Or how education is controlled by idiots and wasted on the young.
The main thrust of this blog is something we Brits tend to be very proud of and most of us completely ignore, namely the works of William Shakespeare but there's also an undertone commentary on the regular complaint of the politician and tabloid on a slow news day about children not reading anymore.
I'm a big fan of the works of Shakespeare (though not the man himself, do some research and you quickly realise he was a bit of a git), it doesn't matter how, reading the books or watching the plays performed I'm hooked, but I wasn't always.
Like most high school pupils in the UK I had Shakespeare rammed down my throat at about the age of 13 or 14 and I hated it. The national curriculum force fed us two of his plays, in my case Romeo and Juliet and Henry V, and I hated them. Now they're two of my favourites. I was simply too young to get them. They didn't appeal and I couldn't relate. It put me off the bard for far too long.
In fact the whole reading list was fairly dire and for the most part obviously not aimed at the young teen audience. Which brings me to the second point. Books forced on children at school are so often the choice of middle aged committees based on "classics" they think children should be reading rather than good books that they will enjoy reading and will encourage them to read more so that they will carry on reading throughout their lives and find the classics on there own. Thankfully because of the wonders of comics and a great library I was an avid reader despite my education so I still read lots now. Most of my old school friends don't.
So how did I fall in love with Shakespeare. No surprise there. It started with a girl. A little over ten years ago on my first stay with a University. I was studying chemistry at York and got together with a young thesp. In an effort to impress, I borrowed her books and read with all diligence. The relationship was short lived and when it ended I was heartbroken. Now I would have to buy my own copy of the complete works of Shakespeare. No mean feat for a poor student. Then, six years after being put off Shakespeare for life by a misguided education system I had rediscovered and become smitten with Shakespeare while studying chemistry. Education is truly wasted on the young and it would be great if we could just let people learn things instead of teaching them until a person knows what they want to be. Sadly impractical though.
And how better to end this blog than with a couple of the great turns of phrase from the master wordsmith, firstly the first Shakespeare I learned by heart to impress the young lady (and it worked and hasn't failed to raise a coquettish smile whenever I've tried it since)
Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all.
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call,
All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more.
and lastly how the git with a great turn of phrase wanted to be remembered,
If thou survive my well-contented day,
When that churl Death my bones with dust will cover,
And shalt by fortune once more re-survey
These poor rude lines of thy deceased lover,
Compare them with the bett'ring of the time,
And though they be outstripp'd by every pen,
Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme,
Exceeded by the height of happier men.
O then vouchsafe me but this loving thought:
"Had my friends Muse grown with his growing age,
A dearer birth than this his love had brought
to march in ranks of better equipage;
But since he died and poets better prove,
Theirs for their style I'll read, his for his love."
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Thing a week - A Tribute 01
Has anyone heard of Jonathan Coulton. He's a musician, very talented, writes a lot of great comedy songs. You should check him out.
Anyway the point is he can attribute his fame almost entirely to the internet and no small part of that was a podcast he did some time ago called thing a week. It's still on itunes for free download. Plug plug. Thing a week was a simple concept whereby Jonathan would give away free a song every week for a year. People like me heard it, liked him, went to his website and bought his stuff. Not a recording giant in sight, not even the toes poking out from under the bed.
Anyway again, the point, I'm often trying to blog more regularly. But, and then, yet...
So this is the project, inspired by Jonathan Coultons' thing a week, I aim to post a blog at about the same time every Wednesday for a year. This means we can be a team. It gives me a week to find something at least mildly entertaining to put on screen (and compose some waffle to pad round it and make it less interesting) and it means that if anyone out there who does start reading this mess has carte blanche to get in touch and chastise me if I'm late.
So I'm not promising length or quality, in that I may be the first honest man, but I do promise to feel guilty and post something if I forget and you pick on me. I've set a reminder on the ical and everything. I have high hopes.
