Gala Day

We went along to Durham Big Meet today, also known as the Miners' Gala. It has been going for 126 years, and developed out of the miners' trade unionism.

The banners contain several images of notable socialist/communist figures, and are marched along with some of Durham's finest brass bands.

Most people go to listen and nod along to the socialist dribble on stage - others go to get absolutely smashed and ride the funfair.

Paul and I go because we love the atmosphere, the bands, the long sunny days on the grass and the slightly warm, flat cider. Paul also likes to challenge the lefties with his own political ideologies.

This was our fourth gala together and we had another great day, but nothing will ever beat our first big meet. It was 2006 and somehow, we tied the gala in with a rather dodgy car sale.

I had ebayed my car and was meeting some Lithuanian guy to do the exchange. It was an utter piece of junk and repeatedly broke down en-route to the gala. Somehow, during the test-drive he managed to keep it going, and told us that he had arrived in Durham by train, and was driving the new car back to Peterborough.

How we laughed.

Anyway, a deal was struck and we had the cash in our pockets. So we ran. At one point we ran into a dead end, and Paul had to bunk me onto some wheelie bins so that I could scale a wall.

When we were well out of sight, we nipped into an offy to stock up on (warm, flat) cider.

A few hours later and the following had occurred. Paul had fallen asleep on the grass with a wad of cash in his pocket and a mobile phone on his chest for all to see. I had walked into an iron bar and nigh-on knocked myself out. We had been on some gut wrenching rides. Paul had rode a mechanical bull. All of the cider was gone.

Yep, that was some day.

Today, four years on, we were very well behaved. Maybe it was because my drink of choice was Coke Zero, or maybe it's because we are growing up. I hope it's not the latter.