At the weekend I had the honour of leading the Old Windsor Carnival through the village.
It was pretty hot when I arrived, but compared to the brilliant (and slightly insane) Wood family who had dressed up as if they were about to conquer the South Pole, my town crier livery seemed perfect for the weather. It turned out that ‘whatever the weather’ was the theme and they had decided to theme their entry as if they were in the snowy wastes.
Along with the lovely representative from the Parkinson’s charity I helped to judge the floats. They were all really great and the kids had obviously put in so much effort.
To name just a couple, the 7th Windsor Scouts had managed to build an entire campsite on the back of their lorry and Old Windsor Pre School had recreated Wimbledon Centre Court on theirs. Everyone showed wit, imagination and a huge sense of fun in their constructions.
There were 10 floats a marching band and lots of walking parties in the procession, with a horsedrawn carriage for the Carnival Queen.
Once the judging was complete we set off and within 10 minutes I had to stop because we had lost most of the back of the procession. This happened quite a few times and I would have loved to walk a little slower, but having 2 big horses hard on your heels, snorting down your neck does tend to make you walk a little faster than normal.
After a great hour winding through the streets of Old Windsor which were gratifyingly full of well-wishers, we got to the recreation ground and met the Mayor who handed out the prizes to the various winning floats.
The Wood family I mentioned earlier arrived still fully wrapped up in thermals, woolly hats, gloves, scarves and dragging sledges of survival gear and a small mountain behind them which blew fake snow from a hole at the top. Genius!
I also particularly loved the mobility scooter that had been cunningly decorated to look like a classic three wheeled chopper bike. This was a work of engineering silliness of the first order and thoroughly deserved the prize the owner received.
All together I had a great day at the Old Windsor Carnival and I really hope they ask me back again next year.