reblog

Colmar is a town in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France and is a nice place for a day-trip from Basel.
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Woke up with my son and went with him for a jog through town – saw various Waggis preparing their floats. Got back – my son insisted on having Waggis costume on.

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Did not sleep a lot the previous night having got to bed after 1am – a combination of too much alcohol and my son waking up just before 6am. In an attempt to kill the hangover I had a big bowl of porridge and went for a jog along the river – which sort of worked. By 11am I was in costume – the Hawaiian shirt combo from a couple of years back – and heading to the bus stop with my “head” under one arm.

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The lanterns were out in their full glory on Münsterplatz. The artwork and imagination was just incredible - and I didn’t manage to photograph all of them. I won’t pretend to know all the sujets - though Gadaffi, the banking debacle, the smoking ban and building works were a recurring theme.

Top marks to the artists who painted these.

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It is Tuesday morning and I am nursing a small hangover. My son has gone to Kinderkrippe and insisted on wearing his Waggis costume. As it is raining today my wife wanted to put a coat on him – but he kept saying that Waggis don’t wear coats. Finally we were able to get him to wear one of those transparent rainproof ponchos. Recalling all of yesterday is a bit of an effort I have to admit.

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It is 8:28am and I am just back from the post-Morgenstraich breakfast in the Löwenzorn. I’ve been awake since 2am – when my almost three year old son decided to come and share our bed. It took long enough to get him to sleep – he was constantly asking about the Waggis and the piccolos.

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We’re just doing the last bits of preparation before I hit the sack – prefilling the coffee maker so I can just put it on the stove when I get up at 2:30am; making sure my costume is laid out etc etc. My son is now nearly three years old and he is constantly talking about Waggis – so this year we got him a Waggis costume for sixteen francs at a jumble sale. We’re rather proud of that as a kid’s Waggis costume in Manor or Migros will not leave you much change out of fifty francs.

The preparation includes a small gents “handbag” into which I pack my survival kit of a strip of Rennies; the house keys; some beer money; piccolo and cleaning brush; a hipflask and hunter’s folding drinking cup and a typed up sheet with my clique’s marching programme on it – oh and the digital camera. Some clique colleagues have a sort of box shaped bag to keep their bits in which is standard issue for Swiss Army officers. Actually, I lied about the piccolo; all the costumes have two long pockets sewn into them for storage of piccolo and pipecleaner.

The town is certainly buzzing with anticipation – the local television channel is covering the Chiembäse – fire festival - in Liestal and this afternoon we took a short stroll around town, watching Cliques and Gugge doing their final bits of practice and putting the Ladäärne at their requisite starting positions. Thankfully we have some decent weather predicted – a blessing considering all the freezing snow we had since before Christmas.

And on that note I will wrap up on the offchance of getting a few hours shuteye between now and Morgenstraich.