The Royal Military Tattoo meets Ravi Shankar.



Look, I know I've got good turn of phrase.. can string together a few cogent sentences and get a laugh, but sometimes I DO think that people just don't believe some of the random shit that happens to me.

Like walking into a bar and being given an $11,000 pizza oven.

Or my dog wearing fairy wings and being munted on Valium

But I SWEAR you cannot make this shit up.

So, this weekend I'm in Bristol, staying with a friend, Lena. She's awesome, and we're getting along like an house on fire... and it's all good and we're talking politics and religion and sexuality and booty calls and 50's burlesque lingerie... it's so so SO fun.

So.. there's a lull in the conversation and we hear, in the distance, the haunting sound of bagpipes.

So, ok.. I'm in the UK (Bristol), albeit not Scotland, but the UK, so bagpipes are not so far out of the ball park.

And they're getting louder.

BUT.....

behind the bagpipes, we can hear something else... something un-identifable... something quite incongruous.

So, we both look at each other and say 'This warrants more investigation!!!.

So, both of us shoe-less, run out of her door, to find the Bristol City Marching Band ...well.... marching and bag-piping down her street!

There were Pipe Majors and they were ROCKING 'Scotland the Brave'.

So, now you're humming the tune, right? and wondering (because this IS a pg post), what's the hook?

The Bristol City Bag Pipe Brigade et al, are just the forerunners of:



The Bristol Sikh Community Holy Day Parade!!

It was like The Royal Military Tattoo meets Ravi Shankar!

It was so freaking awesome, I got a bit teary.

Oh, and these awesome women, in the most SENSATIONAL coloured saris and bindis kept blessing us and handing us lollies and cans of warm soft drink.