Tattoo

Yesterday was my 5th 29th birthday and yes, I'll keep going with that as long as I can pass for 29(as determined by me so it's subjective). My parents treated me to a trip to Halifax where we stopped at the Bluenose Restaurant for a really super yummy lunch (although their decor could really use a spark or two - pretty boring interior design for a place called The Bluenose - practically decorates itself don't you think?) and then we headed off to see the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo. The kind of Tattoo that has nothing to do with ink.

It's a military tattoo of company formations, marching, bands and extra-curricular performances. Something to be seen especially the massed pipes and drums ... stirring to your very soul.

The Halifax Metro Centre is not quite so large as the Saddledome ... in fact I think you could fit at least two Metro Centres in the Saddledome! This is the Copenhagen Police Band and they were very good - a little weird but were pretty fantastic and funny.

We all know the French are a bit different so it should come as no surprise that the Paris Police have a gymnastics team. I mean, they demonstrated extreme precision parallel bars and it was a neat thing to see but ... gymnastic police?The French do not have a lock on the bizarre because Germans can also be a bit off the wall. The Hamburg Police Motorcycle Team was zipping around doing death defying stunts. Waving flags, balancing - I missed taking a picture of their finale because they had 3 motorcycles side by side with about 20 people stacked on top as they drove around the arena. Pretty neat stuff.

No Canadian performance event is complete without the RCMP. They did their usual formations with flags sans horses. No final charge though ... pity that - it would have been cool. Easily my second favorite performance was by the Middlesex Volunteer Fife & Drum Corps (Massachusetts) - they were simply spectacular. A fife - for those who don't know - is a little teeny playing pipe. Enmasse they are pretty darn cool but the drums ... wow. The whole group was dressed in period costume and they looked completely fabulous.

There were some military demonstrations and this one involved an obstacle course that had two teams competing - one for each side of the arena. The other side won but I think it was too close to call.
Later they had a Jeep dis-assembling and re-assembling race. These guys literally disassembled a Jeep and re-assembled it in what was probably under 5 minutes. Granted the mechanics seemed a lot more simple than your modern car but it was cool just the same. At least in this race our side won.
The ended the performance with a general salute and all 2000 performers were on stage for it. Quite a spectacular sight. No photos of that - I was paying too much attention to take one. I did however, get a video of the Nova Scotia Massed Pipe & Drums which I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to have but I like listening to it. Once I figure it out - if ever - how to get a video onto Youtube I'll put it up ...