Easter 2013

Mum, Dad and my brother bought a lot of chocolates for this Easter; we've benefited from a lot of cheap candy this year. This picture shows what I alone have received:

This looks like a lot, but it didn't cost that much, nor did the chocolates for everyone else. I have also bought some chocolates for the family...I'm not selfish!

As a bonus, today has been the warmest day we've had in ages. Other than clouds in the morning and and evening, it's been wonderful.

Happy Easter!

Chocolate handbag

After Mum opened the chocolate she received from Dad for Mother's Day, I took a couple more pictures:

I didn't realise until she opened it that the chocolate was handbag-shaped; it even had a zipper:

It was a tasty handbag, too; Mum shared a bit with me and Dad (my brother didn't want any). Both of these pictures were taken with my phone.

On marriage equality

I promised to write a post about my opinions on marriage equality for gays and lesbians. With last month's vote in Parliament to legalise it and all the current activity in the United States over the issue, now seems a fitting time.

I am a strong supporter of marriage; I doubt this will come as a surprise to my family, friends and followers, but in short: yes, I support marriage equality. I hold no animosity towards gays and lesbians, and have no reason to deny them something I have the right to myself. I am entitled to marry a woman I love and vice versa (with each other's consent, of course), so why should the LGBT people I know, and others who love someone of their own gender, not be allowed to marry?

I do not consider gay marriage to be a threat to my future marriage or to anyone else's, nor do I think heterosexual marriage would be devalued by it. After all, in the United Kingdom and United States, on average a heterosexual marriage has a 50% chance of succeeding, greater amounts of straight people are becoming disinterested in marriage and certain celebrities treat marriage frivolously. None of these problems are caused by gays and lesbians, and marriage equality will not exacerbate them.

I reject arguments against gay marriage such as "it will lead to bestiality and paedophilia!", "gays will force straights into marrying them!" and "people will want to marry their kitchen sink!". Marriage is between two consenting adults who (usually) understand what they're doing. The sole result from legalising gay marriage will be couples of the same gender being allowed to marry; nothing more, nothing less. Everything else is paranoia and utter nonsense.

I don't believe in opposing gay marriage based on politics, either: LGBT people can be liberals, moderates, conservatives or even apolitical — my family and I once had a gay friend and neighbor who identified as a Republican, and his partner was a Democrat! I think it's wonderful that both the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom — a Democrat and a Conservative, respectively — support equal marrying rights; never before has this happened, and ten years ago this would have been unthinkable.

It's also been stated that gays and lesbians should not be allowed to marry because marriage is only for producing children. If that were the case, then people who are old or infertile should be barred from marrying, and couples whose children have left home and can support themselves should divorce since their marriages have served their purpose. What about all those children born out of wedlock today, too? While on the subject of LGBT parenting, by extension of my support for marriage equality, I support same-sex couples being able to have and raise children; I might not know of many kids raised by gay couples, but I have yet to discover anyone who went off the rails because their parents were both of the same gender.

Nothing will be lost by granting marriage equality. I find it relieving that in this era of falling marriage rates, at least one group of people thinks marriage is worth fighting for. Who knows? Perhaps after gays and lesbians achieve the right to marry, other people might start valuing marriage again! I like to see the positives, and I think marriage equality will be a great step forward in civil rights, respect...and for marriage itself.

Tessa the dog

I was fortunate to be linked to this article and video; it's about Tessa, a dog who was once both blind and unable to walk, who was dumped at a shelter. She was about to be euthanised when a kind soul, Annie Hart, walked into her life:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/tessa-blind-dog-couldnt-walk-video_n_2951565.html

I am delighted that Tessa recovered and now has a shot at life; however, I am angered that her original owners gave up on her rather than healed her. If you have a pet, it is your responsibility to see to its health — you don't quit: you care for your pet even if it is terminally ill. In fairness, it is possible they were no longer able to take care of Tessa rather than felt the need abandon her; the article's content about them is scant.

I hope that Tessa is adopted by a loving and caring family. Kudos to Annie Hart for her hard work in treating Tessa and ensuring she lived. Enjoy the article and the video.

