The English are so weird
I have posted about flower festivals before, where the members of a parish church fill the church with flower arrangements. Different people do different arrangements all around a single theme.
This sounds lovely, if you’ve never seen it. In practice, specific arrangements often include brain hurty items like plastic dinosaurs, old shoes or decapitated Barbie dolls.
I have no idea how this got started or what the point is, other than to spruce the place up and draw visitors. There’s usually a program (thank god for the program, or half the arrangements wouldn’t make any sense at all) and someone playing the organ and they sell you a cup of tea and a piece of cake. It is both civilized and grotesque.
We went to one this weekend that took it a step further and eliminated the flowers. The whole inside of the church was covered in…hats. Just hats. With labels.
Ladies’ hats, military helmets, Boy Scout berets, chainmail coifs, this here sombrero (there were two, actually).
I described this to a group of my neighbors and they were like, “oh, well yeah. That’s a little weird.” Then I told them that this same church last year featured wedding dresses of the parishioner and they were all, like, “oh, hey, our church did that!”
My life is a Monty Python sketch.
August 4, 2015 — 9:36 pm
Comments: 6
I want one!
So we went into London to visit the British Museum on Friday. Friday is their late opening day; you can wander the galleries until 8:30. We hadn’t been in so long, this was our first chance to see the new atrium — a big ol’ glassed in Great Court that opened in 2000 (wow, has it really been that long?).
Uncle B is particularly fond of the Assyrian and Egyptian parts. The BM’s collection is outstanding and many of the exhibits are like old friends. Also, his awesome new camera. Me, I tend to head to the Viking and Anglo Saxon section, because racism.
We declined their special exhibit on the Ming Dynasty (£16.50). But I would’ve liked to have spent some time in the Far Eastern galleries. They’ve got a very good print of Under the Wave I’d like to see in person. Truth is, late hours or not, we just ran out of steam.
Do you ever get Museum Brain?
Oh, the sinister object in the picture was one of the best things I don’t remember seeing before. It’s big and iron and surely must be very heavy. The label on it says:
This iron rod from a woman’s grave in Norway may have been used in pagan magical practices. It resembles similar rods found in burials of women who may have been sorceresses (völur in Old Norse). The rituals involving such staffs are mysterious, but they may have included divination and the control of others. This staff was deliberately bent before burial, an act perhaps thought to remove its power.
Cooool.
September 29, 2014 — 7:31 pm
Comments: 13
Weasels in the mist
It was sunny and fine today, so after work we grabbed some sammiches and headed to the beach. Sea fret!
Uncle B took this shot (“weasel contemplates tiddler”) before the fog enveloped me completely. The tide was way, way out. By the time I reached the waves, all I could see was a soft, weak disc of sun and the waves around my ankles. It was so totally cool.
So, the Scots voted No. In some ways, the fun starts now. Cameron promised them a bunch of stuff if they stayed. He may not be able to keep those promises.
But more interesting still, the English are starting to clamor for more self-rule. See, there is no separate parliament for England. So the English don’t have a vote on, say, education in Scotland, but the Scots have a vote on education in England. Mess with the English sense of fair play at your peril.
BTW, I’m all for devolution. I’m for concentrating power as far as practicable toward the bottom of the hierarchy, where local knowledge and accountability reside. The silliness of the Scots position is that they wanted to break away from the UK and join the EU.
Have a good weekend, y’all. Oh, and it’s Talk Like a Pirate Day, if you’re so inclined.
September 19, 2014 — 8:59 pm
Comments: 21
Ducks ate my Doritos
I suppose ducks’ll eat anything, but they seemed madly keen on Doritos.
We’re having a proper Indian Summer here, so we snuck out to Bodiam castle this afternoon to take advantage. We picked a nice spot on a bench with a view of the castle, unpacked our picnic lunch and the grounds crew parked a truck between us and the castle and began weed-whacking the bank. It’s been that kind of a day, really.
Still, I got to feed Doritos to a bunch of ducks, so not a total loss.
*picture courtesy Uncle B’s fancy new camera.
September 16, 2014 — 9:40 pm
Comments: 19
Wherein Weasel shows her ass to the internet
Phew. Sorry for lameness this week. I’ve alternated between screaming busy and lying on the beach like a clubbed baby seal.
One more ordeal — we have to go to London for the day tomorrow — and then I plan to revert to the useless sack of wastrel mustelid you all know and love.
