Just went to the remembrance day service in Kingston. I will confess that I hadn’t actually remembered it was Remembrance Sunday and only went to Kingston because Rachel was kicking off and I’m too hormonally challenged today to deal with it in a grown up fashion – so off to Kingston we stormed!
Anyway..
I’m a bit shocked by how many people did not sing during the service. There were a good few hundred people there so we should have been able to make quite a rousing noise. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get Rachel to sleep, but it turned out that I didn’t need to worry about that. I felt a bit of a pillock standing there singing on my own. I didn’t really know the hymns either and the band were crap so they didn’t help me. I’ll take my hymn book next year with the music.
But the worst bit was the fact that very few people sang the national anthem. I thought that was shocking. Shocking. Where is their pride? I get the impression that there were more tourists than genuine people down there. I am proud of my country and very proud of the armed forces and the work they do so I sang my little heart out. So much so that I was then approached and asked to join the Elmbridge Ladies Choir – I politely declined!
But apart from that the parade and the service were lovely. The Sea Cadets were a rag tail bunch and their drilling was hilariously bad but very cute. There were a lot of army (real army) present and lots of police cadets. It was good to see that this kind of thing still not only exists but thrives. Kids of Kingston, you did us proud.
