I.A.M. Musing About…

After the information session with the very nice man and his delightfully tiny dog (related in detail entirely for my own benefit so as to retain the information; Lord knows those of you in the UK are aware of the wonders of Green Timber Construction), I meandered further into town.

Wandering the town was to discover a wonderfully human-scaled town that clearly was alive and filled with people living and making a life for themselves and their families; no matter what form they be in. Last year’s experience in Stratford — and it was very enjoyable and I’m happy to have had it — it wasn’t a town that felt this ‘comfortable’, having an air of being carefully maintained and preserved. Calling it ‘clinical’ would be un-fair, and ‘lifeless’ would be similarly wrong. Stratford is a wonderful town and filled with friendly and welcoming individuals. Warwick just feels a bit more of a place that people both work and live in, however. If I had wandered beyond the areas of the centre of Stratford where I spent my time last year, no doubt the experience might have been just as rich as Warwick’s was.

Someone asked me where a news agent’s was? No idea, sorry. About one block later, I reach an intersection with a news agent just a few steps away. Thankfully, the man who asked for directions was just leaving the place, so clearly found his goal.

This is something which wouldn’t happen at home: people talk to you. Not just a matter of people being friendly because they are all-too-aware that “he’s from away”, but they don’t have an attitude of ‘I shall reply to this person with caution and reserve, at least until it’s clear what they’re selling, or what their ultimate reason for engaging me might be revealed.’ This is all to common at home, yet here is anathema to people. Were someone to lean over in a restaurant and say “if you like salmon, order the fillet; it’s incredible”, like as not they would be fixed with a glazed expression for just long enough to create a distance of considerable spiritual effect, then they’d be told ‘thank you’, meaning ‘go away, you are not welcome in my world.’ And the English get the reputation of being ‘cold and reserved’. BAH! It’s west coast Canadians who deserve that!

Shortly after lunch an event began with a great sense of anticipation along the pavement. The Mayor and Counsel were there in their silly hats, there was a little raised platform for a trio of obvious dignitaries to stand upon, and a crowd was assembling with a moderate buzz in the air. Suddenly two older-looking military individuals appear and take up their posts either side of what — upon later examination — proves to indeed be a cenotaph. In the space of about three minutes, about 300 to 500 uniformed men and some women pass in review, blocks of them clearly veterans, others clearly current enlisted personnel, yet another group clearly youthful cadets. Up until this point there was nothing to suggest this was to take place; no posters or banners were to be seen anywhere.

Shifting up the hill to near the church (possibly an Abbey, but definitely not a Cathedral) a poor fellow was, after being dismissed from the ranks, accosted with the question of what was all this in aid of? It turns out that this was the Warwick Regiment’s annual re-union, and the pass-in-review was both to show to the town that the Regiment was still there in force, the Veterans were still loyal, and the town was still grateful for their sacrifices. All in all, a wonderful thing to see, especially as it was not associated with a scheduled event of some sort such as November 11^th or some such. Here was a group of men, both current and past, declaring themselves proud to be involved, and the town was continuing to be supportive of them in that employment. Say what you will about the usefulness of war — and that’s a valid discussion — when it comes right down to the practicality of it, armies exist, and men go into battle occasionally. Those who serve have given up a great deal of themselves for their country so that the rest of us don’t have to. To provide a ‘good on you, mate’ is the very least they deserve, yet the provision of it is all too infrequently seen to.

I shoot over 100 images this day, and that completely destroys a set of batteries in the process. They were put in fresh first thing in the day because the extant ones were flat. By late-afternoon the camera was dead again, so when I headed out again after dinner (a wonderful Chicken Tika that I had the next evening as well) to shoot some evening photos I had to put the third set of batteries in the camera for the day.

A beautiful day for weather, wandering, and walking. Awesome!

But what am I doing here in the UK in the first place? Monday’s events provides the answers.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 1:37 am and is filed under BLOG-O-RAMA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.