Tuesday 10 November 2026: Remembrance Parade

We didn’t get to strip any walls at the weekend, but we did do a big shop together, and we did make it to the remembrance parade on Sunday.

On Saturday we all piled into the car and while I walked around the supermarket, the poet took the dog on a double circuit around a nearby lake. They would have walked around just the once, but I had delay upon delay upon delay, so I called him to let him know and he did the extra circuit.

First, there were no shopping trolleys anywhere near the shop. I asked customer (no)service where they all were and was told they were scattered about the various bays as they had no one to go and fetch them. I walked around the HUGE car park before finding one in the farthest bay.

Once inside the store, I ordered us a fresh pizza each and was happy to go back 8 minutes later, but she asked if I’d wait as mine was the only order she was making up. I usually go back after I’ve walked a few aisles (it’s a BIG store), but I waited and wasted that 8 minutes. At least the pizzas were fresh, though, eh?

And then I got to the milk. Now, if you remember, I always buy the 1-pint bottles because (a) we only have a little fridge, and (b) the milk goes off in the bigger bottles before we have chance to finish it. We’ll, the shelves were pretty much bare, apart from giant 4- and 8-pint bottles! No way could I use any that size.

Huffing and puffing, I continued the shop, annoyed that we’d have to make another stop, but then I spotted a staff member and asked if they had any milk out back. He checked on his radio thing and then, bless him, tootled off out back to see what he could find after explaining they hadn’t had their normal deliveries.

I would’ve made do with 2-pinters, if that was all they had, but we have no room at all for the big bottles. I was delighted, however, when he came back with 8 1-pint bottles! I thanked him, took 7, and continued on my merry way.

And that was when I called the poet to let him know I might be longer than anticipated.

Against the odds, with no recent delivery and many shelves bare, I still managed to get everything on the list.

Bright and early Sunday morning the 3 of us headed out once more, this time on foot, to see the remembrance ceremony up at our war memorial.

There was a really good turnout for such a small village. Our local air cadets performed the colour guard, the scouts had a good show across all ages, and Doncaster/Sheffield Airport fire and rescue followed the parade at the rear from our village to the next. The road was closed for this very reason, from 11am until 12:30pm.

They all marched or strolled the mile-and-a-half or do, culminating at the Commonwealth war graves in the churchyard in the next village. It was lovely to see. It would’ve been nice if they’d had a marching band too, but they’re really only tiny branches of the much bigger organisations.

Alfie was *quite* good. He sat when asked but was a bit fidgety and whiny, but he’s not used to such stimulation. He thought everyone was there to play with him and was a bit disappointed when they didn’t. And there were a lot of other dogs there too, but only one other was a bit whiny.

It was nice to do something villagey in our new village. And it was nice to take part in such a solemn event.

We WILL remember them.

It took me most of the day but I finally got my act together yesterday and managed a book review! I made new graphics too, for the review and for the currently reading. I shared the review on here, on FB, on Instagram, on Amazon, on NetGalley, of course, and on Patreon, and then had to go back and correct an error in every single one! And I updated my Trello card for book reviews.

One down, about 6 more reviews to go, and I already started reading the next one.

I was up on time and touched *almost* everything on the schedule. I fed the dog, fed the birds, fed us, and did some washing. And after the poet went off on another business trip, I sat and started tapping today’s post out on the Novelist app on the mobile phone, just to see if it worked…

It seems to…but I bet the paragraphs aren’t as long as they look!

I wanted to practice writing and saving a file and then sending it to myself as an odt document, which I can open in LibreOffice. I did finish the writing and I did send it to myself. I also tried posting it via the phone too…let’s see how that works out…