was the grand parade, as the military personnel marched out of Haslar. We got down to the Town Hall at nine to meet and greet all the guests with a cup of tea. Sue from Winchester came - lovely to see her again - plus several other mayors, chairmen and deputies. Had my cup of coffee interrupted by Jan asking me to go outside for someone who wanted an informal photo of me with my mother and some councillors and veterans, so I brought all the mayors and chairmen with me :) When the guy taking the pic asked us to smile, I said "Haemorrhoids" (to the delight of Pat, the County Council chairman, as I picked that one up from her) and several of the others followed suit, though Warwick from Basingstoke moaned "I thought it was supposed to be 'Sex'."
While my mother led the main parade of VIPs down the High Street, I had to lead the march of the ordinary guests along a side road. Fortunately, I had Vikki from the Town Hall staff guiding me. Lots of people remarked what a beautiful day for the event it was. We arrived at the Timespace before the main parade, so the Royal Marines band played a couple of tunes to fill the time. The VIPs were in place a full 10 minutes before the scheduled 11 am start, so they just started the ceremony early.
In the middle of one of the prayers, some building workers on the 10th floor of a nearby tower block kept making a noise dropping metal girders. "SHUT UP!" someone shouted up towards them.
As we all marched along the ferry promenade and down the High Street, lots of people clapped the military personnel marching just ahead of us (a few actually shouted things like 'Stay', 'We don't want you to go' and in one case 'We'll get rid of Blair. Soon.') Alec said to me "Let's stick right behind them, so we can imagine they're clapping us." Arriving outside the Town Hall, we all stood in line - I talked to an ex-Mayor, Linda, as we waited - until the Royal Marines Band came and marched past. Linda said the Royal Marines Band always give her a tingle in the loins...
From there we went on to a marquee set up on Walpole Park for a rather nice buffet lunch (including strawberries, hooray). I milled around having quick chats to various people I knew, mostly councillors. Several people came up to say what a great job they thought my mother had done as Mayor; a couple of others wanted to share their disapproval of Haslar's closure. She, meanwhile, was spending a lot of time talking to soldiers, prompting Alec to observe to me with a grin "Your mother's surrounding herself with young men."
We all had tickets entitling us to free drinks; I spent about half an hour queuing, in the middle of an almighty scrum of soldiers and sailors. The ticket was good for a beer, wine or fruit juice (alas, although the bar had Coke on sale, it wasn't redeemable for that - I could have done with a cold Coke on this sunny day). The only beers they had were Foster's and Courage Best, so, in keeping with my civic dignity, I went for a red wine.
As people began to leave, Sue said her goodbyes and she and I shared a massive bear hug and kiss :) Brian managed to rub me up the wrong way by suddenly stopping me as I was walking alongside him, grabbing my shoulder and laying his hand on my lower back, and saying firmly "I never say 'I'm off', I say 'I'm leaving'. Do you understand me?" I simply nodded, but inside I was thinking "Ah, feck off." I hadn't said a damn thing to Brian. I had, when Sue took her leave, said "Are you off, Sue?" to her, but Sue wasn't a bit offended, and as far as I was concerned that was all that mattered. I have sometimes said "Are you off?" to mayors and chairmen at other functions, but if that offended Brian he's had 10 months to point it out.
Even with nearly everyone gone, my mother stayed behind to go round talking to the stragglers, so I was left pacing the tent with the last of a plastic glass of red wine for some time - and I got collared by a bloke who wanted to talk all about Haslar then pleaded with me to not allow the Gosport Ferry to be closed. He must have thought, because of the civic dangler round my neck, either that I was a councillor or that I somehow carried some clout in the town. Poor sod.
Had to videotape the local news, both ITV and BBC, for my mother tonight while she was out at a meeting (the parade was the lead story on both). Then settled down with a beer for Italy v Scotland.
While my mother led the main parade of VIPs down the High Street, I had to lead the march of the ordinary guests along a side road. Fortunately, I had Vikki from the Town Hall staff guiding me. Lots of people remarked what a beautiful day for the event it was. We arrived at the Timespace before the main parade, so the Royal Marines band played a couple of tunes to fill the time. The VIPs were in place a full 10 minutes before the scheduled 11 am start, so they just started the ceremony early.
In the middle of one of the prayers, some building workers on the 10th floor of a nearby tower block kept making a noise dropping metal girders. "SHUT UP!" someone shouted up towards them.
As we all marched along the ferry promenade and down the High Street, lots of people clapped the military personnel marching just ahead of us (a few actually shouted things like 'Stay', 'We don't want you to go' and in one case 'We'll get rid of Blair. Soon.') Alec said to me "Let's stick right behind them, so we can imagine they're clapping us." Arriving outside the Town Hall, we all stood in line - I talked to an ex-Mayor, Linda, as we waited - until the Royal Marines Band came and marched past. Linda said the Royal Marines Band always give her a tingle in the loins...
From there we went on to a marquee set up on Walpole Park for a rather nice buffet lunch (including strawberries, hooray). I milled around having quick chats to various people I knew, mostly councillors. Several people came up to say what a great job they thought my mother had done as Mayor; a couple of others wanted to share their disapproval of Haslar's closure. She, meanwhile, was spending a lot of time talking to soldiers, prompting Alec to observe to me with a grin "Your mother's surrounding herself with young men."
We all had tickets entitling us to free drinks; I spent about half an hour queuing, in the middle of an almighty scrum of soldiers and sailors. The ticket was good for a beer, wine or fruit juice (alas, although the bar had Coke on sale, it wasn't redeemable for that - I could have done with a cold Coke on this sunny day). The only beers they had were Foster's and Courage Best, so, in keeping with my civic dignity, I went for a red wine.
As people began to leave, Sue said her goodbyes and she and I shared a massive bear hug and kiss :) Brian managed to rub me up the wrong way by suddenly stopping me as I was walking alongside him, grabbing my shoulder and laying his hand on my lower back, and saying firmly "I never say 'I'm off', I say 'I'm leaving'. Do you understand me?" I simply nodded, but inside I was thinking "Ah, feck off." I hadn't said a damn thing to Brian. I had, when Sue took her leave, said "Are you off, Sue?" to her, but Sue wasn't a bit offended, and as far as I was concerned that was all that mattered. I have sometimes said "Are you off?" to mayors and chairmen at other functions, but if that offended Brian he's had 10 months to point it out.
Even with nearly everyone gone, my mother stayed behind to go round talking to the stragglers, so I was left pacing the tent with the last of a plastic glass of red wine for some time - and I got collared by a bloke who wanted to talk all about Haslar then pleaded with me to not allow the Gosport Ferry to be closed. He must have thought, because of the civic dangler round my neck, either that I was a councillor or that I somehow carried some clout in the town. Poor sod.
Had to videotape the local news, both ITV and BBC, for my mother tonight while she was out at a meeting (the parade was the lead story on both). Then settled down with a beer for Italy v Scotland.
