On Saturday, for the first time Bognor Regis WI joined the carnival!  The theme this year was West End Musicals and Shows.  After a lot of thought we decided it had to be Calendar Girls … but with regret abandoned the idea of cream buns and went for the more elegant black outfits with sunflower and sash.

It was the perfect day for it, warm but with a slight cool breeze.  A few of us from Felpham walked along the prom to our assembly point on the Esplanade feeling rather exposed, but we were pleasantly surprised at the smiles and good wishes we received – mainly from women who ‘got it’.

There was rather a long wait while the judging took place.  Sadly we didn’t win, but we weren’t surprised as there were many very well-thought-out floats, clearly a lot of work had gone into them.

We were pleased to be standing next to the younger winners – the Girl Guides who had opted for Mary Poppins, in particular pinpointing the fact that Mrs Banks was a suffragette so there were great Votes for Women posters and very good suffragette costumes – that really gained out approval in this Centenary year!

The overall winners were the Laburnum Centre with Sister Act – very comical, especially the ‘nuns on the run’ on mobility scooters!!

Finally we were off in procession to West Park – sometimes walking v-e-r-y  s-l-o-w-ly and sometimes very fast, sometimes dancing to the sound of the band following us – always enjoying the crowds along the way (especially our friends who turned out to cheer us on), the waving, and the very good humour.

 

 

 

We from Felpham hobbled back along the prom, refreshed with an ice cream – half price because we looked so smart!  We all agreed we’d enjoyed our day very much.

Many thanks must go to Katie our leader who had the idea and got us all organised – Thank you Katie!

For all our carnival photos click here.

words: Kate 

photos: Kate, Katie and Gill