You can probably tell but we have been very busy over the last few weeks and I am way behind on these blog entries. From the amount of people who have called me and asked when is the next entry going to be posted, I know they are popular. So if you will accept my apologies I will do some rapid catching up today.
http://www.woburnsafari.co.uk/
I do try to find something out of the ordinary to write about in these blog entries and the major event at our trip to Woburn safari park was extremely moving and caught a number of us by surprise. The week began strangely because I needed to take the mobile furnace down to Woburn very early. Our middle son Tim had a very important doctors appointment on the Friday so I had arranged to take the equipment down early on the Thursday, come straight back home and go to the appointment with him the next day. After the appointment I jumped in the car and drove down to Woburn to begin setting up, Margaret would be following in the motor home later in the evening.
All of the exhibitors had to leave the site by 5.30 on the Friday so that he Police sniffer dogs could sweep the area before a famous after dinner speaker arrived for a function on the estate. I don't know who it was but the rumors were flying round. The nearest I got to finding out who it was when I heard someone angrily say "Its a former Prime Minister who put this country on its knees and in the brink of f****ng bankruptcy!" That still doesn't really tell me who it was, there still seems to be a number of potential candidates that fit that description. As Margaret had the Motorhome I had to wait for her in the local pub. Shame!!
When Margaret did arrive at the pub there was a strange function going on in the opposite side of the pub. There was a psychic evening going on with palm readers, tarot cards, tea leaves and everything else you could imagine. I asked them if they knew who the dignitary was at the function in the safari park but they had no idea. They said that they would need to read the palm of the actual person to give me any information. I told them that if I could see the persons palm I could probably work the rest of it out myself.
The Sunday of the show was November 11th, remembrance Sunday. The organiser, Marge, came up to me early that morning and asked me what I was going to do at 11am. I had completely forgotten, to my shame, that it was remembrance day and I didnt really understand what she was asking me. I thought that maybe she wanted a demonstration to start at that time because of some important visitor, maybe a former Prime Minister. Then the penny dropped. I had the loudest PA system so Marge was hoping I could help with the two minutes silence. I know that you dont have to have a loud PA system to be silent but it helps to inform people when it should start. She had also had a word with Mal from the Strings Puppet Show and at a few minutes to 11am they turned up at out marquee with a very large crowd and two drums. I tuned my radio to Radio4 and the announcer spoke for a few seconds before the chimes from Big Ben began. At this point Mal and his friend began a steady beat on the drum, a heart beat. As the chimes continued this heart beat echoed around the estate. The chimes stopped, three more beats on the drum and then silence. The silence was stunning and painful at the same time. As the two minutes drew to a close I pla
yed Eva Cassidy's Fields of Barley, and the empty echoing sounds of the opening line "You will remember me.........." drew the last bit of emotion from the assembled crowd. People were in tears. I have never been moved by a remembrance event before, but I will never forget the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 2007.
http://www.woburnsafari.co.uk/
I do try to find something out of the ordinary to write about in these blog entries and the major event at our trip to Woburn safari park was extremely moving and caught a number of us by surprise. The week began strangely because I needed to take the mobile furnace down to Woburn very early. Our middle son Tim had a very important doctors appointment on the Friday so I had arranged to take the equipment down early on the Thursday, come straight back home and go to the appointment with him the next day. After the appointment I jumped in the car and drove down to Woburn to begin setting up, Margaret would be following in the motor home later in the evening.
All of the exhibitors had to leave the site by 5.30 on the Friday so that he Police sniffer dogs could sweep the area before a famous after dinner speaker arrived for a function on the estate. I don't know who it was but the rumors were flying round. The nearest I got to finding out who it was when I heard someone angrily say "Its a former Prime Minister who put this country on its knees and in the brink of f****ng bankruptcy!" That still doesn't really tell me who it was, there still seems to be a number of potential candidates that fit that description. As Margaret had the Motorhome I had to wait for her in the local pub. Shame!!
When Margaret did arrive at the pub there was a strange function going on in the opposite side of the pub. There was a psychic evening going on with palm readers, tarot cards, tea leaves and everything else you could imagine. I asked them if they knew who the dignitary was at the function in the safari park but they had no idea. They said that they would need to read the palm of the actual person to give me any information. I told them that if I could see the persons palm I could probably work the rest of it out myself.
The Sunday of the show was November 11th, remembrance Sunday. The organiser, Marge, came up to me early that morning and asked me what I was going to do at 11am. I had completely forgotten, to my shame, that it was remembrance day and I didnt really understand what she was asking me. I thought that maybe she wanted a demonstration to start at that time because of some important visitor, maybe a former Prime Minister. Then the penny dropped. I had the loudest PA system so Marge was hoping I could help with the two minutes silence. I know that you dont have to have a loud PA system to be silent but it helps to inform people when it should start. She had also had a word with Mal from the Strings Puppet Show and at a few minutes to 11am they turned up at out marquee with a very large crowd and two drums. I tuned my radio to Radio4 and the announcer spoke for a few seconds before the chimes from Big Ben began. At this point Mal and his friend began a steady beat on the drum, a heart beat. As the chimes continued this heart beat echoed around the estate. The chimes stopped, three more beats on the drum and then silence. The silence was stunning and painful at the same time. As the two minutes drew to a close I pla
yed Eva Cassidy's Fields of Barley, and the empty echoing sounds of the opening line "You will remember me.........." drew the last bit of emotion from the assembled crowd. People were in tears. I have never been moved by a remembrance event before, but I will never forget the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 2007.
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