Goodbye Alan

The centre of Calne was at it's busiest last night as thousands of people filled the Strand and surrounding streets for the annual lantern parade and pre-Christmas festivities. Children from local schools and community groups have spent recent weeks creating their lanterns in readiness for the parade which was led by Father Christmas closely followed by a coach and horses which could have been taken straight from a Dicken's novel. Bringing up the rear was the local samba band - where the local silver band playing traditional Christmas carols got to I don't know, perhaps we'll see them next year. Many stalls selling food and mulled wine lined the streets with and the shops stayed open late. I spent the evening with friends bumping into old friends and very much enjoying the community atmosphere which, seems these days to be a bit of a rarity. I even saw some police officers, one of whom advised me I should not be drinking alcohol on the streets, as there is a ban in force! I don't know whether it was just me he spoke to or whether he also spoke to the hundreds of other people drinking mulled wine but it was all in good humour. I met and chatted with many local councillors and learnt a few things about the forthcoming by-election, bought a hot dog from one councillor, (my Aunt actually and I still didn't get any discount), and was criticised by another for the amount of mustard on it.

Talking of family reminded me to mention the situation regarding driving licences for the over 70s. Recently a relative discovered that her driving licence had expired and on passing this information on discovered a friends also had, subsequently we discovered another relatives had also expired. It seems likely this is a common occurrence so if any readers know any drivers aged over 70, ask them to check their driving licence. Once a driver reaches 70 they need to renew their licence every 3 years. It seems that no reminders are sent out by our caring government which again shows they are either incompetent or just do not care if the over 70s have a valid driving licence or not. If the driver with no licence wanted to make an insurance claim I presume the insurance company would have every right to refuse. Might be worth a check!

I was also discussing today, the weeks appalling football match as mentioned in an earlier blog. One of the methods for improving footballing standards amongst our young, you might think would be through the football academies introduced in recent years. Apparently however, unless you live within 90 miles of one of these you are not eligible to sign up. As a consequence of this not all places are being filled so what is happening? Well, you might have guessed that these places are being filled with foreign players to the extent that British players at these academies are in the minority. If anyone thinks the standard of football amongst our own people is going to improve and we are going to win the next world cup then I suggest you think again. We are in a qualifying group with Croatia by the way, so it will at least be interesting.

Finally, yesterday morning saw the lying to rest of our friend and comrade Alan Lill. Despite the cold and remoteness of the crematorium there was a good turnout to see Alan off. With his coffin draped in a cross of St George flag and stirring patriotic music I can’t help feeling Alan would have been watching and feeling that he had had a good send off. The service itself was very emotional with a particularly moving tribute from Chris Deacon, with whom Alan had spent his last days and also one by Mike Howson, our Regional Organiser. Fittingly we ended by singing Jerusalem despite the emotion.

Goodbye Alan, rest assured we’ll keep the flag flying.