Oh Come All Ye Faithful

England Day 3:

Wow, it's only been three days since I landed. I have packed a lot in since I got here, and this being the Holiest of Nights I'm feeling subdued. Although this morning was a a riot as I was treated to my first English Pantomime (or Panto). The primary character is always a man playing a woman and the main male character is always played by a women. It's camp to the extreme and is really for the kids, but the Cambridge production I saw this morning was great as many TV and stage stars in the country fan out to
regional theatres to be in them so the quality of the cast is great.

I have had a more religious Christmas Eve than I can remember for years. We walked by King's College Chapel this morning where every year today the choir is broadcast across the country on the BBC radio. By the way, take a look at the broadcast truck, the Beeb does not screw around when it comes to this. My other religious experiece today was that I just got back from a Midnight service at The Church of St. Paul and St. Peter. It's the first Anglican service I have ever been to, and it was a bit of a comunnion with my Dad who was a protestant. I am a really lapsed Catholic who would have about a four hour confession if I ever went back but my religious curiosity and reverence has been slowly creeping back into my life this year. I guess it could be stemming from a lot of personal strokes of fate and happenstance that can't be explained and have required much more faith in a 'divine plan' of our lives. This Church is another REALLY, REALLY old place. Actually it maybe the oldest place I have ever been in as the Register of Preists and pastors dates back to the MIDDLE AGES> Ya this church has not just seen Vatican 1 or 2, but Crusades, the reformation, the renaissance-everything before and after the Peace of Westphalia. To put it in another way, it has been home to the prayers of those who lived before the development of modern state, the end of the Holy Roman Empire. It was once Catholic!!! If there are places in the world where you can truly be closer to God, however you choose to believe, this is one of them.

Happy Christmas,

L.

Our not so Local

England Day 2:

After being here for a little more than 48hours 2 things have set in: Jet lag and the fact that this country is fucking OLD! This evening before dinner I started to miss those 5 hours I lost and went for a little trip to la la land on the toilet. After dinner at an Italian joint, (ya I get the irony, but the Romans were kinda here first really) Alec and I went for a stroll around Cambridge and it started to settle in that yes I was in Cambridge. You know when you visit a place and you get the history speech about it's origins from the local history wonk? It starts with some dude who got sick of walking, found a nice river and set up shop. Well here, no one really knows for sure, but what happened since has been pretty amazing. We walked around the university campus which is spread out around the town with about 30plus different colleges. The 2 famous ones, Kings and Queens college, well, are stupidly famous. Royals have gone to school here .But the big 'what the fuck' moment was when we stopped for a pee at a little place called The Eagle. As I was waiting for Alec they had the pictures of who has been there. So you know this is usually another one of those stories were ya some quasi-famous dude or some c-list actor or some local who made it on Star Search used to get pissed here. But as I'm reading the names I stopped at a picture of SIR ISAAC NEWTON!! Oh ya, he went here, and discovered, well gravity and stuff. So did Sir Edmund Halley, and as of late Stephen Hawking has been hanging about talking about a Unified Theory and black holes or something.

I found myself near the end of the night in two places of true surrealism. First in the courtyard of Queens college that was built during the time of Shakespeare, where The Bard himself once stood. Walking on floors and in hallways that have had people walking on them since the era of Elizabeth and the vast human history since is absolutely mind blowing. A connection through time which as you touch the stone walls you can feel.

We rounded out the night at a soon to be sued pub-The Free Press. How dare they!! Have they not heard!? The gall, the cheek, the audacity! WE OWN THE FREE PRESS NAME. Not these Johnny come lately Brits! And to top it off there is NO MUSIC. Penalty shot. Board games and warm beer. Unexceptable!

Well the adventure in stiff upper lipness continues tomorrow. Remind me to tell you if I see you about the story of Newton, Halley, a wheel barrow and a ditch.

Cheers,

L.

Mince Pies and Sherry

England Day 1:


On! On!

Petrol!

Crikey!

What happens when you go for a run and after four miles you stop for some homemade mince pies and sherry?-You find yourself in England.

I am on a pilgrimage this week to my home and well, native land. My brothers and sisters call this country home, and so do my aunts and uncles, and all their kids, so I'm going to be seeing A LOT of family!

I'm right now in a little town called Dry Drayton just outside of Cambridge and loving it. It's 12 degrees centigrade and they have palm trees-compared to The Day After Tomorrow land that is Canada right now. Alec and I (see picture) went for a casual run around Cambridge this eve with his Hash Harrier running club-let's say if you don't know what this is, think about a run in gym class on drugs, followed by a lot of drinking. You go everywhere and nowhere, you yell at people and then take the piss out of your fellow runners afterwords-perfect.

The English countryside is really like nothing else. You are surrounded by 2 wonders. The 1st -The natural and physical legacy of ancient buildings and land formations held over form the middle ages, and the social and political history that is so ever -present. As you fly into Europe, if you're on a plane that has a seat-back LCD display you probably have seen the GPS read-out of the plane's positions as you approach. You are really in a the cradle of Western civilization when in the space of the nail on your index finger in relative terms on this map you can fly to Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt, Berlin, Rome, Dublin, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Barcelona to name just a few of the greatest hits-WHAT!!!.In the same space in Canada that would get you, London, Ottawa, Cornwall, Sudbury, North Bay, Peterborough and Owen Sound- the shopping capitals of the world. I love my country, I just wish it was smaller. I will give it though the proximity to Chicago, New York, D.C, Philly- Montreal, and Boston. That's something your local here would kill for.

Cheers,

L.