So yesterday through the streets of Preston this procession thing happened. It's the Lancashire Encounter, an event which takes place annually, but a procession through the streets takes place once every two years.

And I've been drumming.

I am the snare drummer on the left side of the "tank" -- and that tank was an ingenious idea by the way, it was an electric wheelchair turned into a tank. Are Soundskills turning more and more into Newgrounds????

There were loads of contingents from different volunteer groups, leisure groups and organisations all dressed in red -- because this year's theme was the Red Dream Parade -- and we basically did this thing. Preston is a small city and for something like this to happen on a small budget is pretty impressive to say the least.

I joined my friends at Soundskills, the community centre near me, in our own contingent for this. We dressed as 'futuristic natives,' hence the strange getup that was actually made from scratch, along with the "tank," and various other props. Preparation for this must've taken at least a couple months, and we pulled out all the stops we could pull, notwithstanding laxity, low budget, people living under a rock for several months and not hearing about the event till the last minute, etc.

Here, some more pictures.

One of the surdos. I drew that myself.

More outlandishly decorated drums.

The tank up close.

This was from well before we set off. I'd painted my own face -- because what is Troisnyx without a triquetra somewhere? The red clothes were actually made from scratch by a fair few people who took to the sewing machines in the weeks before the parade. Because of my appearance, Seán, the fiancé, called me a "ladybug." I found it quite affectionate. ^_^

Sadly, he was too ill to join the audience that day.

A group picture of us when the parade was over. Our final stop was Winckley Square. This is a press photo, and it's been made public over Twitter and (presumably) BlogPreston, to my knowledge. I am the one on the right, at the back, holding the drumsticks. Most of us had already disrobed by then and were wearing black shirts or jumpers underneath our red clothes.

There's loads more where this came from, if one should search Red Dream Parade on Twitter. I'd taken part in a similar event two years ago, called the Procession of Light, and while this one is smaller than the Procession of Light, I still thoroughly enjoyed our part in that procession -- the drumming especially. So yeah, that was my Sunday afternoon. I returned home to Seán and immediately shared everything I felt and saw and heard from that day, whatever I could source anyway. He felt gutted that he couldn't make it, but it's not his fault, I certainly don't blame him. I'm just glad that I could share all of this with him.

Anyway, how have you all been?