Guy Fawkes Night 2009
Guy Fawkes Day is an annual celebration on the evening of 5 November. Marking the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot on 5 November 1605 - failed assassination attempt by a group of English Catholics against King James I of England, they intended to kill the King and most of the Protestant aristocracy by blowing up the Houses of Parliament, included in this group was a man named Guy Fawkes,
Here are songs kids sing on days like today:
Guy, guy, guy Poke him in the eye, Put him on the bonfire, And there let him die
Or also:
-
- Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
- The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
- I know of* no reason
- Why the Gunpowder Treason
- Should ever be forgot.
- Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
- To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
- Three-score barrels of powder below
- To prove old England's overthrow;
- By God's providence he was catch'd (or by God's mercy*)
- With a dark lantern and burning match.
- Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring. (Holla*)
- Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
Labels: england, history
East Anglia road trip photos in reverse order
green highlighted route we took from London to Ipswich (
Friday night) up coast to Great
Yarmount, over to
Cromer, down to Norwich (
Saturday night) & then slowly back to London (
Sunday)
some of the woodland trails on the
Anglesey Abbey
Anglesey Abbey with 25 acres of woodlands
Bury St
Edmunds Abbey, Suffolk - remains of the wealthiest and most powerful Benedictine monastery in England, this tower has been "fixed up" but the rest is still really remains
Grime's Graves - only Neolithic flint mine open to visitors in Britain. This ladder is 9m (30ft) down into the mine.
Castle Acres Priory in Norfolk, one of the largest & best preserved monastic sites in England, founded around 1090
Norwich Castle
on the coast somewhere between Great
Yarmouth &
Cromer
a lighthouse we saw along the way, I had to stop & take a photo, reminded me of Grandma Yeager :)
view from the top of
Framlingham Castle
Framlingham Mere
Framlingham Castle - example of a late 12
th century castle, built by Roger
Bigod (Earl of Norfolk)
view from top of
Orford Castle
Orford Castle - unique b/c it's an 18-sided drum with 3 square turrets reinforce it's entrance. It was built between 1165 and 1173
this sign cracked us up, this is our room, but it's also the emergency exit (fire escape out our window) so in case of emergency break the red panel & turn lever to open door -
LMAO!
Labels: england, photos, road trip, travel
nearly 400 miles in 48 hours!
Yes, that's correct people, I drove nearly 400 miles between 9pm Friday & 6pm Sunday! We drove from London to Ipswich, where we spent the night Friday. Woke up early, had a typical English breakfast got back on the road & headed to Orlow Castle, followed by Framingham Castle, then drove up along the coast to Great Yarmouth, stopped to see the beaches & ocean, then continued on to Cromer, before heading south again to see castle of which I've forgotten the name of now, then into Norwich. Walking tour at dusk of Norwich (St John the Baptist cathedral, Norwich Cathedral, Norwich Castle), Indian take-away dinner in our rooms (yummers) and watched Notting Hill before falling fast asleep. Sunday up early and back on the road headed towards Thetford (I think) to see Abingsly House, then over to Grime's Graves to see the flint mine before heading to Saffron to see another place, but we were too late for it. At this point we decided to just head back and return the car, as I was getting tired from all this driving & once we drop the car off, it's still another 1.5 hours till we get back to our flats! All in all it was fabulous weekend, weather & driving wise, we didn't get lost at all, which is a first for us - I think Kaylie's map reading skills are getting better & my driving standard on the "other" side of the road & ability to navigate roundabouts is getting much better as well, which helps immensely!
Labels: england, road trip, travel
The East Midlands
Kaylie & I left Luton at 8pm on Friday bound for Nottingham. The traffic was fine, but the service station was a bit crap - we were hungry & nothing but Costa was open so we grabbed a quick sandwich & continued on our way to the Holiday Inn. Woke up early on Saturday to find it was pouring rain (as had been forecasted) and we proceeded to spend about 1 hour driving in a circle around the city centre looking for the castle, only to find out it was closed once we eventually found it. We drove up to Sherwood Forest for a photo op, as you can guess it was pouring rain, so we didn't stay to hike around.
From there we drove through the peak district and the high peaks, which looked like rolling hills to Kaylie & me . . . yet the English call them high peaks. It was pretty just not as peakish as I was expecting having lived in the Adirondacks and the High Peaks for 4 years.