Oh, the Scottish thing? Absolutely neck and neck. The latest polling has it 48/48 among Scots. But the voting is not just among Scots, it’s any EU citizen living in Scotland, and the outsiders are slightly inclined toward No. It’s a bit nerve wracking.
A Yes vote could have some ugly short-term financial consequences for us. It could have better medium- and long-term consequences for us, as the rest of Britain moves a big step to the right by process of elimination.
You should hear some of the hare-brained socialist booshwa they’re coming up with up there, should the Yes campaign prevail. They think they’re going to float a lefty utopia on whisky and North Sea Oil.
They only joined the Union in the first place because Scotland went bankrupt. The nobles lost their kilts in South American investments in the late 16th C and graciously accepted an English bailout. In other words, they’ll be back. Plus ça change.
Good weekend, all!
September 12, 2014 — 11:00 pm
Comments: 20
Annie? That you?
Just got in from Part 1 of a first aid course. It’s a work requirement — or, really, a work ‘strong suggestion’ — but I don’t mind. I’ve always felt uncomfortable that I’ve never taken a proper course including CPR. I’ve read that CPR is nearly always doomed and pointless, but I’d still feel bad if somebody croaked in front of me and I hadn’t done jack.
Not a bad course, but it’s late and I’m tired and I still have stuff to do, so allow me link you back to this post I wrote some years ago. I saw our classroom had a case marked SOMETHING-SOMETHING-ANNIE, so I bet next time I’ll finally have my chance to play smoochies with l’Inconnue de la Seine.
Go read the post and it’ll make sense. Also, you’re looking kind of pale — you feel alright?
September 10, 2014 — 9:03 pm
Comments: 8
Dat lens flare
‘Nother beach day, while the weather holds. Beaches along our coast are mostly shingle, but that’s not nearly as uncomfortable as you might think. You can wriggle a bit and make quite a nice, comfy weasel nest. For your butt.
I’m soooo not ready to dive back into the week yet, so let’s talk about the weather. How’s yours? I thought we’d had it a couple of weeks ago when it turned damp and cold, but we’ve since had a bit of Indian Summer.
September 8, 2014 — 9:21 pm
Comments: 30
Field trip!
Played hooky today. I was supposed to go to a meeting this afternoon, but I made excuses and we sat on the beach and drank beer. Well, I drank beer — Uncle B doesn’t touch the stuff. He took pictures.
We watched this pair come in to shore. That’s a barge laden with boulders being pulled (and, at times, pushed) by a tug. The tide was coming in and they brought the barge *right* up to the beach. Then a great big front-end loader on the deck of the ship took the boulders one by one and splooshed them into the sea, where another front-end loader on the shingle picked them up and arranged them in a sort of wall.
Boulders from France, I guess. They’re building a sea defense. They’re perpetually building a sea defenses here. This part of the shore is constantly moving and eroding and they go to sometimes weirdly heroic lengths to preserve the coastline as it is.
In other places, they are weirdly indifferent about seas and flooding that encroach quite near to houses.
I get the impression from things overheard that there are two warring camps here: sane and competent engineers versus hippies. The environment attracts both kinds. And the hippies, having come up through the academy, are often in the decision-making managerial positions. Which is usually to let nature take back land our ancestors sweated blood to reclaim from the sea.
It’s kind of like the banjo forums: divided between conservative worshippers of the Church of Earl and lefty nutbags from the Church of Pete.
September 3, 2014 — 8:59 pm
Comments: 19
Ermegherd! I wernt wern!
Have you seen this thing?? It’s hooked up to a jetski on the other end and it swooshes around in the water like…oh, just go watch the video Uncle B took.
‘Twas the Rye Maritime Festival on Sunday. It’s usually one of the lesser local festivals, but the band was above average this year. So was the food. And then there was this thing.
For £90 I can have two hours of training on this. But I’d probably crush my skull against something. I figure I could crush my skull against water vapor, no prob. I’m talented like that.
September 1, 2014 — 9:24 pm
Comments: 14
A special message from Her Maj
Or Her Maj’s autopen, anyhoo. Another weekend, another flower festival. Actually, the last we’ll have for the year.
This is a holiday weekend, so there was one final one scheduled for today, but it rained like a bastiche and we didn’t go anywhere. I played Mass Effect and saved the universe. Also, Doritos and Coca-Cola.
As I am technically still on holiday, I bid you adieu. No, nobody had Richard Attenborough.
August 25, 2014 — 10:44 pm
Comments: 6