Monday 30 June 2014

Le Weekend (in pictures)



I spent Saturday manning (womanning?) the book stall at the PTA summer fete with my friend Claire.  Luckily after some apocalyptic rain during set-up the rain gracefully agreed to hold off for a couple of hours while the fete itself was on.  (Which gave me just long enough to dry out.)  Lucas joined me for a stint and turned out to be an enthusiastic (and rather successful) salesman!  My crocheted flowers were a hit with the girls, and made our stall look extra-pretty.


Sunday was Bristol's first Armed Forces Day celebration in Queen Square.  We always go to the one up in Staple Hill but since (a) the weather was crap and (b) it was on the same day as the school fete, we opted for the one in the city centre.

I got to play dress-up with the Royal Marines and donned a fully-loaded bergen (36kg/80lb) and carried a general purpose machine gun.  I walked a little and could probably have made it round the square once, but I absolutely cannot imagine being fit and strong enough to do the 12-mile qualifying march with all that weight.  I didn't even have half of the kit on!  The Sergeant I spoke to said that they typically wear 100kg of gear.  Imagine getting up in the morning for work and slinging a whole extra person on your back?!

I have so much respect for our Armed Forces...they do the world's hardest jobs in highly unpleasant conditions and for the most part, come out smiling.


Lucas tried out a few guns, but decided that a grenade launcher was more his style as it was "cooler" than a machine gun.  He was fascinated to learn that army surveillance drones are steered with an X-box controller!  Mind you, he still wants to be a professional footballer who drives a F1 car in his spare time, so I don't need to fret about him going off to war.  (Especially as he decided that two sports bags were too heavy for him and delegated to me...)


We lounged around in the deckchairs at @Bristol for a while, eating ice-cream and watching science videos on the big screen--no tennis! Shocking!--before heading home.

And because any decent weekend must involve cake, I baked some salted caramel cupcakes.  OMG...so good!

What did you get up to this weekend?

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2 comments

  1. Loving the crochet flowers! I bought a milk urn/vase type thing from Ikea and these would look great in it .... now I just need to learn how to crochet ;D haha x

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  2. duck in a dress6 July 2014 at 23:21

    I do like the crochet flowers, very sweet! And Armed Forces Day looks good - definitely a good idea to celebrate some of the vital work they do for us all. My weekend was all about Glastonbury - music, mud and tiredness! :-) xx

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