St. Patrick's Day 2017

For what I think is the first time ever, a friend has invited me to their St. Patrick's Day party. I am on the Navy 3 bus there now, so that's where I'll be tonight. It'll certainly be something new for met.

An end-of-term pub gathering

I've spent the last few hours at a pub gathering and am still there (or here). It's an end-of-term meal organised by a mature student for other mature students. The turnout was above 25 but is down to about 10 now, given that it's deep into the evening and now heading towards the night.

Party and reunion

What was intended as both a re-union of students from my first college course and a gathering for my English teacher this afternoon morphed into a celebration of my birthday. My classmates and teachers had gifts, cards and even a homemade cake for me, none of which I expected but all of which I deeply appreciated, nevertheless. I enjoyed a lovely time with my classmates, former and present, and everyone else enjoyed the occasion, too. I could not have asked for a better party.

This was the meal I ordered: An "All-American Burger", which consisted of cheese, pulled pork and a burger patty between a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Delicious!

A local party

I can hear loud music playing in a neighbour's house, which I am assuming is coming from a party. Given that yesterday was results day, I am also assuming that it is someone who is celebrating their results.

This is the first occasion in a long time when I've heard music play from a neighbouring house. There's nothing to complain about, however: such an event is normally rare and if someone is indeed celebrating their results, I think they've earned a party!

The small event

I walked to a neighbouring town this morning, where I encountered this small event:

I don't know what the event was, although I could see a tea stand and hear live music. I took two pictures and walked on.

Blue Lagoon

I find it hard to believe that the class Christmas party was almost a month ago; so much has changed since then. Here's a picture of what I drank on that night:

It's a Blue Lagoon, which is a cocktail. My sense of taste was reduced that night but the drink was sweet enough for my senses to detect and the alcohol was soothing for my throat.

This enjoyable drink contrasts from the other Blue Lagoon about which I wrote.

Party success

Last night's party was a success. Everyone enjoyed themselves and, to my knowledge, there have been no complaints about the night. About the only gripe I had - and it's nothing to do with the party itself - was that I was coughing somewhat excessively, which added a moderate filter to my enjoyment of the occasion. Other than that, it was awesome. As I've said before, until yesterday, I'd never been to such an event before; it was all a new experience. People dancing on tables!

I do have one suitable picture to post here but it can wait until December's Secret Life of Bloggers Blog Party feature.

About to head out

As I won't be posting here later, I'll just say now that I'm about to head out to attend my class Christmas party. I've never been to anything like it before so it should certainly be an experience! I'm sure I'll take a few pictures but I doubt that I'll be posting any of them - especially if any contain people.

Still, I'm sure I'll have something to write about later. Until then, bye for now!

Smart clothing

My cousin and I spent the afternoon clothes shopping...for me. Next week, my class and I will be having a Christmas party at a fancy venue and I needed to purchase some smarter clothing than anything I had in my attire collection prior to today.

Within half an hour, my cousin and I found a suitable pair of trousers for me. The difficult part was finding a decent light, smart jacket to match it. Over the course of the next two hours, we experienced little success in searching for something to fit with the trousers; the three jackets that would have matched them were too small, too large and too expensive, respectively.

Finally, around twenty minutes before my cousin needed to leave, we searched around one more store. In there, we located some ideal suit tops that were in line with what I wanted and they matched the trousers well. My cousin was concerned about the price of them (they were above £50 but below £100) but I received a significant discount for the top I purchased.

I am mildly concerned that the clothing I have purchased is a little too smart for the venue of our party but as one of my friends with whom I was texting said, it's better to be decent than indecent.

Other town carnival (2)

Here are the pictures from yesterday's carnival. To be honest, I didn't stay that long; it was a small event and it was nothing I haven't seen before. I took some pictures and then walked back home.

On the way to the carnival, I noticed these houses under construction. They're in the same area as the path in the picture I posted yesterday.

This is the carnival; it was held in a churchyard rather than a recreation ground. As I said above, it was just a smaller version of something that I've seen before. I didn't think it was worth hanging around once I'd taken a few pictures. The church is on the right.

The building over to the left is the chuch again and the mansion on the right is a hospital. I am unsure as to whether or not the hospital is a part of the church grounds and if it is still a functional medical facility.

The churchyard contained an abundance of recently-cut grass, which gave the vicinity a tidy appearance and a fresh smell. Quite pleasant!