Brian Zimmerman

In 1983, Brian Zimmerman was elected as the mayor of Crabb, Texas, at the age of 11, setting a record for the United States' youngest mayor. He won by a hefty margin — 23 out of 30 votes — in an "unofficial" election. His campaign promise? To incorporate Crabb to avoid annexation.

While Zimmerman won in a "landslide", he fought an uphill battle to incorporate Crabb. Many inhabitants were afraid that incorporation would lead to higher taxes, but Zimmerman believed that if Crabb were annexed by another city, namely Houston, taxes would be even higher — under incorporation, Crabb would have some control over its taxes.

A referendum to incorporate Crabb was held and failed; ironically, if the measure had succeeded, Texas law would have required Zimmerman to step down, because in that state a person has to be 18 years of age or older to hold the position of mayor. Zimmerman was aware of this but it didn't concern him, as he believed Crabb's independence and its taxes were more important than his job. Despite the failure of the measure and the concerns citizens had about incorporation, Zimmerman later won another term. A 1986 made-for-TV movie, Lone Star Kid, portrayed his mayorship.

While Zimmerman did not achieve incorporation for Crabb, his work helped keep its independence and to this day it remains an unincorporated community. Sadly, Zimmerman died of a heart attack in 1996 at the age of 24; he maintains the record as the United States' youngest mayor.

Another local stream (again)

Here is another picture of the stream I blogged about last month:

It was taken a couple of weeks ago on a bright day; it doesn't really show anything more than before but I thought a sunnier image was worth posting. I also shot this:

It's a partially flooded field, with the water flowing in stream-like patterns through it. I will take another walk where the field is located but if I take any more photographs I doubt they will look as pleasant as this one does, at least not during this cloudy weather.

Both pictures were taken with my phone.

Walking with my brother

I rarely take a walk with my brother, and so when I went with him on one this afternoon I remembered why: it's extremely difficult to maintain his walking pace! His "normal" is equivalent to most other peoples' "rapid, exhausting walk", and when I ask him to slow down he complains that the speed he has to adopt is "slow". I can match his pace but can only maintain it for a short amount of time, around fifteen to twenty minutes. After that, I have to rest or at a minimum reduce our speed.

It's not as though I am unfit — far from it, given that I walk almost every day, but my brother walks more frequently that I do and his walks are of greater distance. He also has a tall, light body build which gives him a natural walking/running skill; even on a hot day, provided he has some water, he can walk for miles without suffering from too much exhaustion.

Mum and Dad are slower than I am; in the rare times my brother walks with them, he says that he walks behind as to not inadvertently pull ahead by being in front. My parents also take a walk nearly every day and have improved their fitness over the past several months.

My brother has a build suited to walking and running. Am I envious? Only in that I'd like to be able to maintain his speeds for longer periods, but I'm happy with who I am. Still, when the warmer weather becomes more frequent, I doubt I'll be walking with him more often than I do currently!

"Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" - Doris Day

While travelling up to Nottingham on Friday we had the radio active; the station played a mini-marathon of Doris Day songs, one of which was "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUVT1NZtZPo

Day's version of "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" is not the original: I learnt only this afternoon that it was Osvaldo Farrés who initially wrote and composed the song, which he did in 1947. The rendition I am most familiar with is Mari Wilson's, as hers was used as the theme for the British sitcom Coupling (which I've never seen, but have overheard on several occasions).

Regardless, I like the song no matter who the performer is. The other day was the first time I'd heard it in years.

Leicester train station

For my last C2C: Country to Country-related post: When I was at Leicester train station and had nothing to do but wait, I ensured I took one picture of the facility:

More images can be found here. It's not St Pancras or King's Cross, but it's a grand structure on its own merits. I'd like to see it during the daytime.

Leicester and snow again

In the nearly three years my family and I have been back in the United Kingdom, I had not been to Leicester until a few days ago. This morning, I ended up going there again, or at least, I went through it.

