Down in the Valleys

Here we are.

 In Wales.

 In the Valleys.

 In the green part of the world.

 We are here.

 It has been three weeks since we arrived and I have hardly had a moment to write for the blog. Have you missed me, oh best beloved? I have missed you. My life is so full of blessings and good things and happiness, but it has also been rather busy and hectic.

 We have just moved to another country after all.

 Let me just say, it has been a strange time of attachment and letting go. We found as we packed that there were lots of things we could let go of. Things we loved, but somehow it felt right to give them up. Our collection of 40+ hedgehog figurines were lovingly boxed up and sent to St Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital so they could sell them in their gift shop to raise money for animal welfare. Visit them here http://www.sttiggywinkles.org.uk/  to see all the good they do for animals. They even said some of our stuff might go in their hedgehog museum!!!  

We also gave up our rock and fossil collection. Really, if I am honest, it just collected dust. It was on top of a book shelf (one I had to stand on my tippy-toes to see) and so I rarely saw it (or dusted it) and we knew it could be better used elsewhere. We gave the rocks to my old school for their science cupboard and the fossils to one of my favourite students who used to drive me potty with his hyperactivity and his constant tapping and humming, but enchanted me with his deep thoughts and ability to take anything electrical apart and put it back together again. He also said funny things like “George the third is my favourite king of England because he went mad” but he couldn’t write the alphabet.

not actually our books, but it felt like that

 

We also weeded about a hundred books, which brought us down to about 573 books.

 

Yes that is brought it down to 573 books.

 

We still have a lot of books. 

 

We looked at things that we have loved, but were extremely fragile and decided they might not survive the move so we gave them away.

 

K-9 was adopted into to a very good home--the Doctor Who crazy daughter of a friend.

 We had a lovely wooden tree that we used to decorate with each season, changing the decorations with each solstice and equinox. It was so fragile that every move we had ever made within Hitchin we had asked a friend to drive it over so it wouldn’t get broken. That just wasn’t an option with this move. So we gave it away.

 

But don’t worry--I came up with a wonderful plan to have a similar but much more compact version that I will share with you soon! Plus some extra wonderful to ways to mark the seasonal changes. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

In the end we gave away dozens upon dozens of boxes to charity shops.

But there was still so much stuff.

 

So very much stuff.

 We like to think of ourselves as minimalists but clearly we are not. We may have a more minimalist lifestyle that most of our peers, but damn we have lots of stuff.

 

Lots of good stuff.

 

Art and books that feed our souls, but take up way too many boxes.

 

But we wouldn’t want to live without them.

 

We wouldn’t be us without them.

 

So I don’t mind.

 

Okay, peeps, that was the getting ready stage--stay tuned for the actual moving day!

 

 

Wool Against Weapons

Last Saturday I had the privilege of participating in the most colourful protest. Trident submarines that contain nuclear warheads costs the UK £100 billion pounds a year. What would you rather see that money spent on?

 

The contract for the Trident submarines will be up for renewal in the next year, we wanted to send a message to the government that this is the time to make the change, to be the change, to be a leader in the change. A treaty banning nuclear weapons is on the international agenda—why is the UK boycotting? For more information read this leaflet from Action AWE

http://actionawe.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ActionAWE_Trident_leaflet__Jan2014_2.pdf

 

Over a year ago two wonderful, mad ladies named Angie Zelter (co-founder of Action AWE) and Jaine Rose had a brilliant idea to “yarn bomb” the nuclear weapons factories in England in Aldermaston and Burghfield by knitting a seven mile long pink scarf that would stretch between these two armaments factories to send a message to the government about our desire for a peaceful future.

 

Would it work? Would people knit? Even if people did knit their hearts out, could they knit 7 miles worth of wool?

 

The answer was YES.

 

It was decided that the protest should be held on Nagasaki day to remember the 135,000 people who lost their lives to the atomic bomb. The word went out all over the world and people started knitting.

 

I heard about it from some other Quakers and I was so moved by their efforts that I asked our Meeting to help me. I wanted to take part in this peaceful pink protest. I wanted to contribute a knitted panel to the cause, but there was only one small problem.

