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Have now been from London to Salisbury, from Salisbury to Cardiff, Cardiff to Glastonbury and Glastonbury back to London. Dragged a pair of Wellington boots with me the whole way for the Glastonbury festival and then it didn't rain - not once! Apparently that is the first time that's happened in fifteen years or something, very cool, but also annoying due to inconvenience of the wellies.
Some fun facts about common expressions:
- The expression 'stiff drink' actually came about because after Lord Nelson was killed in a sea battle, they decided to take his body back to London for a proper burial so they had to preserve it. And the only thing they had handy was booze! So they put his body in a bottle of booze and sailed home but when they got back they found it was half empty... yes, somebody drank the corpse alcohol...
- The expression 'to laugh your head off' actually came about because at one execution at the Tower of London so many spectators turned up that the viewing platform they were standing on collapsed, killing twenty people. The man being executed found it quite ironic that a whole bunch of people who showed up to watch him die ended up being killed themselves, and he was still laughing when the axe chopped off his head!
Yes, London has awesome gory stories. After London we went to Salisbury for the summer solstice festival. The solstice festival basically involves thousands of people turning up at Stonehenge and having a mini-rave with bongo drums inside the circle, plus morris dancers and a bunch of druids lead by a man called King Arthur Pendragon. Nice. Salisbury also has a pretty kick-arse cathedral the outside walls of which are covered in statues. Some are very cheeky statues, and one on the top is holding out a big ball like he is going to drop it on the heads of tourists.
Also, there is a major brand of beer in Cardiff called Brains. Not joking. I pointed out the strangeness of the name to a bartender in Cardiff and he did not think it was funny... so I had a pint of Brains, when my Brains ran out I got a can of Brains. I had cold Brains and later in Glastonbury had to make do with warm Brains but eventually the Brains ran out. It was so sad.
I saw an ad in Cardiff for a phone with a sample text message that read 'I just bought brocolli...LOL'. That pretty much sums up the amount of excitement there is in Cardiff. I expect it is a very cool place to live, but apart from the pretty damn cool Doctor Who exhibition, there is really nothing to do. I got a brochure from the tourist office listing all the attractions and one of the main ones was the Norwegian Church Arts Centre. I went into that place, it is basically a cafe with some photos on the walls. It did seem like a pretty nice place to live, though, kind of like Wollongong.
- comments
Trish Heh heh heh. Brains Dude, those gory expression stories are hectic! That's awesome - drinking corpse booze! Really, stiff drink ...