Remembrance Day
This year I again travelled for a few days to Wolverhampton to watch the Grand Slam. This time I even got a direct flight to Birmingham which is
the nearest airport. The plane was full of male English "foreign workers" on their way home for the weekend. Beside me only two other female
passengers were in the plane...
When we arrived it rained as in the years before - one can get used to it - but on Saturday morning the weather had changed. It was bright and quite warm. I passed most of Saturday in Birmingham as the darts didn't start before the evening. So I was already a little bit tired when the tournament began.
And again this year my computer didn't like the internet access in the press room - it never is a problem during the other tournament nor is it in the hotel in Wolverhampton..
The venue was full and the atmosphere great and as usually the matches on the first evening were not all good - especially the BDO players played a little bit disappointing and the PDC top players had quite a difficult time against the "outsiders". Only James Wade showed a convincing performance in his match against Dave Chisnall.
Thanks to the late start - and might be a little bit to Justin Pipe - the evening was not over much before one o'clock in the morning and till I had arrived at the hotel and had updated the site it was after two o'clock - you don't get much sleep during such a tournament.
But on Sunday morning it was sunny again and somehow I gained momentum and walked into town to get some food for a long day of darts.
A lot of people were around and most wore those red poppies some of the players wear on stage as well, some roads were closed and I heard music.
While we in Germany today celebrate "Volkstrauertag" here in Great Britain and in a lot of countries of the commonwealth it's "Remembrance Day" and
behind the band of the British Legion members of all parts of the army marched as well as scouts, the salvation army and other groups and
specially cheered veterans to St.Peter's church in Wolverhampton for a commemoration.
While I was occupied with shopping exactly at 11 am the light was dimmed and all activities stopped for a minute's silence. In great Britain as in Germany one remembers all the deaths of the two World Wars. In Great Britain it happens every year since the World War One because it ended on 11. 11. 1918 at 11 o'clock am.
Official celebrations in Great Britain are always on the second Sunday in November. The red poppy will remind of the battle fields in Flanders , where they bloomed frequently in the midst of all the cruelty and misery.