At the end of the day, my walk to the other town and back was over six miles in length; therefore, attending the carnival, even if only for a few minutes, wasn't a waste.

Rude departure

I mentioned in yesterday's post that my brother hoped to attend a carnival today. Well, despite the damp weather, he did, and the carnival had a strong turnout. The parade traversed the town as per usual and then people went into the main recreation ground for the post-parade segment of the carnival. A history-related acting performance started sometime after the park opened.

Sadly, that part of the carnival was ruined. No, it wasn't the weather that ruined it nor was it the acting performance; rather it was the reaction of those in attendance that ruined it. My brother enjoyed the performance, but said that by the time it was over, more than 60% of the attendees had left; he watched people depart the park in droves as it went on...and the performance was only half an hour long. Worse yet, the sudden mass reduction in turnout then caused the carnival to end sooner than expected.

It annoys me when people do this! Unless the actors are being paid to perform at various across across Northamptonshire, it's most likely that they were all volunteers for the carnival; the hard work they put into their rehearsals was due to their care for the community rather than for monetary gain. The least people could have done was watch the performance, even if most of them had little interest in history or live acts; leaving the vicinity and causing the carnival to close early was deeply inconsiderate to both the actors and the remaining attendees.

My brother said that he otherwise enjoyed the carnival and that he deeply appreciated the performance. The act contained an anti-war message, as today is the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which led to the start of World War I; because of this, I find it all the more despicable that people walked out.

Yesterday's fair pictures

Here are four pictures that I took yesterday at the fair:

Some people walking past a few of the rides. While these rides look empty, they had been active.

The stand on the left that says "Floss"? That was where I bought some candy. Its label says floss because cotton candy is called candy floss here. The other two stands in this picture featured games, which players could win prizes for if they won.

This ride was active for the whole time I was at the fair; it involved cars speeding around the ride's centre. I think it was a variant of the Music Express-style rides.

This is one of the last pictures I took: it's focused on a stand featuring teddies but it's also a view of the street on which the fair was held.

As I said yesterday, I wasn't present at the fair for long (around half an hour) but it was fun to attend.

Carnival 2013 (2)

Here are some pictures from yesterday's carnival. The carnival began at 2:00pm and lasted until about 6:00.

There was a parade that snaked its way through the town and this bunch of balloons was at the front. I recognise Buzz Lightyear, SpongeBob SquarePants, Hello Kitty, Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine, and Micky and Minnie Mouse in that mess.

Somebody dressed up as Tin Woodman from The Wizard of Oz. Normally I've seen this character portrayed with a smile!

This is the "Cowboys and Indians" float; at first this float bothered me because I thought it was something mocking American Indians, but I later learnt that it was supposed to represent harmony between cowboys and Indians.

I thought that this year's parade was smaller than last year's; my brother thought they were the same length but I recall more floats.

Another balloon, this time it's a unicorn with purple hair.

These are the targets for the archery stand; my brother was going to try the archery out but for some reason he changed his mind. I've only tried archery once and that was back in Patterson, California.

Two flags above the candy stand. While British flags were a common sight, I was surprised to see an American flag present. The couple running the stand didn't appear to be American, but then again, they could have lived over there as I once did!

One of the two ice cream vans present; this was the bigger of the two. My brother bought himself and me ice cream before I left; I had a double-caramel bar!

A closing shot, taken around 5:30. Most people had left by this time and the park was in the process of being cleaned up for daily use again; I left after I took this picture. I hope the carnival will return again next year.

Carnival 2013

My brother and I attended our town's annual carnival. I have taken some pictures of the occasion and will write a full post about it tomorrow. For now, here is a picture of the candies I bought at one of the stands there:

I've eaten flying saucers before but I'm looking forward to trying the marshmallows! The gummies were nice.

After Christmas Nottingham visit, 2012 (2)

My family and I travelled up to my grandparents' Nottingham yesterday morning to spend the day with relatives. The journey was awful for me, worse than it was last year: before I went to bed on Christmas Day I ate nearly an entire box of chocolate mints, so that combined with the twisty roads to Nottingham nearly made me sick. I was glad I could have my window open to allow the wind to blow through otherwise I would have vomited. It was my own fault, and should have known better than to gorge when travelling the next day.