Anyway the point is he can attribute his fame almost entirely to the internet and no small part of that was a podcast he did some time ago called thing a week. It's still on itunes for free download. Plug plug. Thing a week was a simple concept whereby Jonathan would give away free a song every week for a year. People like me heard it, liked him, went to his website and bought his stuff. Not a recording giant in sight, not even the toes poking out from under the bed.
Anyway again, the point, I'm often trying to blog more regularly. But, and then, yet...
So this is the project, inspired by Jonathan Coultons' thing a week, I aim to post a blog at about the same time every Wednesday for a year. This means we can be a team. It gives me a week to find something at least mildly entertaining to put on screen (and compose some waffle to pad round it and make it less interesting) and it means that if anyone out there who does start reading this mess has carte blanche to get in touch and chastise me if I'm late.
So I'm not promising length or quality, in that I may be the first honest man, but I do promise to feel guilty and post something if I forget and you pick on me. I've set a reminder on the ical and everything. I have high hopes.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
I'll tell you why I don't like Mondays.
I very nearly lost my faith in humanity yesterday. Why? Let me tell you.
My day starts early, I generally leave the flat at about six, I ride my bike to the station and have a bit of a play on the way. The city centre is mostly empty at that time so you can get away with things like jumps off the library steps without bothering anyone. Then I can get to the station in good time for the 6:35 train to Northwich.
On Monday the train was running late, in fact a lot of trains were running late, a lot of trains were being cancelled. I asked one of the conductors what was going on. To use his words, it was down to "a bunch of thieving scallies" who had stolen a load of copper wire out of the signals at the rail depot. Already by 6:30 am they were in chaos with only 5 of 46 scheduled trains having been able to leave the depot. But he assured me my train was on the way and only delayed by about 5 minutes. He was a nice helpful man who was obviously feeling put upon with complaints that morning but was still helpful and professional so I thanked him for his time and went back to waiting for the train.
Sure enough, it turned up 5 minutes late so I wasn't overly annoyed with the bunch of thieving scallies. Then the train didn't move. It continued not to move for some time then it was announced that it had been cancelled because of a shortage of drivers, but it was all right because they were very sorry for any inconvenience. This was about 6:50, the next train is at 7:39. This was not good, but I decided to make the best of it. After all this was very nearly an hour to spend playing on my bike.
Well I'm back at the station and I'm feeling quite good considering I'm running over an hour late, I'm sweaty and tired, but the 7:39 train was bang on time. Then it didn't move. It continued not to move for some considerable time. We were told this was because they were waiting for some extra staff to join the train from another train that had been delayed. So 2 hours after I left the flat I was on a moving train on my way to work. I was starting to lose my temper with the bunch of thieving scallies.
Then it comes to the time to get off. Running very late, and my bag is gone. Hmm. I suspect thieving scallies. This is turning into a very bad morning. My bag is gone with my clothes for the day, my bike lock and my wallet. At work it didn't get better. A lot of the jobs I was working on were delayed, waiting for data, so I was pretty much finished by 2. I cleared it with my boss to have Tuesday off and left early to try and sort things out.
I've spent my time since then ringing help-lines and visiting offices to report my missing cards and this is what saved my view of people. Everyone has been really helpful and understanding and yes, I know it's part of their job, but still, for the most part everyone went above and beyond to help me out. So thank you for Tuesdays army of good souls that helped me forget the low down thieving scum of Monday.
My day starts early, I generally leave the flat at about six, I ride my bike to the station and have a bit of a play on the way. The city centre is mostly empty at that time so you can get away with things like jumps off the library steps without bothering anyone. Then I can get to the station in good time for the 6:35 train to Northwich.
On Monday the train was running late, in fact a lot of trains were running late, a lot of trains were being cancelled. I asked one of the conductors what was going on. To use his words, it was down to "a bunch of thieving scallies" who had stolen a load of copper wire out of the signals at the rail depot. Already by 6:30 am they were in chaos with only 5 of 46 scheduled trains having been able to leave the depot. But he assured me my train was on the way and only delayed by about 5 minutes. He was a nice helpful man who was obviously feeling put upon with complaints that morning but was still helpful and professional so I thanked him for his time and went back to waiting for the train.
