In my defence, it's been an extremely busy "weekend": Jo cooked up a huge turkey dinner for Thanksgiving proper and Faye helped out with the veg (only minor help from yours truly), and I tried to finish up reading for my Thursday lecture. Had eight people over for dinner, and a good time (and lots of food) was had by all. Only downside was no Detroit Lions on TV. Oh well. Turkey dinner and pie! mmm...
Had my Derrida lecture Friday noontime, came home, got packed and headed out with Jo and Lisa for the Yorkshire Dales. Jo's friend Janette was celebrating her birthday at the Layhead Farm Cottages near Settle, settled (ahem) peacefully between Wigglesworth and Giggleswick. Hahaha!No, seriously.
The cottage we stayed at was fantastic, huge and homey, with two big dining rooms and a wood stove in one of the living rooms, about eight bedrooms and four baths,
a big upstairs and a bigger downstairs, an inside and an outside, and - oh. Never mind. About ten people in all; with some leaving and some arriving the next day. Cooking and eating commenced not long after arrival, followed by games and stories and talking. Some crashed out "early", and some crashed out "early". Those who crashed out "early" felt much better when they got up for breakfast around 11 the next morning. The others had fizzy-pop for starters.
The Yorkshire Dales are apparently "famous" because they were the original location for Calendar Girls, a 2003 film where Helen 'Queen Elizabeth' Mirren decides to go buff for charity. There's a walking tour you can take to see all the 'sights' and locations used in the film. We decided to skip it. The DVD was included with the room, so you could see some of "the beautiful Yorkshire countryside", but that was skipped as well. It must have been filmed in the summer, 'cause there's no way I'd get my bits out in Yorkshire during the winter.
Headed out for a hike through the Dales in the early afternoon, got about a mile out, and realised we had no idea where we were. Still, it was absolutely beautiful landscape. Roger, Janette's boyfriend, managed to locate our approximate position - just north of/above the bottom of the map, and about 4 inches/2 miles from where we though we were. Found our way home, changed out of soaked socks, and headed into Settle (also between Wigglesworth and Giggleswick, cough) for tea. Found a quaint little tea shop, the idyll of proper English-ness, called "Ye Olde Naked Man Cafe". Yup.
On the way to the tea shop, Jo turned around and said, "Do you know who that man just there was?" Naked or not, I didn't. "I think it was Alan Bennett!" And it was. Clothed. Award-winning actor, author, and playwright. In a charity shop. In Settle.Go fig.
Returned early as I'd previously purchased tickets to see a little group called The Weakerthans, who hail from a little place called Winnipeg. Which they allegedly hate.Bang-up show; they played all the great songs, played 'em fast, and played 'em loud. It was great. The crowd pretty well filled the venue and sang along to all the songs. I sang along too. Jo told me to be quiet. I think the band had almost as good a time as the crowd did. Towards the end of the aforementioned "One Great City!", as lead singer John K. Samson finished with "I... Hate...", there were disembodied cries of "Croatia!"
Best things screamed from the crowd:- "I hate Croatia."
- "I hate England."
- "I hate footy."
- "I just like to shout."
And Samson's:
- "I'm sorry, I have absolutely no idea what you just said."
Samson started another song with, "This is a song about curling. Which of course, was invented by your neighbors to the north", which was greeted by groans. "Where did you go? I seem to have lost the crowd again."But anyway, good show. Good weekend in general. Found out I don't have a lecture tomorrow, which means I can go into town and buy socks instead. Yay! Maybe do a bit of Christmas shopping as well. And then there's the library books to return, the books to read, and the assessed essays to start. Should be fun...
rock'n'roll.
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