long time no post

well... not that long really, but long considering I usually post a few times a week.

The reason for my blogging sabbatical is that my sister Kathryn has been visiting and I have had a very very busy week, starting last friday which was the night before she got here...

I have a plan to post the photos and details of all the fun things I've been up to on here sporadically during the next 48 to 72 hours, so that I don't overwhelm myself with photo uploads and entry writing - so stay tuned.

I'll start with the old and work towards the new - likely with a bit of random things thrown in as per usual.

I'll start with a short but possibly entertaining rant about Guy Fawkes Day

Well, last friday (That's a week ago) before Kathryn arrived I opened up a tourist magazine I had picked up for Kathryn's visit and discovered that in honour of Guy Fawkes there was a giant lights parade going on in a small little town called Bridgwater just an hour train ride away.

Well it didn't take much persuading before Hannah and I had plans to board the train directly after work and head straight to the kitschy guy fawkes fun. Luckily I had about 5 large containers of pumpkin ginger soup which I had made the day before on my day off (Thursday I had a day off) in the fridge at work so we ate that for dinner and then hopped on the train.

It turns out that the lights festival is the largest of its kind in all of WESTERN EUROPE - in just this small little town, this parade has been going on for 400 YEARS and there are all these ancient Carnival Club which make "carts" (what we would call floats) for this parade.

It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen... I remember the light parades at Disney from my childhood - but Michael Eisner, eat your heart out - they've got nothing on Bridgwater.

For more info on the parade check out this link

I think the thing I liked most about the parade is that there were some obviously well funded projects and carts which were breathtaking - but there were also little carts and small groups of people who were just families and friends who had gotten together to build something - and despite it being a big corporate sponsored event in many ways, it still had a very strong community feeling to it.

Another funny thing is that the festival is named the "Carnival" and many of the dancers and paraders wore costumes that were much like carnival costumes that might be seen in Trinidad or Rio De Janero... butterflies, birds, animals, all sort - there were even people dancing but instead of animal arms and legs cascading behind them, the costumes they were supporting were designed to look like Tudor houses!

The only downside was that is was pouring rain all night and so we got soaked and were quite cold - but nothing that a quick stop in the pub before the train ride home wouldn't cure. We didn't get home until quite late, which was ok - except that I was getting on a 6:30 am train to meet Kathryn in London the next morning... so I didn't get the best sleep after a cold and wet night out - but it was well worth it for the fun we had.

Because it was spur of the moment, I didn't have my camera with me - but I'll get the pics from Hannah and you can see what I mean about the floats soon!

Guy Fawkes day is huge here, and the Carnival in Bridgwater was a day early - but when Kathryn and I arrived into Bristol the next night, on the actual holiday - we were greeted with a non-stop barage of fireworks being set off all over the city. Seriously. Because of Guy Fawkes the whole country was a giant fire hazard - with people shooting off fireworks all over the streets and everywhere. Walking home I counted about 78 fireworks and that was within about a 3 minute span of time.

The best part is that the fireworks still continue now... days later. Infact it was hearing a firework just now (a whole week past Guy Fawkes) while writing this post that it occured to me that I should write about it. I even heard one on Wednesday morning at about 8:45 am, which makes little to no sense because it was completely light out and it wouldn't have made much of a show. So we both had our fair share of fire works all week, though I am a bit sad that I didn't get to see the burning of either an effogy of Guy Fawkes or an effogy of The Pope (i'm told that the latter is not as common in recent years)... but either would have been nice to complete the British Guy Fawkes experience. sigh.

More to come soon, including photos from London, the Avebury Stone Circles, Cardiff, and Oxford.

I bet you can't wait!

- Chris

p.s. I'm going to start finishing every post with a random british fact/observation - this one will be numbered #1, although I am well aware that it is probably not the first fact of such a description to appear on this blog.

random british fact #1 - at the movie theatre (cinema) when you order Popcorn, you are consequently asked "Sweet or Salty?" which could be interpreted in a number of ways, but is ultimately confusing for someone who is used to hearing the question "would you like butter?", and so when I said "Yes, with butter" to the question "sweet or salty?" I was only greeted with silence. It was only then that I realized that popcorn is very different here - eaten only one of two ways, either slightly sweet OR slightly salty... with butter at no point coming into the picture. When explained to my british friends, the butter system in North America was greeted with reactions of disgust, mainly because they have no idea what butter would taste like on popcorn - nor were they familiar with the concept of a "popcorn" maker at home, or the general idea of ever "microwaving" or "jiffy popping" popcorn, or even the idea of eating popcorn at all in any place other than a movie theatre. Ho hum. What I wouldn't do for a good bag of Orville Redenbaucher.