Sure enough, it turned up 5 minutes late so I wasn't overly annoyed with the bunch of thieving scallies. Then the train didn't move. It continued not to move for some time then it was announced that it had been cancelled because of a shortage of drivers, but it was all right because they were very sorry for any inconvenience. This was about 6:50, the next train is at 7:39. This was not good, but I decided to make the best of it. After all this was very nearly an hour to spend playing on my bike.
Well I'm back at the station and I'm feeling quite good considering I'm running over an hour late, I'm sweaty and tired, but the 7:39 train was bang on time. Then it didn't move. It continued not to move for some considerable time. We were told this was because they were waiting for some extra staff to join the train from another train that had been delayed. So 2 hours after I left the flat I was on a moving train on my way to work. I was starting to lose my temper with the bunch of thieving scallies.
Then it comes to the time to get off. Running very late, and my bag is gone. Hmm. I suspect thieving scallies. This is turning into a very bad morning. My bag is gone with my clothes for the day, my bike lock and my wallet. At work it didn't get better. A lot of the jobs I was working on were delayed, waiting for data, so I was pretty much finished by 2. I cleared it with my boss to have Tuesday off and left early to try and sort things out.
I've spent my time since then ringing help-lines and visiting offices to report my missing cards and this is what saved my view of people. Everyone has been really helpful and understanding and yes, I know it's part of their job, but still, for the most part everyone went above and beyond to help me out. So thank you for Tuesdays army of good souls that helped me forget the low down thieving scum of Monday.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
It's him again
Hello again,
How are you? What have you been up to? Anything nice? Been busy?
I have. I've been up to my eyeballs in all sorts of things. Some of them interesting, some of them hectic, all of them overlapping. Whenever I thought the chaos was over and I'd have a few days peace, bang, another thing blows onto the scene. I even got tempted to write the odd blog entry every now and then but by the time I got the chance I forgot that I was even going to do it.
So here it is, the readers digest version of where I've been the last few months rather than pestering you all over the intermaweb.
First off I suppose was the getting fit again. I used to be very fit. Uber fit. I could put marines to shame in the fitness stakes. This changed a few years ago when a doctor advised me to take a year off and rest or I would likely need major surgery on my knee. The knee problem is an old thing, lets add it to the pile of things I'll talk about later. Well a year off exercise easily becomes a habit that easily becomes two years, then three, then I'm thirty and fat. Not Good. But losing weight, especially at 30 is not as easy as putting it on, this is a design flaw in the universe and if I ever find out who's in charge I'll lodge a complaint.
Now however, I had a target, a cause if you will, the Greater Manchester Run. This is a 10 km run, about a quarter marathon for the non metrics. I ran this in the respectable time of 55 min 23 sec. I was proud of that. I've never been a distance runner and I wasn't expecting to get under an hour. The next 10 k is on Saturday (amusingly called the Moonraker 10k run for some reason) and there are some half marathons planned for the end of the year. I've really caught the runners bug.
The problem I'm having with the running is the uneven effect on my body. My legs are now totally buff. woo-hoo! I have a runners toned arms and even my man boobs have receded and actually look good. Unfortunately my beer gut is very slow on the uptake and lagging behind. If you've ever seen a frog at full stretch you'll get the idea.
Fitness leads on to my next endeavours, new toys! I've recently treated myself to quite a few retail therapies. A new bike, I've not rode on a bike since I was about 17. Over the last week it's starting to rival the skates as the most fun way to get to work. The Wii Fit, this is perhaps the reason computers were invented. It's awesome fun, if you get the chance try it. The new camera, an Olympus E-500 along with aperture, I'm still learning to play with them properly but I am loving it. Oh and a PS3. I do so love the bonus time of year.
This has been an upbeat bit of a tale so far and it's getting long so i won't bring up any of the down side of the hectic. Maybe some other blog, maybe it will mean I post again before i forget how.
For now I'm off to sit in the afternoon sunshine and take reality off the hook for a couple of hours with a good book and have some quiet time.
