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Armed Forces weekend
Jun. 1st, 2007 07:50 pmToday is Canadian Armed Forces Day, well, this Sunday is. This morning, there was a proclamation ceremony across the road in front of City Hall and an email went around a few days ago to let staff know that anyone that could get away would be welcome. It's important to show the support for the troops, i always feel, regardless of whether you think the policy of sending them to places like Afghanistan or anywhere else is wrong. It's not the troops' who make that call. they're just there doing their job and as it happens, pretty much all of the men and women who are serving in Afghanistan believe strongly that they should be there. Living in a military town like we do here in Halifax, you tend to be on the side of the troops, it seems. I've had relatives that served in the navy and i lived for 5 years on an army base when i was married before.
Anyway. P. and i went over from our office and there were others from the other departments there. Red shirts on many backs. That's a growing thing here in Canada, wearing red on Friday to show your support for the troops. I don't always remember but i did today and quite a few others did as well. That campaign was a grass roots one that started in the U.S. but Canadians picked it up after two wives of soldiers picked it up and started a campaign for it here, making lots of noise and publicity in the media and on their website. It seems to be fairly popular apparently. Canadians identify with red since it's the main colour of our flag.
So the ceremony. Nice. Military brass band played the anthem at the start and God Save the Queen at the end. Raising of the flags on the pole, opening remarks by the Mayor, a soundless speech by a general (the sound system was only good if you were right on top of the microphone.) and a prayer by another military person. That last one i did hear fairly clearly. A few photos starting here.
I think i've only seen my desk at work for about a total of 2 hours today, and one of that was lunch. I even got pulled out of one meeting to have another one and back to the first one after that. Two more this afternoon. Gah! Don't anyone mention the word "meeting" to me all weekend, kthxbye.
I started a painting a few weeks back. It's not going well. I may rethink and make it more of a folk art type thing than a "realistic" look because i think that's the only thing that's going to save it's sorry canvas.
Anyway. P. and i went over from our office and there were others from the other departments there. Red shirts on many backs. That's a growing thing here in Canada, wearing red on Friday to show your support for the troops. I don't always remember but i did today and quite a few others did as well. That campaign was a grass roots one that started in the U.S. but Canadians picked it up after two wives of soldiers picked it up and started a campaign for it here, making lots of noise and publicity in the media and on their website. It seems to be fairly popular apparently. Canadians identify with red since it's the main colour of our flag.
So the ceremony. Nice. Military brass band played the anthem at the start and God Save the Queen at the end. Raising of the flags on the pole, opening remarks by the Mayor, a soundless speech by a general (the sound system was only good if you were right on top of the microphone.) and a prayer by another military person. That last one i did hear fairly clearly. A few photos starting here.
I think i've only seen my desk at work for about a total of 2 hours today, and one of that was lunch. I even got pulled out of one meeting to have another one and back to the first one after that. Two more this afternoon. Gah! Don't anyone mention the word "meeting" to me all weekend, kthxbye.
I started a painting a few weeks back. It's not going well. I may rethink and make it more of a folk art type thing than a "realistic" look because i think that's the only thing that's going to save it's sorry canvas.
