Remembrance Day at Trafalgar Square

On the eleventh hour
Of the eleventh day
Of the eleventh month
The guns fell silent

This past 11 November was the 90th anniversary of the Armistice of WWI.

I spent my day that day travelling once again to London for the Two Minute Silence at Trafalgar Square. After the event, Katie and I paid a visit to the Imperial War Museum to see the newly opened WWI exhibition, In Memoriam.

Again, I'll just lift this update from my journal because there's little reason to change what I've said when I've already laid it out there.

Today was a beautifully sunny day in London. That alone is worth noting.




John Hurt reciting this remembrance poetry:

      Do Not Weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!

      --Mary Frye

This reading was followed by a public watching of the three remaining WWI veterans place wreaths at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in England. Whilst the veterans looked on and reflected during the Two Minute Silence, the crowd in the Square was silent, too, watching one of the veterans refuse to let his helping servicemen lay his wreath as he felt it was important to try to do it himself. They followed this with The Last Post, the British and Commonwealth version of Taps, poignant and painful. They finished this all off with Amazing Grace sung by the Welsh Boys' Choir and placing paper poppies and dedicated poppy wreaths into the fountains at Trafalgar Square.







British Legionnaires in charge of The Poppy Appeal.


It was an amazing experience, even with the technical difficulties of the event, the religious-soaked messages of hope (rather than emphasizing non-biased views), and the very little sleep we got. It was truly memorable. I'm glad I went.



Unfortunately the Imperial War Museum's being cleaned/worked on so the façade is covered. Pity because it's absolutely beautiful. But still, look at those cannons!


The entrance is really spectacular. The floor is crowded with machinery from WWI and WWII: tanks, subs, buses, armoured cars, and planes above.


Independent from the museum, these patrons were kind enough to let me quickly photograph them. Nerdy historical costuming is the best kind.

Another great experience. It was really beautiful. I'll carry it with me for sure.

Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night

Ah, Guy Fawkes Day.

Considering that this English holiday celebrates the 1605 plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament in protest to the Catholic king, I'm not surprised by any of what I saw, in retrospect. Rather than try to explain it all again, though, I'll just paste in my journal entry from the night and tack on a handful of videos from the night.

Turn your speakers up as loud as they'll go and you'll maybe experience half of the ridiculous amount and level of noise present in the streets that night. It was absolutely deafening. Crazy.

OGGIE OGGIE OGGIE!

OY! OY! OY!

“Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder, treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.”

Coolest English experience I've had to date. Surplus of videos to come. Here's my explanation of the night that I has with Megs over AIM.

how was Guy Fawkes celebrating?!

Fun!
COMPLETELY MENTAL.
The whole sky's rumbling right now still.
It's their fireworks night.
And literally bonfire.
HUGE BONFIRES.
They burn effigies of people.
And denounce Catholics.
And shout things like BURN THE POPE!
And BURN IT! BURN IT ALL!
It's really amusing.
And... confusing.
I don't think I'll ever get it more than I do now.
They have groups that go in costume...
All different Bonfire Societies, usually with a theme.
There are the Mongols, and pirates. Brass bands, a Trojan horse, Moorish dancers, Jedis with lightsabres. People in blackface, and people in blackface as African tribes, and people in Catholic pope/priest/holy wear, and Native Americans they a-a-a-a-a at, and WWII uniforms.
It's like the least Politically Correct event of all time.
They burn giant crosses, and big effigies of Guy Fawkes, as well as whomever they're malcontent with including Gordon Brown this year and the meter maids, George Bush the last.
OH. The most bizarre costume, in my opinion: UNION SOLDIERS from the American Civil War.
It was... yeah... I don't even know.
Really fun.
CRAZY FUN.
Barbarian fun!

Hallowe'en with Neil Gaiman

Naturally, I should pick up from where I left the catch-up process before I left in all senses -- London.

The first time I set foot in London this trip that didn't include an airplane hanger was on Hallowe'en, a holiday the British don't find worth much celebration. This whole idea was a bit of a shock to me as I've always loved Hallowe'en the best of the holidays for multiple reasons: my birthday's near it enough to warrant costume parties each year, it's a holiday that celebrates getting free sackfuls of candy from strangers, and it's a bit macabre. You can imagine my delight, then, when I found out that I was going to be able to celebrate my Hallowe'en in one of the world's best-known cities attending a reading by one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman.

A couple friends of mine, Katie and Lisa, rented a room in a hotel that night and got all dressed up to see Neil Gaiman at the UK release of his newest book, The Graveyard Book. Both Katie and I dressed up as 'characters' from his stories -- she was Coraline from the book of the same title that is currently being made into a film, and I was a babycake.



We got decent seats in the balcony in an event that sat 600 and we tucked in for a fantastic narration of Chapter 5: Danse Macabre, followed by a signing. It was an exciting moment for me for a few reasons: I got to meet the Neil Gaiman, I got my roommate's favourite Gaiman book signed (for whom I have to thank for getting me into Mr. Gaiman in the first place), and Neil ate one of the cookies I baked for him (a GF spicy chai cookie). And about my costume he said, "That… is… perfectly disturbing. I love it." It was nerd-heaven.





The night ended well enough and when we woke up the next day we ran around doing more nerdy things, seeing some sights we were looking forward to viewing in London. Admittedly, it wasn't the mainstream tourist stuff -- all three of us had been to London before and hit all the notable landmarks on walking tours. We became fast friends with the Underground system and were on our way to seeing the sights of the city.



Of course we went to Platform 9 3/4 -- what kind of proper nerds did you think we were?



We also went to the British Library, the British Museum, and Kensington Gardens, of course. It was pouring, though, and it was hard to enjoy it completely. Plus, how could it ever live up to the night before? Haha.

Soaked through, we made our way home and recovered for a couple days before decided it had been far too long since we had had frozen yoghurt. Katie and I grabbed Janine and dragged her along with us for a nice day out.





All of this was just a bit before the next holiday celebration, though -- Guy Fawkes Day!

Starting to play catch-up

Hmmm, an update, finally!

I haven't been up to much in the past month -- and at the same time, I have. I didn't really get to doing anything, though, until Hallowe'en weekend, but then I've pretty much been busy every weekend after, or thereabouts.

Right before it all, though, was an exciting epicurean adventure: sushi on a conveyer belt. I hope you'll forgive me for being a bit… tipsy… but the sake was strong that night, and warm, and it was cold outside, plus I had just finished a presentation. It was my 30-somethingthed hour awake and it was a night of relaxation.


You see, school had been consuming me up until Hallowe'en weekend, I even made a photostrip documenting it, kind of, at a friend's request. She asked what I was doing and I replied, 'consuming literature.' I decided to be literal.



It's been more of that, really, lately. Lots of schoolwork, mainly just loads of reading, with final papers looming in the horizon. I'm in my last three weeks, though, so I'm trying to push to get it all done and fit in a small trip before the end.

We did manage to visit a proper teahouse, though, the other day, and make a feast of the scones, clotted cream, jam, and tea. It was amazingly delicious. And I felt so British! Pinkies out for fancy tea time!





We were then able to follow it all up with some photography expeditions around Brighton, capturing bits of the city we've lived in for the past 2 months. I hope to do more of that before the end. I want to be able to reconstruct the city a bit for when I get home and show everyone all my photos.

I'm hoping that popping in here will motivate me to play catch up so I can share what I've been up to, including going to a book signing in London and doing the tourist thing there, experiencing Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night, observing Remembrance Day, and spending time with friends. I'll be commuting back and forth to London from Brighton all weekend with my German friends who are flying in, but after that, no excuses!