And the band played Lady Gaga...

Never let it be said that life is dull in mid-Suffolk, and yesterday proved that point once and for all.

Until 2005, Ros was the County Councillor for the Bosmere Division, which covers Needham Market and a string of villages to the south and west, one of which is Great Bricett, the home of what was RAF Wattisham, and is now Flying Station Wattisham. When the RAF left, and the Army arrived, Ros worked with them to build strong links with the local civilian community, many of whom worked on the base, or lived in close proximity.

One continuing activity is the annual ceremony of 'Beating Retreat', where representatives of the local community are invited to a cocktail party and, this year, an intended close look at one of the Army Air Corps Apache attack helicopters. So, on with the suit, as Ros and I drove across from Creeting St Peter to attend the event.

There was a awful lot of networking being done, with most of mid-Suffolk's senior politicians in attendance, plus the Chief Constable, and plenty of interesting people to talk to. Admittedly, Wattisham's most famous resident, some bloke called Harry, I'm told, didn't appear to be joining us, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Unfortunately, the somewhat unfavourable weather meant that we missed out on the hardware demonstration, but we were entertained by the Band of the Parachute Regiment, who played a rather eclectic set, including a Lady Gaga number (at least, Ros tells me they did, and as I don't do much in the way of modern culture past 1925, I'll take her word for it!). Naturally, the National Anthem was played, although there was no singing along - I guess that the Suffolk gentry don't do that sort of thing.

And then we headed home...