I'll Take Guy Fawkes for 500, Alex

Mmm, nothing like a little Howard Shore to inspire a procrastinator. Well, the last week has been sufficiently blog-able, so I'm here to fill you in.

This first update is essentially a history lesson written by a novice historian. Friday, November the 5th. For those of you who are as unaccomplished in history as I am in mathematics, (if this is true, you would make a perfect Jay-Walker) the 5th of November is a night, or in Sidcup's irritating case: week, of celebrations that involve bonfires and shooting off fireworks that are no doubt illegal in all 50 states of America. This celebratory field day for pyromaniacs commemorates the anniversary of Guy Fawkes' failed Gunpowder Plot on November 5, 1605.  The Gunpowder Plot, in a nutshell, was a plan thought up by a man, Guy Fawkes, who had every intention of blowing up the House of Lords thus killing King James I, and eventually kidnapping the King's daughter, Princess Elizabeth.  Once the King and his parliament were offed, Fawkes and his plotters would secure Elizabeth as a titular Queen. Subsequently, Fawkes was captured.. and how else would you punish a threat such as him? He was hanged, drawn and quartered, of course! Now, back to the 21st century where this story is glamorized and made a holiday..or, more specifically, a reason to party and blow things up.

The celebrations of November 5th are that of our American 4th of July. Backyard parties, fireworks, (let's count how many times I mention those things or blowing things up...So far, 4.) and, more or less, responsible drinking. Traditionally, families would make an effigy of Guy Fawkes and eventually burn it in a bonfire. Harsh, I know. Even harsher? This year someone made an effigy of Wayne Rooney (photo above...and yes, it really was that big) to let out their still burning fury (pun completely intended) with his sub-par performance during this year's World Cup and his recent less than honorable actions involving his wife and a..ehm..well...prostitute. My celebrations, however, did not include burning a replica of my least favorite person (5.) or even Guy Fawkes, for that matter. It was an outing to a massive fireworks display (6.) in Blackheath. Thanks to the crowd there and the cell phone satellites' inability to handle so many people in one place, it took me literally an hour to find my friends. The display was sensational for the most part but it was absolutely frigid and I had to work the next morning so the night was cut short. All in all, I will remember, remember, that 5th of November.


Whew, look at this post! If you're still with me, and still mildly interested in what's going on, please continue so I don't feel like this is a complete waste of internet time...

My first tourist attraction. Yessss

Like I said, the day after the celebrations I had to go to a client's house for work. This client is actually two in one. They're twin boys about 8, needing some assistance because of their limited mobility, and they are the funniest and brightest boys I've ever met. Anyway, the morning began with me assisting them with homework and getting them ready for the day. Then, I did my very first touristy thing since I've arrived: we took a family + 1 outing to the Museum of London. I'm not exactly the museum type. Actually, let me correct that...I'm not much of an art museum type, with the exceptions of MASS-MoCA (Cal!) and of course, The Clark (Confortis!). The family made the MOL so much fun. They quizzed the boys on everything we passed and I realized they are so much more knowledgeable in world history than I will ever be. We went through so many interesting exhibits: Saxon & Medieval, Tudor & Stuart, basically the whole of England from the 1700s to today. It was a great day with the boys and their family, and I'm glad I got out and actually did something. Mom, I'm sure you are too.

If you read through this entire post, you're either genuinely interested in my goings-on, or you're family and you feel it's obligatory to read my blog in its entirety. If you skimmed it, I'm satisfied..it still gives me a page view (thank you, Ben for pointing these out to me).

I've found a million brochures of things to do while I'm here that'll surely be blogged about in due time. Stay tuned.


Oh, and if you're interested (Dad, I know you will be)... a while back there was a program on BBC that looked into the Gunpowder Plot. They reconstructed, to a T, what the explosion would have looked like. Really interesting stuff, actually. Here's the link! ---> The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Legend

One last thing, if you hadn't noticed already, I learned how to link things within the sentences I've written. Kind of went crazy with it...whoops!


greta