Armistice Day in Gibraltar

Woke up with the birds and had an early breakfast,  but considering that I fell asleep at 4.30 pm last night and never made it out during the evening, so a lost night.

Our group headed out and bagged a good site near to the war memorial so we could watch all the activity around the wreath laying, etc.   Very good turn out from all the services plus local cadets and then the veterans.  We must have stood for over two hours, and whilst we were in the shade many were in the sun, so a number of the youngsters fainted with the heat, keeping the St John’s Ambulance staff busy.  The Governor General and a number of ranking dignitaries were present and after the service and wreath laying spent a lot of time passing through the ranks talking to those on parade. An excellent ceremony.

One of our friends from Dalkeith, Esk 42. Peter Allan, called to say he had arrived on the Queen Elizabeth cruise liner,  but as they only had limited time it was a quick look around the Peninsula then back for a 2pm sailing.   I did try to get into the docks to get some photos but was turned away asInhad no pass so had to fins a suitable vantage point to seethe QE sail off.  photos on Face Book,  Probably not planned but two of the military planes took off as the ship sailed.
popped into Morrison’s supermarket, as one does, stood in a queue for ages only to be told there was a thirty minute waiting time for food, so between that and no one serving in the bar, yes in the shop, was not impressed.

However,  more impressive was the Bastion Centre, which was formerly part of the military operation, but is now a big leisure complex with a bowling alley, ice rink, cinemas and restaurant.

Bumped into my IPA colleague, Craig Philbin , who was on duty for the parade and had to apologise for missing his performance at the jazz festival last night.

So now I need to see what happens later today.