Battle proms

During the summer holidays, just after we had been away on our family holiday, we called into the in-laws for a few days to catch up with the wider family. While we were there, the wife and I decided to take our usual trip away, well, I say we, but in actual fact it was really the wife's idea, as she brought me tickets to see the Battle Proms, down in Warwickshire.

Now, the name doesn't really tell the whole story, but if you can, imaging the last night of the probs at the Royal Albert Hall, transported to a field at a country estate, then add in a bunch of cavalry and a shed load of cannons, 193 to be precise. Ok, so i'm not sure there are actually 193 cannons, they may fire some of them twice or more, but there are a lot of cannons. Why? Well, that's simple, Tchaikovsky 1812 overture and also Beethoven’s 'Battle Symphony', both of which use a lot of cannons! But that's not all there was, there was fire works, as any good out door show should have and the Red Devils dropped in for a visit (don't know who they are? Check out this).  As good as all this is, its still not the best bit of the day, no, that went to Grace, a Sipermarine Spitfire MkIX, ML407, but more on that later.

First up the Cavalry.

All were dressed in replica Napoleonic era dress, although at least one of the swords carried by one of the riders was an original.

Jumping flags, a period training program

Jumping a fence while taking your enemies head off or popping a balloon with a smiley face

Stabbing (flaming) tent pegs with a lance

The Horses. Do you see the little one in the middle? Pure nutcase that one, literally, on more than one occasion the rider had to drop what she was doing to avoid the horse either dumping her in the lake or charging off somewhere random. It wasn't that I didn't like doing the display, quite the opposite, it could wait to get stuck in and got a little bit carried away.

There were various cavalry displays though out the evening, some to music and some just being talked through and while I have to admit, it was all rather amateurish, nothing like watching the Household Cavalry displays at the Horse of the Year shows in London, it was still rather impressive and fun to watch.

Next up are the Red Devils. I've seen a few parachute displays over the years, from various civilian display teams and also from various military ones, but I still think these boys are the best in the world at what they do. Ok, i'm gonna be slightly bias but that's life and these guys are awesome.

Coming in close, looked amazing

Obligatory Union Flag

Battle Proms Flag

And the Red Devils own flag

The highlight, cant remember what this is called, but basically, they link up and then plummet down to earth at some ungodly speed before splitting up and landing. Whatever its called, its look amazing and bloody scary. 

Next up, is the highlight of the evening, taken in the fading light of early evening and performed to music, it was a really moving display. Its not often you get to see a Spitfire flown in such a manor these days and especially not such a historic plane. This plane is credited with the first allied kill of the D-day landing at the hands of a New Zealand Pilot, a certain Flying Officer Johnnie Houlton DFC.

Its at times like this I wish I had borrowed the father in-laws zoom lense

My favourite shot of the night, lacking detail but, to me anyway, it feel very emotional.

Another shot

Loop the loops

As darkness fell, the tempo of the night changed. This was where Tchaikovsky and Beethoven's masterpieces really came to life, plus there were fireworks, which is always cool. With all the cannons and flashes and bangs that they produced, plus the smoke and flares lighting up the farside of the lake, it was all very atmospheric.

The glow of the flares.

The reflection on the lake was pretty cool as well, you can just see it in this picture but it was clearer in real life.

The firework finale.

More fireworks

The firework finale was not some 30 second affair either bit was a good show, longer than most of the final firework displays you normal get at these sort of things.

I have to say that while it was not a cheap night out, it was amazing and well worth the money. Just remember to take a picnic with you, as the food there is, as you'd expect extortionate. And when I say picnic, I don't mean a couple of ham sarnies and a packet of quavers, oh no, were talking picnic tables, candelabras and champagne. If you think I'm kidding, think again, we had a couple of folding chairs, a picnic blanket and a bag with some food in, plus we forgot to grab the cups or a knife to spread the butter and pate, but we looked like we were slumming it. The table next to us, a group of older couples, had table, chairs, table cloth, candles, wine glasses (with wine) china plates and cutlery, the works and all in fancy looking picnic hampers.

I loved the whole thing, from the displays and music to the atmosphere and friendly nature of the whole event. I highly recommend the Battle Proms to anyone looking for a summer night out.

These are the links if anyone is interested;

Battle Proms
http://www.battleproms.com/about/about-the-battle-proms.aspx

Red Devils
http://reddevilsonline.com/index.php

Grace Spitfire
http://www.ml407.co.uk/

Construction projects

Well, it looks like the little man is starting his career already! The during the holidays there were a number of events at the local park and games hall for the bairns, mini football and rugby, tennis, volleyball and badminton, plus mini diggers and tractors, giant jenga and connect four, that sort of stuff. One week though it was raining and so they moved inside and got out the softplay stuff at one end of the hall and the football stuff the other end. While we played for a while, the little man spent quite a while building this:

Its a pretty good den, his just putting on the chimney here, not sure why it needed a chimney but apparently it did. Ill admit to helping a bit, the roof was made of mats that folded in the middle and he kept trying to put them o the wrong way up and they kept folding in the middle and collapsing, easily solved by flipping them over.

I was quite impressed with his construction skill while he was building it, although it lasted a lot less time finished than emit took to build it! But hey, that's kids for you!

Fun at the beach

Last weekend we headed to the local beach with some friends, just a little get together to take advantage of the spring sun. While the car boot looked like a miniature construction site on the way down, with diggers, dumper trucks, bull dozers and more spades than you can shake a stick at, the kids didn't really make the most of it all when we got there. That's not tonsay they didn't play with it, not at all, it got played with and deposited around most of the beach. I think the monster trucks went down best, especially with one of the younger ones! The little chap got quite possessive at times! Anyway, while the kids were off rock pooling and looking in caves, I thought I would have a little fun by myself. Now, I usually attempt to build sand castles but get about 2 sandcastles in before the first is destroyed by some rouge construction vehicle or dinosaur or child, but with the bairns occupied, things got a little further!

Almost complete.

I almost got the thing complete, the main castle is pretty much finished and I was just working on the gate houses (just visible on the far left) when the bairns appeared, their feet are just visible at the right of the picture! The photo isn't the best, as it was snapped quickly before anything happened to the castle! And it was a good I deal that I did, as I tried to get a second picture from a different angle when this happened;

Rouge bulldozer and feet!

The mote never even got started and I had grand plans for a draw bridge as well!

After the castle, another request was made, so I set about building a tunnel or bridge as the bairns called it.

Entrance

Internal shot

The tunnel went quite well in the end, it only took 3 attempts to build, the first was collapsed by a small foot from a nosy little person, the second collapsed all by itself, although that might have been because I was being a little ambitious with the design. The third however, worked just fine. It even survived being stood on by two small bairns! I realise that the beach is supposed to be for the bairns to play, but there's no reason us adults can get in on the action!