Speak to you soon I hope. with any luck things will calm enough now for me to infest the net again and pester you all on forums and social nets.
How are you? What have you been up to? Anything nice? Been busy?
I have. I've been up to my eyeballs in all sorts of things. Some of them interesting, some of them hectic, all of them overlapping. Whenever I thought the chaos was over and I'd have a few days peace, bang, another thing blows onto the scene. I even got tempted to write the odd blog entry every now and then but by the time I got the chance I forgot that I was even going to do it.
So here it is, the readers digest version of where I've been the last few months rather than pestering you all over the intermaweb.
First off I suppose was the getting fit again. I used to be very fit. Uber fit. I could put marines to shame in the fitness stakes. This changed a few years ago when a doctor advised me to take a year off and rest or I would likely need major surgery on my knee. The knee problem is an old thing, lets add it to the pile of things I'll talk about later. Well a year off exercise easily becomes a habit that easily becomes two years, then three, then I'm thirty and fat. Not Good. But losing weight, especially at 30 is not as easy as putting it on, this is a design flaw in the universe and if I ever find out who's in charge I'll lodge a complaint.
Now however, I had a target, a cause if you will, the Greater Manchester Run. This is a 10 km run, about a quarter marathon for the non metrics. I ran this in the respectable time of 55 min 23 sec. I was proud of that. I've never been a distance runner and I wasn't expecting to get under an hour. The next 10 k is on Saturday (amusingly called the Moonraker 10k run for some reason) and there are some half marathons planned for the end of the year. I've really caught the runners bug.
The problem I'm having with the running is the uneven effect on my body. My legs are now totally buff. woo-hoo! I have a runners toned arms and even my man boobs have receded and actually look good. Unfortunately my beer gut is very slow on the uptake and lagging behind. If you've ever seen a frog at full stretch you'll get the idea.
Fitness leads on to my next endeavours, new toys! I've recently treated myself to quite a few retail therapies. A new bike, I've not rode on a bike since I was about 17. Over the last week it's starting to rival the skates as the most fun way to get to work. The Wii Fit, this is perhaps the reason computers were invented. It's awesome fun, if you get the chance try it. The new camera, an Olympus E-500 along with aperture, I'm still learning to play with them properly but I am loving it. Oh and a PS3. I do so love the bonus time of year.
This has been an upbeat bit of a tale so far and it's getting long so i won't bring up any of the down side of the hectic. Maybe some other blog, maybe it will mean I post again before i forget how.
For now I'm off to sit in the afternoon sunshine and take reality off the hook for a couple of hours with a good book and have some quiet time.
Speak to you soon I hope. with any luck things will calm enough now for me to infest the net again and pester you all on forums and social nets.
Monday, April 21, 2008
What's been occuring
Well it’s been yet another age and here we are again. I’ve had high and lows and been a bit to preoccupied to write, sorry, then I get out of the habit, then I wonder if there’s any point in writing a blog since in all likelihood nobody out there is actually reading it. Aren’t the occasional bouts of depression and paranoia that come with chronic insomnia fun.
So what makes me put digit to keyboard after all this time. You can all thank a conversation I had today with my latest favourite super hero, the Fabulous Laura. She saves cute dogs for fun. Anyway, the long and short of it was after a too brief chat when I should have been working I decided it was time to break the silence and let you know what’s been going on. I’m going to stick to the highs since I’m in no mood to analyse the lows and I won’t remember them all since the last blog so you’re just getting some highlights.
So middle things first, as some of you know I’ve been a bit, how can I put it, dissatisfied, with my current employer for a while. There where a number of reasons for this and to be fair to them they are doing things to help put things right. Their latest efforts a few weeks ago involved giving me a very generous pay rise, it takes effect this month so I’m planning on treating myself with some new toys, I’m planning on getting aperture for my mac. Has anyone tried it? More slowly but apparently just as surely I’m getting more of the work I want rather than the jobs no one else does and even more slowly I’m getting aimed towards some of the training I’ve been after for a goodly while. So things are looking up in the professional stakes. If anyone is interested in what I do, ask, otherwise I wont bore you.
