But Parade also likes the fact that you don’t have to travel too far beyond the Bathurst urban outskirts to find yourself in one of the district’s many charming country villages, where life is quiet and a major national sporting event is unlikely to be played any time soon.

One of those charming villages is Newbridge, where Parade and his significant other travelled last weekend to enjoy the community’s Winter Solstice Street Festival.

The main street (and there is, admittedly, not a lot of it) was closed off to cars and taken over by dancers, craft-sellers, food and drink providers and a fellow on a penny-farthing who maintained magnificent control from his very high seat.

There were vikings (don’t ask) fighting in an enclosure near the pub and a bonfire waiting to be lit later that night.

It had been years since Parade was out that way, but it was well worth the trip.

It made Parade wonder what he’d been missing recently at some of the other villages in Bathurst’s orbit.

THESE foggy mornings (the foggy mornings that only end when the morning turns into afternoon, not when the fog lifts) are starting to bother Parade.

It’s not just that Parade starts to feel a bit grim when the world outside the window is grey for hours on end, it’s also the effect on Parade’s indoor life.

Some slight exaggeration might be involved, but it now feels as if there has been a clothes horse full of damp shirts, underwear and jeans in Parade’s lounge room for about a month or so.

Parade assumes some of the items of clothing are getting dry, but the clothes horse never seems to get any emptier – if anything, it seems to have more stuff on it by the day.

If the clothes horse doesn’t disappear soon, Parade will be asking his significant other if it can pay rent.