Jubilee Celebrations

Sixty years is a long old time to be Queen, and so it seemed very appropriate to have an extra long bank holiday weekend and a great variety of celebrations throughout the country and the Commonwealth.

For the past few weeks shop windows have been decked out in red, white, and blue displays, bunting has slowly appeared on the fronts of houses and across streets, and the sale of Union Flags has steadily risen. I'm not big on patriotism, I must admit, but I actually have a great deal of respect for our monarchy, and in all honesty I did feel proud to be British this weekend, taking the opportunity to partake in some local community events held in honour of the grand occasion.

On Saturday evening we went along to a 'Right Royal Razzmatazz' event at church. A delicious barbeque of local, organic meats and very tasty salads was served, followed by a royal family themed quiz in the church and fantastic live music from some of our in-house musicians. The church looked great decked out in bunting, and red, white, and blue flowers. Everyone had a great time, and it was a perfect way to kick start the Jubilee!

On Monday we overcame our social anxiety to attend a neighbourhood garden party a few doors down. Street parties were happening up and down the country over the course of the weekend, but they can be something of an organisational nightmare as it can take so long to apply for permission to have the road closed, so our neighbours seem to prefer the much easier option of an open garden or house for the whole street instead. We actually had a pretty good time, despite some initial awkwardness, and it was good to finally meet a few more of our neighbours.

That evening thousands of beacons were lit across the UK, and with several more being lit throughout the Commonwealth. From the top of our house we had a great view of one of the beacons on the South Downs, accompanied by a very pretty firework display.

My husband had to work on the Tuesday so I spent the day with my parents. The weather was pretty grim, so my mum and I settled down in front of the TV with a cup of tea to watch the Queen's carriage procession from Westminster Hall to Buckingham Palace. This was followed by the Queen, joined by Prince Charles & Camilla, Prince William & Kate, and Prince Harry gathering on the balcony to wave to the crowds and to witness the flyover of the Lancaster Bomber, flanked by Spitfires and a Hurricane, and then followed by the Red Arrows displaying their customary red, white & blue smoke trails.

So, all in all it was a jolly good weekend. Even though Prince Philip was taken ill after the Thames Pageant on Sunday, the Queen continued to take part in all the special events planned for her in the city, and despite her age she never once appeared to look tired or fed up. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for her, and sixty years as monarch is no mean feat, a lengthy reign only currently beaten by Queen Victoria. As I said, I may not always be the most patriotic individual, but God bless Her Majesty!

However, as fun as all the festivities were, it has all been completely trumped by the wonderful news I received this morning that my dearest friend gave birth to a healthy little girl last night! What a fantastic start to June 2012!


First photo my own. Second photo from BBC Radio Wales website.

Bonfire Night - It's What We Do Best

I live in the town that has the biggest Bonfire Night celebrations in the world (considering it is a UK-wide celebration, I guess that's not really difficult...)

Bonfire Night is THE event of the year in Lewes. It's an important event for a great percentage of the rest of Sussex too (particularly the best eastern half). Numerous towns and villages put on their own Bonfire Nights throughout October and November. I talked about this a couple of years ago in this post: Bonfires, Bollards, Bankers and Bangers!

With Lewes being the heart of Bonfire, rarely an evening goes past in these two months without a few loud bangs heard here and there. Bangers, or rookies as they are fondly known, are let off sporadically, usually outside the town's pubs. It's like any noise you get used to; late autumn wouldn't be the same in Lewes without these occasional distant booms (sometimes accompanied by raucous laughter if you happen to be near where they are let off).

Anyway, to the event itself. It's a crazy evening and it's a lot of fun. It's a celebration for the town, in particular for the Bonfire Societies themselves, of which there are six. Visitors are welcome although generally discouraged due to high volumes of crowds - this year the crowds exceeded 60,000. However, the celebrations would go on with or without the visitors or even the bystanding townsfolk (such as myself).

However, I feel that when you live here there's really no avoiding it. I'm not the biggest fan of loud noises, but I am a big fan of sparkling prettiness. And at the end of the day, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. To be honest, I always have a good time, even though I don't like the rookies.

We usually have a few friends round to our house for food and drink, and then depending on our mood will head out to watch the processions, and then watch the fireworks back at home.

This year my husband set about making quite a spread. He baked cheesy Bonfire bread and also cooked up sausages, baked potatoes, and beans that were spiced up with tabasco and JD! Together we made an extremely calorific chocolate pudding to be served with marshmallows and cream, post fireworks. We were also very pleased to serve both our home-brewed beer and pear cider, which everyone really enjoyed - yes we enjoyed brewing the perry so much that we tried our hand at beer, and it's turned out rather well. You can read about all this and other tasty adventures on hubby's new food blog *proud wife beams accordingly*

We had a number of small processions go past our house. One of my friends, who is a professional photographer, was constantly dashing in and out to attempt to get some good photos. He must have taken hundreds, although he believes he only got one or two good ones. The processions are indeed quite difficult to capture well on camera, due to movement and the effect of the flaming torches against the dark of the night, but if you do manage to get a good shot, then boy will it be a good shot!

A group of us went up to the top of the High Street to watch the United Procession, which is the best of all. It goes right through the centre of town, with five of the six Societies taking part. Each has a number of other town and village Societies accompanying them, as well as local bands or from further afield, such as an awesome band from one of our twin towns, Waldshut in Germany. During this procession the Bonfire Societies will pull their tableaux through. These are usually related to current affairs. This year we saw South Street pulling through Harry Potter standing in front of Hogwarts with Voldemort creeping up behind him, Commercial Square present David Cameron putting Britain through the wringer, Borough dragging along a Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club seagull relaxing on top of the team's new Amex Stadium, Southover yanking the 'Pig' Society whilst continuously lighting sodium flares (which are bright pink and blinding!), and Waterloo brought us Rebekah Brooks riding on top of Rupert Murdoch as a dinosaur. These are all spectacular works of art that are later blown to smithereens in the most awesome of firework displays.

A few of our friends went off to one of the fire sites, but the rest of us went home to watch two of the fantastic displays from the top room of our house. We had a perfect view and sat there, sipping tea (or home brew), "oohing" and "aahing" at all the appropriate places. The fireworks seem to just get better every year. It is a privilege to have them on our doorstep (although please not literally on our doorstep, thanks!)

Once everyone was back at ours we consumed the chocolate pudding and chatted into the small hours as rookies continued to boom and the Waldshut band serenaded us with some seriously rocking tunes in the distance...

As always we had a great evening. I always feel trepidation at the impending approach of Bonfire Night. I'm often excited but also a little anxious. This is because there are a few morons, who are nothing to do with the official event, who throw fireworks in the crowd and behave like idiots. They are the people that bother me. Thankfully, they are few and far between. The evening is always great fun, it brightens up November, and it's a big part of our culture in this part of Sussex. If we ever move away, I know I shall miss it very much...yes, probably even the occasional exploding of bangers throughout October and November...

Photos my own.