Today Was Remembrance Sunday,

so off through the park to the bus stop,

it was a nice, not too cold a day, I waited for 30 minutes at the bus stop before it dawn on me there were no buses! luckily I had left in plenty of time, 

so a walk through town past the poppies at the entrance to the church,

looking back at the church,

the High Street with hardly any traffic,

I arrived at the memorial,

it was still early, but already a small crowd was at the front of the cinema,

whilst waiting the Crystal Palace Band played hymns and other works,

representatives of the services were also there,

the lady in the middle,

from the local fire brigade,

the vicar waiting with other representatives,

behind me in the distance a lone piper was playing,

as he lead groups of youngsters and their leaders towards the memorial,

by now the roundabout was becoming full of onlookers,

the piper past the fire engine,

leading the group to the front of the memorial,

stopping,

the following groups turned to face the memorial,

the service began,

during which wreaths were laid, to commemorate the fallen and all of those that had given so much for their countries, 

the band played a few more suitable tunes at the end of the ceremony,

then time I guess to renew old acquaintances,

and a photo opportunity for the thin blue line,

one more!

it was so nice to see so many kids here instead of being home glued to television sets and playing video games, I had to reflect that as a person of my age, wars in the Middle East and Falklands had not affected my generation so much, but for my father's and grandfather's generation the First and Second World Wars extracted such a horrendous toll, that wars had past my generation and myself by I am well and truly thankful,

I started on the walk home,

the whole area was closed to traffic,

which explained why there were no busses in the early morning and now,

a last look at the crowds around the memorial,

passing the fire engine,

a few new recruits from the next generation?

the road devoid of traffic,

as I walk passed Beckenham Junction mainline train station,

and tram terminal,

and past Foxgrove Lodge, the entrance to the park,

I made this short video of the piper lead march through town, and its arrival at the memorial,

Diana was at home today, so a Sunday lunch it was then, a read and a sherry, I am now up to page 600, and a great read,

  Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence really is, 

eyes down for our starter,

chicken liver pate,

followed by a gammon ham, with lashings of gravy for Diana,

sans gravy for myself,

'Cheers!',

and one of Diana,

for dessert, apple strudel with fresh and ice cream,

delicious! after which we decided on a few films starting with,

The Professionals, a classic Western with a great cast, including Lee Marvin (Cat Ballou), Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry, From Here to Eternity), Jack Palance (City Slickers, Claudia Cardinale (A Girl in Australia, Il giorno della civetta), and Robert Ryan (Crossfire), the question is "Who are the bad guys?"

which we followed with Captain Nova, a sic-fi movie about someone coming back in time to save the world, the whole thing seemed sort of empty, the story/plot had more holes than a bucket full of polos, but it was easy watching, but one we will never watch again,

next it was an old favourite, Snatch, we have watched it before, and this is what I wrote then, "if you have not yet watched Snatch, give it a try, it has everything a good British gangster film should have, Mickey, a 'pikey' (slang for an Irish Gypsy), Turkish, an unlicensed boxing promoter, a huge diamond heist, characters like 'Cousin Avi', 'Boris The Blade', 'Frankie Four Fingers' and 'Bullet Tooth Tony', guns, boxing and a dog, what more could you want? although for non UK audiences I would recommend using the subtitles as there is a fair bit of UK slang that might not easily be understood, but what a great film, I have watched it more than a few times and will certainly watch it again", I should mention if you watch the film on Netflix you will hear and see the version where the UK slang has been taken out, a great fun South London gangster movie, 

we rounded the evening off with Extinction, which was quite enjoyable, a normal family guy has a recurring nightmare about the world being invaded by aliens, then one day his dream becomes true, after which we were off to bed.