Just your everyday sunny Saturday…

We’ve not been out with our cameras for the day in ages. No one reason in particular – in the mix has been back trouble (both of us for a change), exhaustion from ridiculously long days at work (Himself), a touch of depression and a desire to cocoon (me), weather too hot or too wet, and lately there’s also been lots of rugby to watch…

We realised we needed to do something to break out of this, as getting out and about with our cameras is good for our mood. So to start small, Himself booked tickets for us to go to a little event… and to reward us for being proactive, the weather turned out to be glorious. An unexpectedly sunny and warm October day – enough for us both to end up with a touch more sun than we’d expected, leaving us with somewhat glowing foreheads and cheeks that evening 🙂

We were re-visiting an old Victorian fort, built to protect England from potential invasion by the French navy. This one, like many others of the era, is sometimes referred to as a folly… because the French never didn’t invade 😉

The fort houses one of the UK’s three Royal Armoury collections. This location has many fine early historical examples, some fabulously ornate cannons, but also includes a huge supergun from the Gulf war era. They often host low key events which are aimed at families with small children, so there’s face painting, mock parade ground drilling to exhaust the little darlings, and the like… plus some “live firing”.

The live firing was relatively limited – three big guns, each of which went bang five times – with plentiful ear defenders provided for free. But they’d also advertised a display entitled ‘Weaponry of D-Day’ – which is what had drawn Himself to book.

Except it was just two uniformed young men who fired their rifles into a grass bank 10 times each. One young man wore the (correct) uniform of a British marine, but was firing a rifle which wasn’t used at D-Day (most of the models he used were lost at Dunkirk, so British troops used the upgraded version when D-Day came round). To be fair, he admitted to this, but why not use one of the right ones when they’re plentiful – especially when you’re the Royal Armoury? The other young man was using a correct rifle (the one issued to all German troops during WW2) but was wearing a Wehrmacht uniform with a cap in entirely the wrong colour and shape. I’m no expert, but it positively shrieked wrong (and home made), even to me.

We both laughed. Except they were employed by the Royal Armoury as subject matter experts and not to just dress up and play soldier…

Then, as we were sat enjoying the sunshine, listening to the live band playing music from the 20s-40s and eating our truly excellent sausage rolls (of which more later), a man’s tattooed calf assaulted my eyes. Now while I’m not adverse to tattoos generally and there are some I’ve positively admired – this was something else entirely… for it was a naked woman in a girlie magazine pose. There was no doubting the tattooist’s skill, for it was of extremely high quality and so was as clear as day up to and including the erect nipples and the – ahem – area down below.

I’m far from being a prude (and am also somewhat shortsighted) but my gaster was well and truly flabbered and my gob well and truly smacked. This was advertised as a family event and was chock full of small children, so not just a bunch of blokes from the forces – how could anyone consider this appropriate? Even more unexpected was the fact he had a woman with him. I was so surprised, I may even have allowed an expletive to escape my lips (and had to rebuke myself in case of alert young ears).

Fortunately the rest of it was most enjoyable – the being outdoors and walking around in the sunshine, not having to fight for space with hordes of other camera buffs (who are notoriously sharp elbowed), the people watching, the innocent family fun, randomly meeting a couple of genuinely knowledgeable subject matter expert chaps for Himself to chat with, and let’s not forget the very excellent sausage rolls on offer.

In case those across the pond are not familiar with the concept of sausage rolls – I understand that something similar is available in Trader Joe’s – called Puff Dogs. Except while hot dogs are a type of sausage, the sausages you find in the UK – especially those made by a butcher – are a fine, tasty and properly meaty creation 😀 They’re just one of the reasons this is somewhere we revisit…

Has autumn/fall arrived where you are? What are your feelings on tattoos… and/or sausage rolls? 😉

© Debra Carey, 2023