Saturday 9 February 2013

Meat-on-a-Stick Day

This weekend Canberra hosts its annual Multicultural Festival. The centre of the city is transformed, with lots of food stalls lining the pedestrian walkways, and a large stage for music and dance performances. The main item on the menu at most stalls is 'meat on a stick', although one stall took it one step further with 'chips on a stick'. As for the performance stage, this was set up in its tradition location, right next to where we play Street Chess. A few veterans of previous Multicultural Festivals requested a move to further away from the noise, but the tournament isn't called 'Street Chess' for nothing. So we played while there were Chinese dancers, African drummers, and what seemed to be a group representing the culture of  Boston Heavy Metal Fans.
The upside was we had a lot of spectators watching the chess, and this led to my favourite moment of the day, With the heavy metal band in full swing, two young boys and their Grandmother stopped to look. The noise drowned out their conversation, but I could pick up the gist of it from the facial expressions and hand gestures. I suspect it went "Nan, can we stay and watch the chess". "Yes" replied the Grandmother, putting her finger to her lips. "As long as you're quiet"

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