It rained yesterday morning in London. Derek, who came to clean the windows, got drenched. Last time he came we worried about Brexit and this time about Trump.
The second Saturday in November is also the day of the Lord Mayor’s Show. The new Mayor, the 689th, is Andrew Parmley who is Principal of the Harrodian School in Barnes, a church organist and has many connections to music colleges and charities. The Show takes the form of a river pageant, followed by a parade and finishing with fireworks on the river. The parade has about 7,000 participants, 140 floats and is three miles long.
I participated twice in the 1970s when I was a Trooper in the Honourable Artillery Company. The first year I was part of a contingent marching behind the band. The weather was chilly so we wore greatcoats. There was, as so often happens in the army, a lot of standing around before we formed up. One chap used his rifle, with bayonet attached, to prop himself up. Nobody was more surprised than him when spurts of blood issued out of his sleeve. He had inadvertently punctured an artery under his arm.
The second time I was in a Land Rover pulling a gun. This might have gone without incident had I not urgently needed to relieve myself after a liquid lunch. Not wanting to leave my vehicle deficient I invited a spectator to jump in and take my place while I nipped round a corner into a back street for a widdle. The substitution attracted attention as she was a young girl. Not for the first time, I was in trouble but so far as I remember it got swept under the carpet.
Here are some pictures of the parade this year taken from the BBC outside broadcast.
