Is it true there were 46 floats at Felixstowe carnival?

Is it true there were 46 floats at Felixstowe carnival?

I watched the procession from near the leisure centre, where I sometimes enjoy the moonlight swim on a Monday evening. It sounds atmospheric but I think they just turn off the lights.

Anyway, I rather enjoyed the carnival weekend. The town sort of comes alive and I spent much of it cycling around, catching the sun – I got a bit burnt ? and soaking up the atmosphere. The carnival is always good fun and for a small town I think we do rather well.

But I started my weekend at Newmarket races, where unfortunately I invested badly in the 7.10pm and didn’t really pick many winners.

Up there on the heath is lovely on a summer’s evening and as the crowd got drunker and the sun set everyone was in party mood for UB40.

And while Felixstowe, where I have a small flat with sea views (distant), was “en fete”, so was the village of Icklingham in the west of the county, where I spent my boyhood, and where the ladies of the church and the flower club held a flower festival to commemorate the beginning of the Great War.

Everyone had gone to lot of trouble, and my sister Claire, who had made some trenches in the porch, complete with sandbags, rats and gas masks, declared it a roaring success.

My mother Sue ? she did the display on the font ? even had to do some emergency baking on the Saturday night after the cake stall was almost completely cleaned out of Victoria sandwiches. (I bought a small one for the deep freeze that I can pass off as my own in due course.)

I played the organ for the service of commemoration, which included a rendition of The Last Post and Reveille – during which I got a bit lost and had to busk, though no-one seemed to notice ? thoughtfully popped into the proceedings by our lively vicar, Rosemary, who I couldn’t see at the lectern in the organ mirror, thanks to the bunting which adorned the organ loft leaving me guessing at where she was on a couple of occasions.

Anyway, it all went off splendidly.

This week I’ve managed to get behind closed doors again and had a sniff round the new show apartment at Felixstowe’s Bartlet development, above.

It was nicely fitted out and I imagined myself quite nicely enjoying the sea views (majestic).