When I woke up this morning the sun was shining, by the time we left the house it was tipping down with rain and it continued to do so for about two hours 🙁
Ady shone shoes, the kids were persuaded into several layers of clothing including socks – Davies took no persuading at all, Scarlett took most of my skills which having honed on her I will be using to persue a career in hostage negotiations and talking down armed gunmen one day 😆
As we pulled up at the carpark where the Badgers and Cadets were meeting the heavens truly opened. I like the thought that there are servicepeople looking on at us thinking ‘are you really grateful, do you really remember us? Will you stand in the rain for two hours?’ As usual the worse the weather, the more people seem inclined to come out and have stiff upper lips and ‘Be British’ so it was a huge turnout this morning in Worthing.
Ady dropped the kids, me, two brollies and my mug of tea off and went off to find free parking. Davies went off to join the important St Johns people he was laying the wreath with (one adult, one cadet and for the first time apparently, one badger). Scarlett and the other 3 or 4 Badgers who had arrived joined the Cadets as there simply weren’t enough of them to make a parade of their own. It would have been simply neglectful to leave the children without coats in the pouring, freezing rain for nearly 2 hours so in the end they kept them on this year. Ady rejoined us and along with one of the other Badger mums we went to watch the service. As always I cried a bit when I saw the very old men pushed along to join the parade in their wheelchairs and saw other old people crying through the service. I was very proud of Davies who was the only little kid involved in laying wreaths, and very proud of Scarlett who stood still, quiet and sombre for the duration.
We walked round the block with them and there were no firemen related incidents this year but we did hook up with my parents who had come along. I’d mentioned it to them but I often mention stuff the children are involved in and invite them along and they seldom do attend so when it had rained this morning I thought it a certainty they wouldn’t come – Dad doesn’t do rain!
The service and parade complete we headed into town in search of hot chocolate and found a cafe selling rather good ones with whipped cream and flakes. All the better given Dad paid for them 🙂 😉
We sat and chatted about wars and relatives who fought in them. My Granddad (Dad’s Dad) fought in the first world war but was too old to fight in the second and worked in a munitions factory in Scotland instead. Dad said he said very little about fighting in WW1 – he was in Egypt and lost two brothers, other than to advise against joining the army as ‘you get your dinner and your pudding on the same plate!’. Dad reckoned either he had a very sheltered war experience or was sanitising it for the retelling! It’s easy to think it is all so distantly removed from us happening last century until you realise parents and grandparents were directly affected. Dad and I were talking about visiting Ypres, I went with the school when I was about 14 and would like to go again, Dad has never been. Ady would also like to visit Dunkirk too.
We said goodbye as they’d parked at an opposite end of town to us and walked back to our car along the seafront. The sky was dark grey and the sea was almost luminous green, very striking.
The colours and contrast hasn’t come out on photo, but it still conjurs up what I love most about the sea in the winter. Summer with the line between the bright blue of the sea and sky almost merged, calm ocean and golden sand is nothing when compared to the beauty of a raging sea under a grey sky splintered with lightning.
We called into Iceland to get a cheesecake for dessert and queued behind a man who stank of cigarettes, alcohol and general unwashedness. Scarlett asked rather loudly ‘what’s that smell?’ not thinking for a moment it might be coming from a person so we talked a bit about that and then when we’d got back in the car we saw a man walking along barefoot with just a sleeping bag clutched to him. Davies wanted to know if that was what Grannys new job was about (she’s going to be the retail manager for a new charity shop for a local homeless project) so we chatted a bit about that too and reasons why people may become homeless. I suspect there is very little in the way of books or films suitable for the kids on the subject to help answer their questions.
We got home and decided as everyone was cold, wet and a bit tired popcorn and dvds were in order so with some negotiation (Davies gets that from me ;)) we settled on Madagascar 2 and even managed to get Ady to sit down for the whole film and watch with us 😯
Davies and Scarlett went off to play – this involved packing up rucksacks and pretending to go exploring and camping while I got roast lamb cooking. We ate at 5pm, watching Jimmy’s Farm and all hankering after the smallholding / livestock owning lifestyle again. We then watched Life while eating cheesecake.
I went off for a bath while the others watched Total Wipeout, then the kids went to bed and Ady went for for a bath while I watched X Factor.
There’s at least one Jacqueline Wilson book about homelessness – about a family going into B&B/hostel type housing rather than single person on the street though. Will ask Tilda for title.
Ypres/the war cemeteries/etc I found amazingly moving. There’s a trenches museum at Passchendaele I’d like to visit.
Comment by Alison — 08 November 2009 @ 11:56 pm
I’d been lying in bed this morning telling Jasper about the mud of Flanders and the trenches etc, then I caught myself pulling a face at the muddiness of the garden and drive I had to walk across to get in the car to go to church. And you kind of think, well, we got a bit wet this morning, but then we got dry again, and warm, and definitely nobody tried to kill us. Sobering.
Comment by Jan — 09 November 2009 @ 12:25 am
We’ve read a book about homelessness that could well be the one Alison mentions, though I didn’t think it was Jacqueline Wilson tbh. Will have a ponder and see if I can remember more.
Comment by jax — 09 November 2009 @ 1:46 am
quick search brings back bed and breakfast star which definitely doesn’t ring any bells with me. We have read something along these lines though.
Comment by jax — 09 November 2009 @ 1:49 am