Earlsdon, Earlsdon and more Earlsdon!

It's been a while folks! When I'm not doing my caring duties most of my spare time is spent helping organise this year's Earlsdon Festival and helping maintain various Earlsdon facebook pages. Oh, and Lieutenant Pigeon's facebook page and YouTube channel.

One of my main contributions to the Festival is to ensure that events take place across Earlsdon and are not just centred on Earlsdon Street, which will hopefully have it's moment in the sun on May Day when a road closure will be in place.

I've also done the lion's share of organising four music concerts to aid local charities.

Some of Coventry best bands - established and up-and-coming will be playing as well as one of my current favourites from Leamington - Sixtyfours. For the 'Samaritans Sunday' concert, we have a number of bands travelling from Tamworth and the Bluebeat Arkestra are coming from Brum! Massive respect - all bands have waived their booking fees for the Samaritans gig which is a live-aid style event taking place at the Spencer Club, 41 Albany Road from 12 noon to 12 midnight on Sunday 6th May.

Entry is just £5 on the door which includes readmission. Just over the road at Cafe Desire, 17 Broomfield Road, their will be free entry for 'Samaritans Sunday' unplugged (4pm-8pm) and Catch of the Day Fish Bar will be offering 25% off to anyone showing a valid ticket.

All ticket sales will be going to Coventry & District Samaritans who are based in Moor Street, Earlsdon.

Fly In at Coventry Airport 2010

Better late than never! ;) This year, on June 12th, the airport is doing a mixture of Jaguar cars and classic aircraft click here for more details. Last year, in a short space of time, the airport put an event on in support of 'Help for Heroes'. The star of the show was the Vulcan, which if you have read my blog about the THE DAY THAT THE EARTH MOVED you will know that this is one of my favourite aircraft. On 26 September 2010 the last airworthy Vulcan flew into Baginton on what could have been its final ever public display. Fortunately funds were raised to keep her flying but XH558 relies on the public to keep it this way. On June 12th she may fly over the airport again.

The one disappointment last year was the absence of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight due to bad weather at their base. This year they are due to fly past at 15:35. Fingers crossed for good weather.

Festival of Motoring 2010

For the first time ever I managed to catch some of the annual Coventry Festival of Motoring this year, taking in the departure of the motor vehicles from the War Memorial Park on the Sunday and watching a motorcycle display team. The weather wasn't kind but it was an enjoyable Sunday morning.

Nuclear Consent

In August we paid a visit to Airbase at Coventry Airport. It's a 'working hangar' rather than a museum with all aircraft being airworthy or in the process of being restored to airworthiness. The trip was very enjoyable and enhanced by the knowledgeable and friendly volunteer staff. The highlight of the day was a tour of the Nimrod and Joybert Jnr particularly enjoyed sitting in the pilot's seat. The plane was packed with an array of gadgets and intriguing buttons ( the more secret and sensitive ones had been removed by the RAF prior to them handing it over to Airbase ) with the 'Nuclear Consent' one pictured below making me pause for thought.

At the time of our visit the airport had not been granted all of the necessary flying licences so no pleasure flights were operating. The airport is now fully operational and pleasure flights have resumed. Overall the whole experience was a step-up from the nearby Midland Air Museum which is good but not as good as Airbase.

http://www.classicflight.com/airbase

Freerunning & Folk at the Godiva Festival 2010

After watching the procession on the Kenilworth Road, we joined the tail end of it and made our way into the War Memorial Park. Saturday is the main music day and way too crowded for us so we took in some of the tents and activities in the fun fair area. In the arena we watched an interesting display of falconry, an energetic performance by the "Free Runners" and a rather dull effort by the Cumberland Giants (giant inflatable wrestlers) which was one of those things that looks good in photographs but in reality didn't cut the mustard. Out of these three it was the "Free Runners" who stole the show:

The next day we returned to the festival but this time for some music. Sunday is the most relaxed and chilled out day music wise and not jam packed in terms of people. We spent a good few hours in the Rhythm Tent checking out the folk and folk / rock on offer. When we arrived Greenman Rising were midway through their set. Wish we'd got there earlier and saw all of it to be honest. Rip roaring stuff. A more mellow offering came from Borderline Crossing ably assisted by Will Pound on harmonica. Lucy Ward had us in awe with her stunning voice. On our last visit a few years back we witnessed a great performance by The QP and it was good to see them in fine form again:

Godiva Carnival Procession 2010

The Godiva Festival is something that Coventry can be well and truly proud of. I always look forward to the procession ( nowadays known as the Godiva Carnival Procession ) which has its roots in the old Godiva procession's dating back hundreds of years.

As Coventry has changed so has the procession. In my younger days the floats were from the factories of the city. Nowadays we don't have any left so the talented bods from Imagineer Productions are instrumental in the modern displays. This years main theme concerned caring for our planet (before it is too late) and contrasted the globalisation fat cats and their greed with the destruction of wildlife and the environment. The addition of more marching bands certainly improved the parade this year. A big well done to all concerned.

For God, Harry & St George!

St George was born in Coventry. Honest. Caludon Castle. Okay, like a certain tale about a naked lady riding on horseback through Coventry it's a bit of a tall story, but what the heck! In 1996 when football (almost) 'came home' we all decided we were English first and British second, and all the devolved assemblies and parliaments for the other component parts of the United Kingdom has just added fuel to the fire, igniting "Englishness" on a rampant scale and calls for a public holiday on April 23rd so George can be properly celebrated. It would be a big crowd pleaser for sure and I for one think fears of white extremists hijacking the day are unfounded. A few drunks rambling on about not surrendering to the I.R.A. hardly justifies the paranoia. Anyway, on the day itself Coventry put on various events in the city centre. One of which was a performance of "George the dragon slayer" by local kids. I would have loved to have seen the dragon breathing fire but it was a good show all the same and well done to all concerned.