St Patrick's Day

Visitors expressed an interest in watching the St Patrick's Day parade while they were in town, although there was flat-out refusal to wear tacky headwear, shamrock/guinness sunglasses, drinking mugs, green wigs, large green hats, flashing green earrings, sequined green top hats, etc. Warned them they'd regret it, but would they listen to me? Of course not.

And naturally once they saw that practically everybody else watching the parade was kitted out with all things faux -or-stereotypically Irish, they immediately regretted their decision. Stockings, braces, beards, shoes, hats, wigs, glasses, mugs, flags, hair bobbles, shirts- you name it, it appeared in green, green and orange, or green, white and orange.

The parade itself was a curious mishmash of at-times completely unrelated floats, or floats that only had a peripheral connection with Ireland. There was a white corvette (apparently worth half a million dollars, so I am informed) that qualified for entry as it had a passenger who was wearing something green. A wooden rocking horse was pushed down the street - not entirely sure if it had escaped from another float or if it was abstract performance art. A John Deere tractor chugged past, but nobody in the crowd managed to figure out why it was there, as it wasn't sporting so much as a single shamrock. Nobody seemed to mind either way. I think a duck could have waddled down the street and the crowd would have cheered it - it was a perfect sunny day and the mood was light.

There was the obligatory showing of dancing schools, pipe bands, the Kilkenny hurling team sauntered cheerfully past, the Sydney Irish gaelic language school fronted up, and a large float advertising Dodgy Irish Construction proved popular, billowing smoke from a shoddily -made chimney and the roof flapping open now and again to release balloons.

If not for the Irish wolfhound which paused mid-march for a protracted bowel movement, I would have said that the Construction float was the most popular of the whole parade. But it just couldn't compete with the dog, which had the crowd wildly cheering at its accomplishment (and yes, I do have a photo of the wolfhound mid-performance, but I've opted not to use that particular shot).

Went for a quick mosey after the parade down to Hyde Park, where the major gathering was underway and you could buy anything from bodhrans to beer. Waaaay too crowded for us, so we left the tallest leprachauns we'd ever seen and wriggled our way through the mass to freedom and a quiet beer elsewhere.