Christopher and the New Years Day Parade

One would think that having family living in Hawaii I might be limited in the number of times I could expect to see them. It would turn out that is nothing a high school marching band couldn't fix.

My nephew, and his high school marching band, were asked to come to London and perform in the London New Years Day Parade. My brother and his wife Wendy joined him and we spent a lovely few days together, although I only saw Christopher once. Apparently they take this marching band stuff very very seriously and he was holed up in conference rooms practicing the few days they had available before the parade. And all that practice certainly paid off!

Here is Christopher leading the pack into the stage area. He is the centre drum major.



We lucked out and were given grand stand tickets by a very kind woman at Christopher's school so we got the best seats in the house. Sadly this TV blocked most of our view, but it was cool seeing them walk in live and on TV, AT THE SAME TIME.



Here is Christopher conducting. Again, hard to see. I had to jump over a row of people and nudge my way over to even get this shot. But you get the idea.



The parade itself was pretty entertaining, although I am fairly positive the Americans were a bit disappointed. I think they were expecting something like the Rose Parade. What they got instead was the marching bands and dinky little floats made by the local boroughs, as well as donkeys, clowns and several bike clubs. Martin and I found the marching bands very entertaining, although Martin was a little embarrassed as an Englishman by the rest of it. As he should be.