We drive an Audi A4 - nice car but that first weekend in December had my brain concentrating on four 'A's, rather than A4s.
Like the rest of you setting off in your cars loaded with pigeon baskets and boxes, there is always an air of ASPIRATION about. The dictionary translates that as 'lofty hopes and aims', which, I think applies to us all as we take to the road, especially to our National Show at Pickering - our own 'Crufts'.
With the birds in the pens, we next enter the state of ANTICIPATION as we move away and allow the judges to get on with their work.
Then the red cards start to appear on the pens, leading us to APPREHENSION - a certificate or Best of Breed perhaps?
But in our case, this mood was heightened further still as we returned to our little hotel on the Saturday evening. One of our young Dragoons was sitting up there in the 'top row'! That in itself excited us as it could mean the Heroes Trophy, which had already our names engraved upon it for 2009 and 2010 - a hat trick?
But on the Sunday morning, I had to forget about all this as I was to take charge of the Annual General Meeting of the National Pigeon Association, wondering all the time who it would be to whom I would hand over my President's medal after my two years of holding that honour.