Speaking of new toys I bought myself a new pocket camera recently. I like to have two cameras. A big “proper” camera for planned trips and events when I know I’ll need a few good memories and a compact camera to keep in my pocket. Just in case I see something I’d like to snap. My old sony cybershot has been on the fritz and getting worse for some time so I decided on a shiny new olympus mju, yes, like the ones of the advert with the annoying child and the dog, I got the new version as my first treat to myself over the pay thing. I’m a big fan of tech that bounces. And yes it does take pictures under water. I’ve not tried to freeze it yet but it did survive Newcastle weather and my two year old niece last weekend so it must be tough. Next to replace is my proper camera and I’m thinking I might go all out with my first D-SLR. Wait and see what turns up on ebay I suppose.
There’s more to tell but I’m tired of typing and you’re probably tired of reading (be honest). I’ve not talked about my latest trip home to Newcastle when I got to dance with Wiley Kit from the thundercats and cement my place as favourite uncle with the cutest blonde bundle of trouble I’ve ever met. I’ve not mentioned my latest exercise regime and why I’m off the booze and ice cream for a month. I didn’t even get close to why I shaved my beard off.
This is what happens when I don’t write things down regularly. Ah well. I’m a rotter. Hopefully someone out there is reading this and specially for you I hope to talk to you again soon.
So what makes me put digit to keyboard after all this time. You can all thank a conversation I had today with my latest favourite super hero, the Fabulous Laura. She saves cute dogs for fun. Anyway, the long and short of it was after a too brief chat when I should have been working I decided it was time to break the silence and let you know what’s been going on. I’m going to stick to the highs since I’m in no mood to analyse the lows and I won’t remember them all since the last blog so you’re just getting some highlights.
So middle things first, as some of you know I’ve been a bit, how can I put it, dissatisfied, with my current employer for a while. There where a number of reasons for this and to be fair to them they are doing things to help put things right. Their latest efforts a few weeks ago involved giving me a very generous pay rise, it takes effect this month so I’m planning on treating myself with some new toys, I’m planning on getting aperture for my mac. Has anyone tried it? More slowly but apparently just as surely I’m getting more of the work I want rather than the jobs no one else does and even more slowly I’m getting aimed towards some of the training I’ve been after for a goodly while. So things are looking up in the professional stakes. If anyone is interested in what I do, ask, otherwise I wont bore you.
Speaking of new toys I bought myself a new pocket camera recently. I like to have two cameras. A big “proper” camera for planned trips and events when I know I’ll need a few good memories and a compact camera to keep in my pocket. Just in case I see something I’d like to snap. My old sony cybershot has been on the fritz and getting worse for some time so I decided on a shiny new olympus mju, yes, like the ones of the advert with the annoying child and the dog, I got the new version as my first treat to myself over the pay thing. I’m a big fan of tech that bounces. And yes it does take pictures under water. I’ve not tried to freeze it yet but it did survive Newcastle weather and my two year old niece last weekend so it must be tough. Next to replace is my proper camera and I’m thinking I might go all out with my first D-SLR. Wait and see what turns up on ebay I suppose.
There’s more to tell but I’m tired of typing and you’re probably tired of reading (be honest). I’ve not talked about my latest trip home to Newcastle when I got to dance with Wiley Kit from the thundercats and cement my place as favourite uncle with the cutest blonde bundle of trouble I’ve ever met. I’ve not mentioned my latest exercise regime and why I’m off the booze and ice cream for a month. I didn’t even get close to why I shaved my beard off.
This is what happens when I don’t write things down regularly. Ah well. I’m a rotter. Hopefully someone out there is reading this and specially for you I hope to talk to you again soon.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
That was the week that was.
Yes that was an event filled and for the most part funderfull week. A lot of it's still jumbled up in my mind so I'm not going to talk about it yet. I'm just back here to sift through the pieces and try and make some sense of it all by finding the one event that started it all. It's quite important to me that I do because it set off an avalanche of events that led to me being a happy chap once again.