Dad, my brother and I were driving up to Nottingham when we reached near-impassable snowfall on our route. Rather than continue on a road rendered dangerous by the weather, we opted to turn around and take another way to Nottingham. This safer route took us through Leicester, where we were stuck in a traffic jam for a period, but we made it to Nottingham safely. Leicester twice in a week!

As for the weather, the snow has returned...yet again...and it's nationwide! There have been torrential downpours in parts of the country, which have led to floods, while the snow has disrupted traffic and caused numerous accidents; we observed two cars in the ditch before we turned around. We are in spring now, but to look outside, you wouldn't know it. I won't be surprised if we have to shovel the driveway tomorrow.

The O2 interior images

When I attended C2C: Country to Country, I photographed some parts of The O2's interior:

As can be seen here, the building is effectively a giant tent. This is one of the twelve towers that support the dome.

This is of an unused area of The O2. It might be used during other events, but as of this picture, it was empty; the openness of this section made it extremely cold and windy. The tent-like quality of The O2 is more present here.

After the concert

After Becca and I had left The O2 Arena and proceeded to our respective trains, I caught my ride back home with several minutes to spare. At 23:00, it was the last train for the night; my only concern during the day had been the possibility of missing that train, but I hadn't let it become a distraction while in London. Once I was on board and was sat in a mostly empty coach, I patiently waited for the hour-and-a-half long ride to end, with the only pressing issue being to let Dad and my brother know when I was about to arrive at my stop.

What ultimately happened was not a problem I had envisioned.

When the announcement for my stop came, I made my way to the door. To my surprise, the door didn't open for me, and to my subsequent horror less than ten seconds later, the train started moving again. I noticed too late a small "open" button situated next to the door; I hadn't any need to press such a button in the past, because on the other trains I'd travelled in fellow passengers had already opened the doors before me. On this occasion, I was the only one who needed to exit the train at my stop.

I rapidly filled with dread, partially because I was wondering if there would be any penalties for going beyond the parameters of my train ticket (none, other than having to sort out my predicament), but also because of how I thought my brother and father were going to react, as they were waiting at the station to pick me up. Dad also had to travel in the morning and wanted to go back to bed.

My texts are usually typographically and grammatically correct, but the texts I sent to both of them and to Becca when I informed them all of my situation were littered with errors. Becca offered to research train times while Dad and my brother wanted me to get off at the next stop, which was already my plan; the City of Leicester was the next stop, and if I went beyond that I would have had to have contacted family in Nottingham to collect me.

I wandered around Leicester railway station for a couple of minutes before I went to the front of the building to wait for my brother and Dad. My wait lasted for around a quarter of an hour; when I got into the car, I was surprised to find them both in a good mood, as I expected a lecture! I later found out that they were initially angry but calmed down en route to Leicester. It took us around half an hour to return home.

That was my first visit to Leicester, which I didn't expect to take place at nearly 1:00am because I missed my stop on a train! I certainly won't make that mistake again the next time I use train travel.

C2C: Country to Country at The O2 Arena

I travelled to London on the 17th to attend the second day of C2C: Country to Country, the United Kingdom's first multi-day country music festival. I met up with my friend Becca around midday and we travelled to The O2 Arena, which is located in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

When we entered the O2 we were greeted with this huge banner hanging over the festival. Tim McGraw played the night before, and would have been good to see in his own right, but Becca and I were more familiar with the acts on the second day. McGraw and Carrie Underwood headlined their respective days.

Beyond the entrance was the Town Square, which was devoted to "capturing the spirit of Nashville". The area had an abundance of merchandise stands, booths serving Southern United States-style cuisine, stands with country-themed clothing and restaurants; there was also a whisky bar, a small stage for the Pop Up Stages and even a cinema. The amount of food available made it impossible to not eat, and all the clothing stands ensured that someone into cowboy fashion wouldn't have to look hard for it (although paying for it was a different matter, as one hat cost 55 euros, which is around £47 or $71!).

This is Jill Johnson, one of the acts in the Pop Up Stages. She is a country singer from, of all places, Sweden. Johnson was the only one of the Pop Up acts we spent a significant amount of time listening to; I enjoyed both Johnson's music and her humour, the latter of which appeared whenever the sound systems temporarily went out or she had something to say about one of her songs! I'll have a look at more of her work, because she gave a fine performance.

