Big Falkland's Adventure: Liberation Day

For some reason, this was sat in the drafts area, and had not published....

As ever, the 14th June is Liberation and is a public holiday, with a parade and public reception. This year, the 30th Anniversary of the Liberation was scheduled to be a big one. The Foreign and Commonwealth Minister Jeremy Browne was visiting, along with a whole host of other dignatories. Also present were 50 or so veterans from the conflict.

Tensions were high as there was a debate at the C24 Committee at the UN on Decolonisation. The scheduled speaker was Christina de Kirchner, the Argentinian president, with a counter response by members of the Falklands Legislative Assembly.

The day of the parade began cold, clear and crisp, and Simon had to be at FIDF for 8:30am for final rehearsals and to be in position at Liberation Monument. However, as the parade, assembled, it began to snow!

After the Parade, there was a civic reception and party held at the FIDF Hall. Simon had also spent the week supervising the construction of a large cake in the shape of an aircraft carrier. Students at school had baked the cake in batches, and then Simon's Year 10 Hospitality and Catering group constructed and decorated the cake. The cake was based on the scrapped carrier, HMS Invincible. Cutting of the cake was performed by His Excellency The Governor, Nigel Hayward CVO.

The party continued until late into the evening, when Harry grabbed a camera and began taking photos!

Harry photographed Meghan, who is one of the babysitters when we go out...and no she hasn't been drinking!

Playing on the captured 105mm Recoilless Rifles outside FIDF.

Harry still needs some practice!

Tiegan is in Harry's class, and they are sweet on each other.....

One of the highlights was the Aircraft Carrier Cake. The school had held a 3 day collapsed timetable week, and the majority of the students had helped cooka a cake towards a scale replica of HMS Invincible, one of the aircaft carriers in the conflict, and now sadly scrapped....The pictures in this link show her being cut up, and were published one day after the 30th... The cake used over 300 eggs, a mean feat here in the Falkalnds...There was an egg shirtgae the following week, but no one complained!

Simon's Year 10 Hospitality and Catering Students performed the final assembly and decoration...