Big Boys' Toys

Armed Forces Day today and so Gail and I popped down this afternoon to see what excitement there was to be found. And there was plenty. Although we had missed quite a bit, as it had started at 10am in the Old Market Square with a march from the castle and a flypast by the Red Arrows.

I was in Beeston this morning, covering the first Great Beeston Bake-Off.  A cookery competition to raise funds for Oxfam when the planes flew over the school where it was taking place. I was photographing the opening ceremony with my camera in 'P' mode, so unfortunately I couldn't take a photo, as my camera was struggling to focus. It would have been OK in auto, and might have got a couple of good shots. Sadly it wasn't to be.

There were loads of people around. It has been estimated that 70,000 visitors had gone down to show their support for the soldiers, sailors and airmen. With that many people wandering around, it was sometimes a bit difficult trying to take reasonable shots of the vehicles on display.

There was some music on offer too, in the form of an Abba Tribute band called Arrival UK, who were very good and the nearest thing to the real Abba you'll find, with their singing, costumes and tunes.

We were still wandering around long after most of the people had left, so we more or less had the site to  ourselves. While we were taking unrestricted photos of the vehicles, I noticed that one by one they were starting to leave the site. So we hung around and snapped them being driven away, or being loaded onto very big low loaders.