Wot I did in Kent
I really have been remiss in updating. I even missed my SS deadline. :-( I've been working on my Middlemarch essay, looking at my god-daughter's Pratchett essay, starting the Fantasy course and reading frantically for that. William Morris's style is easier to read than Stephen Donaldson's. Who would ever have guessed?
Last weekend was a Bank Holiday. Therefore wet. Yes, we now officially have the wettest drought in recorded history. (Shock update - we no longer have a drought in the Midlands. They do still have a drought in Kent.) Dave an I went to Kent to visit our friends of very long-standing, muttley_mutter and katexxxxxx. (I'd say "old friends, but people with recent birthdays might take offence...)
With them already were D&J, also members of the extended family we call the Durham Mafia. There was a reason for this - J has done folk dancing for many years, and D has been known to play for her group. (Officially a dancing team is known as a "side".) May Bank Holiday Weekend is the time Rochester in Kent is entirely assimilated by the Sweeps Festival. This is like Morris dancing with attitude. The facepaint is supposedly something to do with not letting the boss know you were skiving off, or possibly pretending to be a chimney sweep for luck. Theories abound.
We parked across the river (the Medway - it's Kent.) from Rochester, thus getting a view of the mix of castle and funfair, working river and old barge which now works as a tea-room.
This is the "standard" Norman square keep on which most of the sketches in school text-books are based, BTW.
There's a nice old cathedral more or less next door.
(Old means at least eight hundred years, BTW)
Wherever we turned there were people with painted faces doing odd things with sticks.
Sadly, I just missed the moment when the policeman was waving the stick.
Later, we saw a group of policepersons; only a couple more and they could have formed a side themselves. They were brightly-enough garbed, but the lack of face-paint might have been an issue.
We quite liked the Big Bird.
There were other attractions:
I wonder if the copyright holders will hunt them down too? Note that they only claim to be England's largest second-hand bookshop. Nothing can quite compete with Hay on Wye.
I rather liked the long-suffering expressions here. They are going to enjoy this if it kills them.
Later we bought sausage-inna-bun, but not from CMOT Dibbler.
Rochester, it seems, was the last place in England James II, as silly as most of his family, stayed before skipping the country.
Later we had sinful cream teas, with scones and buttery-yellow clotted cream, in the aforementioned boat. It was yummy.
The rest of the weekend involved a lot of lolling about, just possibly a fair bit of drinking and a lot of catching up. Rain or not, it was a good time had by all.
ETA: Inspired by curiouswombat, I looked on YouTube - here's a link to the Sweeps of a few years back.
Last weekend was a Bank Holiday. Therefore wet. Yes, we now officially have the wettest drought in recorded history. (Shock update - we no longer have a drought in the Midlands. They do still have a drought in Kent.) Dave an I went to Kent to visit our friends of very long-standing, muttley_mutter and katexxxxxx. (I'd say "old friends, but people with recent birthdays might take offence...)
With them already were D&J, also members of the extended family we call the Durham Mafia. There was a reason for this - J has done folk dancing for many years, and D has been known to play for her group. (Officially a dancing team is known as a "side".) May Bank Holiday Weekend is the time Rochester in Kent is entirely assimilated by the Sweeps Festival. This is like Morris dancing with attitude. The facepaint is supposedly something to do with not letting the boss know you were skiving off, or possibly pretending to be a chimney sweep for luck. Theories abound.
We parked across the river (the Medway - it's Kent.) from Rochester, thus getting a view of the mix of castle and funfair, working river and old barge which now works as a tea-room.
This is the "standard" Norman square keep on which most of the sketches in school text-books are based, BTW.
There's a nice old cathedral more or less next door.
(Old means at least eight hundred years, BTW)
Wherever we turned there were people with painted faces doing odd things with sticks.
Sadly, I just missed the moment when the policeman was waving the stick.
Later, we saw a group of policepersons; only a couple more and they could have formed a side themselves. They were brightly-enough garbed, but the lack of face-paint might have been an issue.
We quite liked the Big Bird.
There were other attractions:
I wonder if the copyright holders will hunt them down too? Note that they only claim to be England's largest second-hand bookshop. Nothing can quite compete with Hay on Wye.
I rather liked the long-suffering expressions here. They are going to enjoy this if it kills them.
Later we bought sausage-inna-bun, but not from CMOT Dibbler.
Rochester, it seems, was the last place in England James II, as silly as most of his family, stayed before skipping the country.
Later we had sinful cream teas, with scones and buttery-yellow clotted cream, in the aforementioned boat. It was yummy.
The rest of the weekend involved a lot of lolling about, just possibly a fair bit of drinking and a lot of catching up. Rain or not, it was a good time had by all.
ETA: Inspired by curiouswombat, I looked on YouTube - here's a link to the Sweeps of a few years back.