A knife in the sun

The day was so bright I couldn't take photos. I could have moved of course, but I had forgotten to cover myself with sun protection, and the sun was that intense, I made a choice between shade and photography. The parade was fabulous, awash with hippies, cavemen, jungle beasts and characters from Encanto. Robert the Bruce himself (who sent me a very nice wave) rode horseback down the road, his daughter and son-in-law sitting nobly behind in a horse-drawn carriage, followed by pipes and drums and floats full of little girls in ballgowns waving bouquets at the crowds, and not-quite-sword wielders striding along with Braveheart expressions. Next year I will try to join early and go round the decorated houses too. But after following the parade to the park and having an ice cream, I suddenly felt faded and weary. There were bound to be friends around and my thought had been to find them, but everything seemed too loud and crowded for me, an oppressive feeling. Accepting I was too tired to bring much even to excellent company, I went home, instantly relieved by the quiet and birds singing, overhanging trees and waterside flowers. When I got indoors I scrambled to get all my sticky clothes off, draped myself in some wispy thing and flung myself into the back garden to sleep the sleep of the sun factor 50+ed.

Later I heard later of the incident. A young man was stabbed five times outside the music tent. He was zoomed off in an ambulance, all the events for the evening were cancelled. I don't know if they found the perp, I do know the police were buzzing all over the scene within a couple of minutes.

Already there are calls to stop serving alcohol at the day; truth is it takes a massive amount of fundraising from the people of the town to keep this running, I don't think the council provides much if any money (I don't know where the carriages come from). So if we want an event next year, we need money left over from this year and yes, booze and music keeps it all going.

While there's no denying the power of Dutch courage, no-one brings a knife to a public event by accident.


Just got good news: He's going to be fine!