I photographed the line-up after Johnson had finished her set. The Pop Up Acts had their own timetable, located on another poster.

Now for the O2's auditorium: This is the primary screen. It displayed each of the first three performers' logos while they were on stage and between acts it showed C2C's logo; it had multiple displays for the final performer.

Brantley Gilbert was the first and shortest act, as well as the person we were both the least familiar with. His music, as he described on stage, was country rock, which uses heavier guitars than traditional country. I had never heard country music like Gilbert's before, but as he said, it's a diverse genre.

All four of the acts were from the South, but Gilbert had the strongest accent among them, which he acknowledged when he joked about the audience not understanding his "redneck accent".

LeAnn Rimes was the artist I was most excited to see. Granted, I love Underwood's music and I was curious about the work of the other two performers, but I have known about Rimes longer than any of the others (since I was seven or eight) and never expected to attend a concert with her giving a performance. It was a delight to hear her sing live; I particularly enjoyed "Can't Fight the Moonlight", "How Do I Live" and "Spitfire". Rimes concluded her set with a rendition of "Amazing Grace".

Rimes may have been the artist I was looking forward to the most, but I had high expectations for Darius Rucker and wasn't disappointed. I wasn't overly familiar with Rucker, but the songs of his I had heard were pleasant and Becca has been a fan of him for quite some time. I was impressed with his live versions of his songs "Alright" and "Wagon Wheel", among others. I also liked it near the end of his set when he photographed the audience and tweeted it on the spot! He finished with a cover of "Purple Rain".

This is a picture of the crowd taken between Rucker's and Underwood's performances. As you can see, the arena had a high turnout. The atmosphere was vibrant...it pleases me that country music is popular here in the United Kingdom.

The demographics of the crowd were as diverse as they were at the Royal Albert Hall. People of various races, ages and nationalities were present at C2C; there was also a substantial amount of Americans in the audience.

Carrie Underwood came out onto the stage at around 8:50. Her performance began with the primary screen displaying a mini-movie resembling scenes from her "Blown Away" music video. The movie lasted for a couple of minutes, preventing it from occupying too much of her allotted time on stage.

I loved Underwood's performances of "Cowboy Casanova" and "Two Black Cadillacs"; both are among my favourite songs of hers. Here's Underwood on the right-hand side screen.

Here is Underwood on stage. The primary screen showed different images and movies for each of her songs, not just a pattern as shown in this picture. For two examples, during "Two Black Cadillacs" the screen showed a montage of a black Cadillac which had "2BLKCAD" on its plates, whereas for "Jesus, Take the Wheel" it had a painting of a church which brightened as the song progressed. I did not consider the screen to be a distraction from Underwood herself.

Unfortunately, Becca and I did not see all of Underwood's performance. We had to leave slightly early for me to catch my train in time; we only missed four songs, including "Before He Cheats" and "Blown Away". Other than that, we thoroughly enjoyed the concert and hope it becomes an annual event for the United Kingdom. There is an appetite for country music here, as we have discovered from the two country concerts we have attended so far.

After the concert, I caught my train home in time, but the events proceeding my departure from London are better suited in a separate post, which I'll cover tomorrow!

Sorting and writing it

While I have been working on the piece, I still have dozens of images left to sort out and much content to write for a substantial post about my attendance at C2C: Country to Country. I've been busy with that and other things, and as the post is not yet done, for now I'll just say that last night's concert was spectacular.

Here's a picture of The O2 Arena itself. More to come tomorrow!

C2C: Country to Country

I have a train to catch shortly because I'll be travelling to London to attend day two of C2C: Country to Country at the The O2 Arena. The concert is a country music festival, where I will be seeing Brantley Gilbert, LeAnn Rimes, Darius Rucker and Carrie Underwood all perform. I saw Underwood last year at the Royal Albert Hall but it'll be fun to see her again!

I shall endeavour to take pictures and will share a few of them here soon!