 

I didn’t actually know how to knit.

 

Not to worry. I was taken in hand by some lovely Quaker Friends who patiently showed me and showed me again.

 

And again.

 

I was a bit of a slow learner.

 

But after eight months of work I managed to produce a panel that was 23.5 inches by 39.5 inches.

 

Well it was supposed to be.

 

I started adding stitches somewhere along the line and mine got wider and wider and wider by the end.

But I did it.

 

We met and joined up all our efforts and in the end we had 20 metres worth of wool to contribute. That’s about 22 yards for my American peeps. Here we are outside our Meeting House showing off our efforts.

 

On the demonstration day four of us decided to take the train together and we had a jolly time. We shared food and laughter and took turns carrying the wool through the Tube and Train stations (it was Hitchin to London Kings Cross to Paddington station via the Tube then overground train to Reading, change at Reading for Mortimer station—for all you train spotters out there)   The journey was a pleasant two and a half hours. When we arrived we caught a shuttle to the protest.

 

Despite accidentally getting off the shuttle at the wrong station (we wanted RED for Faith Groups) we managed to find our way there where we met up with some other friends (old and new)

 

We got the call that the seven miles of wool was complete (with some to spare) around 12:30 which was cause for huge celebrations. Our section had enough to cover both sides of the road.

 

It was grand.

 

There was singing--we sang old peaceful favourites like We Shall Overcome and Last Night I had the Strangest Dream and some new favourites sung to the tune of A Bicycle Built For Two with lyrics like Trident, Trident, your missiles will kill us all. 

 

There was more eating.

 

Then at 1:00 we all joined together holding the scarf and whooping and whistling and ringing bells and this was followed by a three minute silence.

You can watch a video about it here:

http://actionawe.org/videos-wool-against-weapons-7-mile-long-scarf-9th-august-2014/

 

Then we all unpicked our bits that were joined together while we did a bit more singing and eating.

 

Lastly, all the Quakers got together and sat in a circle and held a Meeting for Worship in the middle of all the chaos of singing voices, laughing voices, happiness, buzz and excitement. We centered down and felt the enormous warmth of the sun and God filling our hearts.

 

Did I mention the amazing, perfect blue sky, not-too-hot weather we had sandwiched between two days of solid rain? Thanks, God.

 

A friend agreed to cart our wool home by car and so we strolled  along back to the train station (the shuttle would have taken HOURS to get all the people back there) and made our way home.

 

It was a wonderful day with hundreds of people there, all wanting the same thing in our hearts: A peaceful world. There was wool from all over the world--as far away as Africa, Latin America and Canada. We saw wool from France and Austria in our section. Thousands of people knitted and sent wool, even if they couldn’t come themselves. Hundreds of people of all ages, races, gender and sexual orientation were there, all of us bursting with love.

 

So what happens to all the wool? Well, everyone was asked to take their panels home and turn them into blankets for disaster relief or the homeless.

 

Could you ask for anything better?

 

 We also got some coverage on the BBC which was grand.

 

I am so proud to have taken part, to have learned to knit (however badly) and attended this historical moment. I plan on stepping up my activism when we move to Wales on Wednesday.

 

Wednesday???

 

Yikes. Better get packing

And now for something completely different

Since we are moving to Wales we are going to have a bit of a lifestyle change. No more popping into London for us. We used to do that an awful lot and it was a blast.

 But it was expensive.

 Terrifically expensive.

 We are so very lucky that where we are going is a university town and so many of our favourite comedians often tour the college circuit. Marcus Brigstocke was there just a month or two ago. Carmarthen also boasts a cinema (for when Joe Hill’s film Horns based on his incredible book is finally released) as well as a playhouse for the theatre. The university theatre department is also there and I am sure we will see some great student productions as well.

But mostly we are going to walk.

 And hike.

 And be in the green wide open spaces.

 And look for wildlife.

 We’re armed with a bat detector and a set of cool Nordic walking poles from some amazing friends of mine.

