So here we are again. Another year older and another carnival over. Well, naturally it rained. I say naturally but to be fair we have been blessed with some reasonably good weather since 1999 when the event suffered a near wash-out.

Preparations went amazingly smoothly without too many hitches and problems. It was looking good until as the procession was assembling and stalls were opening a downpour tried to dampen our spirits. It didn't work (well it did but I'm not going to admit that).

Another huge crowd watched a record (for recent times) 40 floats thread its way through Braintree. A spectacular £2000 was raised on the street collection. A big thank you goes out to everyone who took part or watched.

Another downpour just as the procession arrived at Meadowside was not called for but turned up anyway. This meant that smaller crowds than normal enjoyed the afternoons activities. These included Heavens Above, The Blue Falcons and the very popular Suffolk School of Samba who got the audience up and dancing.

Late afternoon saw the field swathed in glorious sunshine and the evening was well attended as Rekovered brought the evening to a close.

Unfortunately, the number of people taking part in the 2004 walk was slightly down on previous years. However, fun was had by all participants and our thanks goes to all walkers.

We also thank those who took part in the organisation including route markers, marshals, back markers, refreshments and start/finish marshals.

Saturday morning and things really start to hot up. The real pros are on the field by six o'clock although some of the hardier types consider this a bit of a late start. Other, more sensible types, trickle onto the field throughout the morning.

At some point during the morning (between 8 and 11 is about as accurate as I can get) breakfast is served. Magically, from the inside of one of the caravans, plates full of sausages, bacon, mushrooms, eggs and bread appear. The reason that this must be magic is that up until this point for the previous three days the field has been populated by a small band of hard-working men and women. Suddenly breakfast arrives and 5,347 people descend upon the table and it all disappears in about 4 seconds.

Hopefully by Saturday morning the bulk of the stall construction has been completed. This was not always the case in the past and I am sure stalls were still being finished off one year as they were being taken down. However, this still leaves plenty of finishing touches and items to collect.

It feels like the list is endless - steps to the stage, boarding the front of the stage, flags, posters, fences, more flags, signs, tarpaulins, prizes, drinks, crisps, stakes, fencing, stakes, rolls, burgers, boilers, gas, sweets, toys, toilets, bins. Ok, so the 'endless' list has come to an end but you get the idea. Fortunately, someone has some of this written down and as the morning goes on the right bits turn up in the right place. Not everything is written down however, and we simply do what someone remembers we have done before. Failing this we adopt the 'seat-of-pants' approach and make it up as we go along.

At regular intervals, people arrive with various items of entertainment or equipment asking where they are located on the field. Hopefully a decision has been made concerning this and someone is around who knows what that decision is. If not, then there is usually a gap somewhere if you look hard enough.

As the morning canters on, lunchtime approaches and some people manage to fit in lunch. This is actually a very good idea, as later on teatime will disappear completely. A quick trip over the road to the pub is sometimes squeezed in if time permits. It acts as a great incentive and perhaps one year the Chairman offers to pay.

However, the rest is short lived, as the stalls will be opening shortly so it is time to get the prizes ready. Hopefully someone has got around to sorting them out before the day and knows which prizes go on which stall. Even so it can be a problem remembering the difference between the mini, small, standard, medium, large, extra large and giant teddies.

At some time around lunchtime the floats start to arrive at the start of the procession. Fortunately after years of practice and planning the road is marked out to assist with this process and it sometimes goes remarkably smoothly. It is difficult for me to write about this, as it has been many years since I was at there to see this happen. I spent an hour running up and down Lakes Road trying to get 40ft articulated lorries into 35ft gaps. The drivers do not like reversing those things into iddy-biddy places.

As the stallholders begin to arrive we start to realise what we have forgotten. It is usually something like the balls for the bowling or the arrow for the spinner the dice for the dice stall. Some of us have got wise to this over the years and spend hours looking for them before the day. This is not necessarily a good idea as fate ensures that something will go missing. If you have made sure you have all the obvious items then it will be something more obscure and difficult to improvise.

It is 2 o'clock. At Lakes Road, the floats have hopefully all arrived and are being judged. At Meadowside, the fair rides start up and hopefully the Carnival stalls are opening for business. This is it, no more time for preparations - another Carnival has begun.

The dreaded call from Captain Fun finally came this Monday. "Can you write something for this year's programme? We need it by the end of the week."

No pressure, then. Four days and twenty-three hours thinking time, then a frantic hour to actually get something on paper, no problem. I can do that. It's not like I have anything else to do with my spare time.

Which is actually true, since I went off on holiday for a month and returned to find that British TV has been completely taken over by so-called reality shows. I used to enjoy settling down in front of the TV to watch a good drama, wildlife programme or documentary that taught me something I didn't already know, but these are now so few and far between that my chances of ever winning the Neighbourhood Watch pub quiz again are rapidly diminishing. Instead we have real people doing their real everyday jobs, arguing, moaning and sulking. I can see all of that for free just by looking out of the window.

Now, some bright spark in TV land must have realised this. The solution? Substitute the real people with D- list celebrities and professional has-beens. Or better still, former real people who are now D-list celebrities themselves because they've been on reality shows. I gather there's a new one where they've rounded up a whole bunch of these and put them in a house together. Throw away the key, I say.

Call me a cynic, but I can't help thinking these programmes must be extremely cheap to make. No actors to pay, no scripts, no special effects or fancy camera trickery. Yet I'm sure advertising rates haven't gone down, and neither has the TV license fee. People of Britain, wake up and smell the double decaf skinny vanilla latte - someone, somewhere is making a fast buck.

Here's an idea. If you'd like to see a dozen or so real people between 5 and 70-odd years old, from all over the UK, arguing, moaning and sulking come down to the Carnival field at Meadowside a couple of days before Carnival. Watch your own local celebrities in action - Captain Fun's sister was once a Carnival Princess, you know, and I've served avocado and prawn sandwiches to The Krankies. Observe the ultimate makeover in progress as we attempt to turn a couple of acres of parkland into Disneyworld Braintree in two days without the use of MDF and no power tools. But whatever you do please don't vote off the weakest helper, we need all the hands we can get!