To move on from my travel sickness, the people present for the day were my grandparents, Nottingham aunt and three of her children/my cousins (one of my older cousins, the one who currently works in China, was there); East of England aunt, uncle and cousins; my uncle currently in Hong Kong, the brother of my Nottingham uncle, and my older cousin's boyfriend. We last saw my oldest cousin at my 21st birthday party and my Hong Kong uncle this recent summer; I had never met my cousin's boyfriend before, but it was certainly a pleasure for me and my family to meet him.

The gift we brought along with us was another photo album for my grandparents. They appreciated the album we made for them for their 50th wedding anniversary; for Christmas, we created an album of pictures taken at their 50th. They loved it.

I helped my grandparents in the kitchen in preparing the meal, which consisted of turkey, roast beef and ham, with stuffing, stuffed olives and a large bowlful of salad - that last one was particularly delightful to prepare, as I asked to slice the cabbage. Based on the mostly time we had while eating I would assume that the food was highly satisfying! (I relaxed a fair amount prior to having any food, so I wasn't in any danger of being sick.)

Much of the day was spent talking and catching up. It was interesting to hear about my uncle's and cousin's lives in China; their experiences of the country differ, especially since my cousin lives on the mainland rather than Hong Kong. My brother and East of England uncle, both being the cameramen, took numerous pictures of the occasion throughout the day. In the late afternoon the family created a playlist, with each member contributing two songs; I chose Gloria Estefan's "Reach" and, much to nearly everyone else's chagrin, Cher Lloyd's "Swagger Jagger". I seem to be the only person in the family with any time for her music!

After the music, the chatting and eating continued until the get-together ended, which was around 9:00pm. I am certain that everyone had a great day and is looking forward to the next time we all meet up.

Christmas Eve 2012

Christmas Eve is not usually an exciting day for me and my family. Excluding 2010, the day is usually spent doing housework or baking. The post I wrote for Christmas Eve last year implied that we had a quiet day; on that day we actually still had cooking to do. For 2012, our Christmas foods have already been made, so that left the housework. I cleaned my brother's and my bathroom. Fun!

The day has been quiet, nonetheless. During the afternoon - and long after we'd completed tidying the house - my brother and I played a board game; it wasn't worth going for a walk instead because of today's near-constant heavy rain. I'm hopeful that at some stage I'll be able to have far more eventful Christmas Eves. My family used to attend a few Christmas Eve parties, but the last one was in 2002 (2010 wasn't a party).

I hope that you have had the Christmas Eve you desired, be it a party or a quiet time with someone. Have a great Christmas!

Carnival treats

A couple of images of the food I bought at the recent carnival:

My ice cream, a Magnum Ecuador Dark. It consists of vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate on a stick; I have had Magnum ice creams before, and they have a really good flavour. Sorry about the grass being in focus rather than the ice cream...I wanted to get a picture of the treat but had to do it quickly before it started melting!

I purchased these from the candy stand. From left to right they are: gummy worms (although they were not called that, they had some other name), flying saucers, and toffee honeycomb. The worms were merely a larger version of the bags of gummy worms that you can buy. The flying saucers were an odd type of candy, consisting of a "papery" saucer shell with a sour, sugary substance in the middle; at first it tastes as though you are biting into a piece of cardboard, but you soon get used to it and it tastes nice. The honeycomb toffee is self-explanatory: it is a crunchy, highly sweet and sticky toffee; one of my cousins introduced me to honeycomb toffee last year.

I paid about £5 for the lot, much cheaper than I was anticipating considering that food at such events is normally very expensive. My brother purchased some marshmallows and a bar of nougat, which would have amounted to about £2.50 in price.

Local carnival pictures

Some images from yesterday's carnival:

These were the main carnival grounds; during this picture the place was mostly empty, as it would not open until the parade had travelled through the middle of our town. The entry fee to the carnival was £1 per adult.

The carnival began with a parade through the town: this is the parade's pirate truck; that object hanging from the top of the central pole is a toy monkey. The two kids on the far left were fascinated by the toy sword and shield props they had for their role in the parade!

The Ancient Greece truck, likely a reference to the upcoming Olympics here in the United Kingdom.

This is the "bumblebee" truck; at least that is what I called it anyway, I do not know its actual title!