Where to start, at the beginning I suppose but where is that. Real life stories don't have starts and ends. They constantly intertwine. A tantrum becomes a rest, a fight becomes a reconciliation. A week last Thursday I think is a good place. That'd be the 7th. I was in the office naked. Erm hang on, maybe I should start a little earlier and explain that.
I've been increasingly worried about my mental state of late. I've been getting angry a lot. First because there was a lot to be angry about then it was just like a habit I'd picked up. I was blowing up over tiny, inconsequential things. This is not like me. One of the things that was really winding me up was an ongoing situation at work which I won't bore you with so when the weather picked up to the point when I could skate to work again I jumped at it. As long time readers know I'm a big fan of my rollerblades and treat them like a kind of moving meditation. There's very little that can upset me after a good hard skate. When I got to the office I was a bit ripe so I had a shower and the thought suddenly popped into my head, "You are at work naked!". I burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of it. I've had showers at work tons of times and it never even occurred to me. Anyway it put me in a great frame of mind to deal with the day. Find the silly and rather than let it upset me laugh at it. I'm sure I got a few odd looks that day for my strange little giggles but there is so much in the world to laugh at.
Now stop picturing me naked in the shower and find something else to laugh at. The water was very cold ok.
A lot of the rest of the time between then and now has been spent back up in Cumbria. Yes that hellish surveying job has started again. I haven't got the battery power to talk about it now. Maybe some other time, but I wanted to share a few pics with you of what I consider to be one of the most beautiful parts of the world. To use the now famous Pratchet footnote, "For Americans and other aliens reading this" If you get the chance to visit our little island don't do the London thing. It's not that nice a place. Hire a car, go to the lake district. Here's some of the reasons why.
Where to start, at the beginning I suppose but where is that. Real life stories don't have starts and ends. They constantly intertwine. A tantrum becomes a rest, a fight becomes a reconciliation. A week last Thursday I think is a good place. That'd be the 7th. I was in the office naked. Erm hang on, maybe I should start a little earlier and explain that.
I've been increasingly worried about my mental state of late. I've been getting angry a lot. First because there was a lot to be angry about then it was just like a habit I'd picked up. I was blowing up over tiny, inconsequential things. This is not like me. One of the things that was really winding me up was an ongoing situation at work which I won't bore you with so when the weather picked up to the point when I could skate to work again I jumped at it. As long time readers know I'm a big fan of my rollerblades and treat them like a kind of moving meditation. There's very little that can upset me after a good hard skate. When I got to the office I was a bit ripe so I had a shower and the thought suddenly popped into my head, "You are at work naked!". I burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of it. I've had showers at work tons of times and it never even occurred to me. Anyway it put me in a great frame of mind to deal with the day. Find the silly and rather than let it upset me laugh at it. I'm sure I got a few odd looks that day for my strange little giggles but there is so much in the world to laugh at.
Now stop picturing me naked in the shower and find something else to laugh at. The water was very cold ok.
A lot of the rest of the time between then and now has been spent back up in Cumbria. Yes that hellish surveying job has started again. I haven't got the battery power to talk about it now. Maybe some other time, but I wanted to share a few pics with you of what I consider to be one of the most beautiful parts of the world. To use the now famous Pratchet footnote, "For Americans and other aliens reading this" If you get the chance to visit our little island don't do the London thing. It's not that nice a place. Hire a car, go to the lake district. Here's some of the reasons why.
Monday, January 28, 2008
What I did on my holidays
I've been away for a little bit thanks to either a shortage of time or a shortage of wit with which to write. You know how this bit goes, I say sorry and promise to write more often, you say yes, that would be nice and shrug your shoulders in a believe it when I see it kind of way then wait for the next random event to inspire me to actually type something, anything. Well lets just skip that bit and pretend we did it eh. You really want to read about the random.
