Saturday, 12 September 2020: 22 September is the offical
beginning of Autumn. But, by my personal calender, 31 August is the last day of Summer with 1 September the first day of Fall. The light seems different. The air a bit crisper.
This is nowhere more true than in the Costa Brava in Catalonia, Spain. Our summer home. 31 August our village is packed out with toursits enjoying themselves. When I awake the next morning, 1 September the village is desolate. Everyone gone. This is an unusual year as we are sheltering from the pandemic in the States.
I’m sitting in my usual writing spot with my morning coffee and it occurs to me there is something I’ve never thought much about. The sounds of Folkestone and Euro. Sounds silly, I know. What I firstly associate is the sound of seagulls. It’s what you hear in the morning from your hotel room if you’ve slept with the window cracked. No matter where I am. When I hear the caw of gulls my mind immeditaly takes me to The Clifton and the Leas Cliff Hall.
Sad to say I didn’t make many videos during my Euro visits. I was never a vidiot like some. Wish I was. iPhones have had a video feature since inception in 2006, yet I never made videos of the guys at Euro. I really wished I had.
A fellow modeller, Andrew Argent brought this youtube video from Euro Militare’s Silver Jubilee to my attention. It is a wonderful find on his part, and a true snapshot of the moment in 2010. I do not appear in it, although I did attend 2010 fortunately.
But. I do have a couple of videos from Euro trips I’m quite keen on. I give them a watch from time to time. Here they are. The first video is my favourite of the two. I shot it from my desired room at The Clifton Hotel. Room 111.
This was a Sunday, 23 September in 2012. Eight years gone now. A later in September Euro Militaire meant higher probability of rain. And did it ever rain the second day of Euro. This was the first Euro after the end of a disaster of a relationship with a girlfriend. I’d not been to Euro since 2010, having missed it in 2011 thanks to her.
Euro 2012 was also my first Euro Militaire since moving to Spain, experiencing for the first time the delight of a short flight from Barcelona to Gatwick. This was also the first Euro where Mike Rinaldi and I teamed up for the Tank Art series. It was a gloriously happy time. Like pre-crisis Euro again. All the guys there.
After Sunday lunch of a plate of sandwiches and crisps in the lounge with Mike I went up to my room for a bit of a rest before dinner out at Portofino with all the Scandinavians. And it rained. So then, here is the video and audio of rain in Folkestone from September 2012. Glorious. I do so love this moment in time forever captured.
There is something magical about British rain. Or maybe it’s just rain in Britain, because it rains so much there. Whatever, this video leaves such a lovely impression upon me as it’s the possability to listen to the sound of rain in Folkestone from the second day of Euro in 2012.
The second video is from Thursday, 19 September 2013. The day before Euro began, a year after the previous video. I titled this video: ‘A Train Going Down’ from the Pet Shop Boys video ‘Two Divided By.’ When I make the journey to England for Euro, I’ll slap on a night or two in London before hopping a train down to Folkestone. Out of Charing Cross Station, it’s a High Speed arriving at Folkestone Central in 56 minutes.
This video includes the marvellous audio sound of the train trucks clacking on the tracks, and the familiar audio cue warning of the next stop. I had just boarded the train at Charing Cross platform and settled into my 1st Class seat when I made this short video as we passed over The Thames River crossing the Golden Jubilee Bridge at Embankment. In the background you can just pick out Parliament, Big Ben and the London Eye constructed in 2000 to celebrate the millennium.
The start of the journey is for me always celebratory. Be it having a drink in the aeropuerto lounge in Barcelona, or the beginning of the train ride down to Folkestone. It’s all exciting. I’m pleased I captured this moment. Euro ’13 was to be the last of the really great Euros. All the usual suspects in attendance. It was also, in fact, the year of Rikard’s memorable magic trick after a smashing dinner at Rocksalt which I must write about another occasion. Cheeky man he is.
Above is the last video I made from Euro Miniatures Expo in 2018. Was a good one. Quite busy in the trade stands and the figurine competition was much larger than in ’17.