I couldn’t concentrate in
court yesterday as I only had one thing on my mind, indeed it was the same thing
on the mind of all Nottingham born people, Goose Fair. Yesterday was the
opening day and the excitement was in the air. At five o’clock sharp I was a
vapour trail as I made my way from court to jump on the next available tram to
meet my dad for our first helping of mushy peas and mint sauce of the fair. I was
surprised to see so many people still in town with the fair advertised as
opening at half past five. That time was obviously a mere guideline as things
were in full swing when I arrived. My dad and I met at the (the) mushy pea stall and kicked off
the fair with a cup each of the divine dish. The stall was doing a steady trade
although not overrun with people, and we had two cups each before I went home.
Given that today is the
opening ceremony in which the Lord Mayor of Nottingham officially kicks things
off, I am surprised that Nottingham Council don’t call a Bank Holiday so that
everyone can have a day off work to go along at noon. I had to take a day
holiday from Crown Court for this, Mandi went to work but she isn’t from
Nottingham so doesn’t fully understand the significance; she doesn’t even like
mushy peas and mint sauce.
As it turned out, I managed to
drop an almighty clanger today and miss the opening ceremony altogether due to
my perpetual tiredness. As I’ve been fighting against work deadlines I have
been putting in some late nights in my office, and I made the fatal mistake of
going back to bed with a cup of tea once Mandi had gone to work and obviously
got too comfortable and drifted off to sleep with Jack curled up next to me,
presumably wondering when he was going for a walk. I had arranged to go to my
dad’s house at eleven o’clock to give us time to get a good spot but the next
thing I remember is Jack barking like crazy. Jack barks to either respond to a
knock at the door or a visit from the postman, he also barks and runs to the
back door to welcome us home so as I was dragged from a deep sleep I wasn’t
sure what his beef was. My dad had let himself in (we all have keys to
everybody’s house for emergencies) and shouted up the stairs, it was twelve o’clock
and we were too late. I was devastated for myself but also because I’d caused
my dad to miss it and spent the rest of the day in an extremely low mood. This wasn’t
some trivial little thing, this was the opening ceremony of one of the biggest,
if not the biggest event on Nottingham’s calendar.
To a Nottingham person this is like a child missing Christmas.
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