We spent the night in Manchester at a place called Victoria Cottage, which was NOT a cottage & to be honest I'm not even sure I would have called it a hotel - it was situated on a main street in a small mini shopping centre just next to the Chinese/fish & chips place - yes you read that correctly, you can get fish & chips at a Chinese restaurant now a days in the UK! The room was clean & warm, but there were no signs to mark the place & when we called the man said he'd be over in 5 minutes, which he did, and he showed us our room, gave us our keys & said he was off to visit with his grandchild & we could just leave the keys in the room when we left in the morning . . . so we did. As we were getting settled before getting dinner we heard a strange noise from the window - upon closer inspection a pigeon was settling in for the night. He made a lot of noise & Kaylie named him Ralph. We attempted to take photos of him, but that was harder than one might have thought since there were 2 layers of glass & one had not been cleaned in ages. All a bit strange, but it was a warm bed for the night so we have no complaints.
Sunday it wasn't raining but there was a nice layer of ice on the windshield & no ice scrapper to be found in the hire car, so we sat & let the car warm up for a bit before starting off on our trip back towards home. Along the way we stopped off at another castle & an abbey before arriving back into London at 7pm. All in all it was a great weekend get away road trip. Photos to follow!
I can't believe it's 10 days till Christmas . . . where has the time/year gone?
Labels: england, travel
Oxford, England & dad's "prince" bed
christ church dinning hall - can you say HP's first movie?
dad & me at magdelen college - the most beautiful of all of Oxford's colleges in my opinion!
cool REALLY old pub we had lunch at
dad's "prince" bed, air mattress on top of a futon couch
Labels: bed, england, oxford, photos
Brighton "rocks" and the best bed ever
dad walking into the Pavillion in Brighton
me on the beach (can you see those are ROCKS not sand!)
newly made bed frame - thanks to my brilliant dad - thanks again Dad xxoo
bed with new lovely mattress on it :)
Labels: bed, brighton, england, photos
Rome Here I come :)
Update on the weather for the weekend in Rome & London (hee hee)
ROME, ITALY:
Saturday: SUNNY, 80°F
Sunday: SUNNY, 77°F
Monday: drizzle, 75°F
LONDON, ENGLAND:
Saturday: sun, 66°F
Sunday: light rain, 75°F
Monday: rain, 68°F
So I'm now positive we made the right decision leaving the UK for the weekend (our other choice was going up north to the lake district, but the temps up there are even cooler than London with heavier rain & wind . . . I reckon we made an excellent choice for a weekend get away!!!
Labels: england, italy, London, mini holiday, rome, weather, weekend
"Do you miss the USofA?"
Missing the states is a hard one as life here for me is very different. I've never lived in a BIG city & maybe it would be much the same if I were living in NYC.
I LOVE London!!
Miss having a car to get out of the city, but so blood expensive to own one & hire a parking spot & that's before you even put any petrol in the damn thing (£1.20/L = $7/gallon)
I enjoy being able to go to the theatre, opera (well not really as I'm not keen on it, but like the ability that if I wanted to I could), cinema, etc at the drop of a hat after work.
I love their love of football (soccer) and rugby - I've been to 3 lives matches & it's loads of fun!!
I miss my family & friends back home.
I miss the countryside.
I love the international foods here.
I love the mix of people I work with & interact with (
Spanish,
German,
English, Welsh,
Irish, Polish,
Russians, French,
Italians,
Scandinavians,
Nigerian,
Ozzie's &
NZers, South
Africans,
Turkish, and
I'm sure
I've forgotten a few nationalities).
I LOVE being paid in £s!!!
I love being able to travel to different countries for a long weekend (the way we would change states).
I miss little things like food shopping in the states (as it's slightly different here - again not a big deal just not the same).
Labels: america, differences in the UK, england, thoughts
Rome's weekend weather compared to London
ROME, ITALY:Saturday: SUNNY, 77°F
Sunday: SUNNY, 78°F LONDON, ENGLAND:Saturday: RAIN, 67°FSunday: RAIN, 70°FSorry don't mean to brag, but now I really can't wait to go!!!!!!!!!
Labels: england, italy, London, rome, weather, weekend