The royalty even showed up for the parade! Maybe not...in was a guy in a Prince Philip mask

A shot taken from near the middle of the festival grounds: it looks over towards some of the food stands and the bouncy castles.

A shot looking towards the western side of the grounds, where the stage was located. The award ceremony for the parade took place there.

People lining up for the candy and hot/cold food stands; I purchased some candies a little later on, as well as got an ice cream from one of the vans.

This last image was done by my brother; he remained at the carnival when I returned home, but I left him with my camera. According to him, some of the events that took place during the remaining time included some dance troupes performing, an owl display, and a raffle draw; the part he found most amusing, however, was when Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" came onto the music system, as all the young people were singing along to it while the adults looked on!

It was well worth going to the carnival, my only regret was going home as early as I did when clearly should have stayed longer. With any luck the carnival will take place again next year.

Local carnival

I spent the afternoon at my town's local carnival. I shall be posting some pictures of the event tomorrow...my brother is still at the celebration and he has my main camera so at present I cannot copy any images to my computer! I am looking forward to viewing the pictures he has taken, as well as the ones I took.

Short Stories: The Garden Dance, Part I

It was a lovely, warm spring day, and my brother Jimmy and I were arriving at a garden dance being held at Ketterland Mansion. We had been surprised during the recent winter when we received our invites in the mail, but we were certainly pleased to have been invited and were eager to attend: in every year for the past thirty-three years, the landlady of Ketterland Mansion held a dance at her home, and the event had become to be held in such by high esteem by the people of the town of Ketterland that it was an honour just to be invited.

While the dance itself was highly regarded, little was known about the woman herself: the people who had gone to the dances rarely spoke of her, other than to say how much of a wonderful person she was. Despite only a small group of people knowing what she looked like, it was common knowledge in the town that she was middle-aged but highly beautiful. However, no one knew her name, and she was referred to (and apparently even addressed as) "The Landlady".

The respect the dance earned probably came from the amount of people invited to each dance and the routine used to invite them: at the beginning of every winter, a hundred random inhabitants in Ketterland received letters from The Landlady informing them that they had been invited to her annual garden dance in the spring; the letters also told them to ensure that they would be free for the second weekend of April. Near the end of the winter, the same group of people would then receive a package containing their outfits for the occasion (we received a black suit each), plus a reminder to keep the date of the event free of any other engagements. To date, everyone who had been invited had attended.

"Well, we're here, and we are on time," I said to Jimmy while looking at my watch as we climbed the stairs to The Landlady's front door. "Do you want to knock or shall I?"

"You're the older brother," Jimmy replied.

"A 'yes' or a 'no' would have sufficed, but I'll assume that's a 'yes'." I was about to knock when I noticed a doorbell instead. "Ah!" I gasped as I pressed the button.

We waited for about a minute before the door opened and a man without a visible face ushered us in and closed the door behind him. He directed us to the backyard of the mansion then he returned to answering the front door while Jimmy and I marvelled at the sight of the massive garden in the backyard of Ketterland Mansion. The entire place looked like the sort of garden you would see in a Princess Diaries film, rather than anyone's backyard (even someone with a mansion), although it was sloped. At the very back of the garden was a view of a mountain range I had never noticed before, and in front of the mountains was a lake I never knew existed either: the garden was situated at least fifty feet above the water.

To our surprise, the garden was deserted. Besides the faceless man who answered the door we had not seen anyone since we arrived. We had a look around for twenty minutes before returning to the mansion; however, upon trying to re-enter the building, the faceless man appeared again.

"You're early," he said in a low and strangely echoed voice, and I realised at that point my watch was an hour early. "The rest of the guests won't arrive for another twenty-five minutes. Could I interest you in a hot chocolate?"

"Yes please," came our reply, and the faceless man pulled out a thermos and two cups from his jacket, poured us a hot chocolate each and put two ice cubes from the opposite end of the thermos in them.

"Cheers," he said after he passed us our cooling-down hot drinks; then he put two cubes in the thermos and drank the rest of the liquid straight from it.

The man again returned to the front door. With little else to do at that moment in time, Jimmy and I found a place to sit down, have our drinks, and wait for everyone else to arrive.

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As I wrote this, the story ended up being longer than I thought it would be. I will post part II tomorrow, and if that part concludes the story I will give all the background to The Garden Dance plus some insight into the odder parts of this piece. My brother's name in this story is fictional.