 But we wanted one last thing. One last special day out. One last glorious hoorah.

 And we did it. There could have been *nothing* better than this.

 As our last hoorah in London we went to see

Monty Python’s Flying Circus Live!!!!!!

I know! I know! It was the last night of their One Down, Five to Go tour.

It was bloody brilliant (but I don’t need to tell you that, do I?)

Man, they were old. Really old. But still as funny as ever.

And Carol Cleveland? Oh yeah. She was still a babe.

 It was an all singing, all dancing extravaganza (with young, fit dancers doing the silly walk as John Cleese has had two hip replacements and obviously can’t do it anymore) with old favourite songs like Sit On My Face and The Penis Song (with additional new verses)

Listen to the Penis Song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9PiqCeLEmM

 It was a very good mix of the show and the films.

 For example…

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!!!!

If you do not know this from the show then watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixgc_FGam3s

 

1. Turn the rack (yes, ha ha…it is a kitchen rack)

2. Put her in the comfy chair. (oh yes…)

3. Go to the fridge and get her a glass of cold milk (what??? That’s not in the original)

 And then of course it hits me.

 BOOM. What’s in the fridge? Why only my favourite Python Eric Idle--who comes out of the fridge in the film The Meaning of Life to sing the Galaxy song!

 

Listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk

This was followed by an *ingenious* video clip of dishy Professor Brian Cox explaining how the song was scientifically inaccurate and being run down by the actual Stephen Hawking in his motorised wheelchair after which “The Hawk” sang the Galaxy song with his robot voice manipulator.

 Utter fantastic. I nearly peed my pants when Stephen Hawking came zooming down the path and bumped off Brian Cox.

 

There were Poofy Judges https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q80ElML7KGk and Llamas in Spanish  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBaUmx5s6iE

 

 

There was a good ole sing song to the Bruce’s Philosopher’s song (which I can play on the ukulele) Join in singing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6AhepWgYg4

 Albatross  (it’s bloody sea bird flavour!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PJix23IeF8 turned into Nudge Nudge (Know what I mean…say no more!) Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ona-RhLfRfc

 

Pet shop turned into Cheese shop (they are both shops after all) and there was an enormous dead blue parrot outside. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npjOSLCR2hE

 Mr Anchovy wants to be a lion tamer segued beautifully into the Lumberjack song. There was this brilliant moment where the conversation went like this:

Mr Anchovy: I never wanted to be a lion tamer…I wanted to be a---

HUGE anticipatory laugh from audience. We all know what is coming next.
At least we thought we did.
Mr Anchovy: I wanted to be…a systems analyst.

 Wild applause from the audience. Which then turned into the song we all love. Incidentally, I can also play this on the ukulele.

Lumberjack song here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zey8567bcg

 There were so many old favourites…My theory about brontosaurus’ by Anne Elk, Blackmail, Spam and Finland, Crunchy frog, argument clinic, the penguin on your telly is about to explode, Gumby flower arranging, Every Sperm is Sacred from Meaning of Life and so much more. There were animations (old and new), film footage from the show featuring Graham Chapman (the dead one who sadly couldn’t make it on account of being dead)  and my all time favourite clip from the show was featured--the Batley Townswomen's Guild re-enacting the battle of Pearl Harbour. Watch it here and be ready to cry with laughter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcSMaNlcDPs

But the end (which came all too soon) was the cleverly titled spontaneous encore-- a big sing along to Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from Life of Brian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHPOzQzk9Qo

After rapturous applause and standing ovations and much cheering, a sign appeared on the screens on the stage.

 

PISS OFF.

So we did. With 15,000 other people who also wanted to take the tube home.

 

It was a long wait.

When we finally did get to the Tube station, the train driver made a very funny announcement.

 Ladies and gentlemen, those with a keen sense of smell will be able to smell the stink of jealousy coming from the cabin. I really wanted to go and see my heroes Monty Python on their last night of the tour, but instead I’m here just driving you all home. Sigh……

Which is why, when we got home at nearly 2am I could say:

My....brain....hurts!