Not technically what I did on my hols, just this weekend. I went to a barbecue which turned into a party then escalated to a shindig. Thankfully it died down before we had a full blown hootanany on our hands. No you read right, I said barbecue, yes in Salford, yes in winter. Why? I'm not entirely sure, but I'm glad it did.
There was of course a reason given. It was arranged by my good friend Hannah, who is a visitor to our shores from the merry old land of Oz, in honour of Australia Day. This is a day when Australians celebrate Australia and, I'm told, Barbecues are cooked on and beer is drunk. Thanks to the way the planet works they have their summer over the Christmas period (crazy I know) so the timing of their national day is quite clever and conducive to barbies.
Salford is approximately 15000km or 9400miles or 1.59684e-9 ly from Australia. If you drill a hole straight through the Earth from Salford you would come out, well actually in the Pacific Ocean a little bit South East of New Zealand, but it's quite close to being the opposite side of the planet. So yes the idea sounds crazy. And it was. This is exactly why it worked. Winter can be a dull and dreary old affair. Especially now with storms and rain rather than good proper snow. I'm not knocking it, it keeps me in a job, but it used to be fun to model snow melt. Back to the point. Winter can be depressing. Especially towards the end of January when the holidays are wearing of and the sniffles are setting in and to be stood huddled round a barbecue gathering for warmth off the charcoal and talking nonsense while waiting for snags (that means sausages, we were practicing our lingo quite a bit), it was a fantastic occasion. The planet either agreed with the bizareness or felt we deserved points for effort because it gave us a mild clear night to enjoy it in.
Later it got colder and we moved the party indoors and a game called cereal box was played. There was also a good old fashioned sing song where everyone chipped in with any Oz songs we knew. The home and away and Neighbours theme tunes featured prominantly with some of Rolf classics thrown in for good measure and the crowning glory of the whole first verse of the Australian national anthem.
It anyone else wants to celebrate their national day outside their nation, I suggest the UK. We seem to have a knack for adopting the mildly insane. We call it quirky and eccentric and accept it for the fun it is.
Not technically what I did on my hols, just this weekend. I went to a barbecue which turned into a party then escalated to a shindig. Thankfully it died down before we had a full blown hootanany on our hands. No you read right, I said barbecue, yes in Salford, yes in winter. Why? I'm not entirely sure, but I'm glad it did.
There was of course a reason given. It was arranged by my good friend Hannah, who is a visitor to our shores from the merry old land of Oz, in honour of Australia Day. This is a day when Australians celebrate Australia and, I'm told, Barbecues are cooked on and beer is drunk. Thanks to the way the planet works they have their summer over the Christmas period (crazy I know) so the timing of their national day is quite clever and conducive to barbies.
Salford is approximately 15000km or 9400miles or 1.59684e-9 ly from Australia. If you drill a hole straight through the Earth from Salford you would come out, well actually in the Pacific Ocean a little bit South East of New Zealand, but it's quite close to being the opposite side of the planet. So yes the idea sounds crazy. And it was. This is exactly why it worked. Winter can be a dull and dreary old affair. Especially now with storms and rain rather than good proper snow. I'm not knocking it, it keeps me in a job, but it used to be fun to model snow melt. Back to the point. Winter can be depressing. Especially towards the end of January when the holidays are wearing of and the sniffles are setting in and to be stood huddled round a barbecue gathering for warmth off the charcoal and talking nonsense while waiting for snags (that means sausages, we were practicing our lingo quite a bit), it was a fantastic occasion. The planet either agreed with the bizareness or felt we deserved points for effort because it gave us a mild clear night to enjoy it in.
Later it got colder and we moved the party indoors and a game called cereal box was played. There was also a good old fashioned sing song where everyone chipped in with any Oz songs we knew. The home and away and Neighbours theme tunes featured prominantly with some of Rolf classics thrown in for good measure and the crowning glory of the whole first verse of the Australian national anthem.
It anyone else wants to celebrate their national day outside their nation, I suggest the UK. We seem to have a knack for adopting the mildly insane. We call it quirky and eccentric and accept it for the fun it is.
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