Sunday 3 June 2012

Now stand for the National Anthem

I had cause to drive through a series of small villages yesterday.

I was picking up my brother who lives on a farm - PLUG ALERT: It's the Rare Breeds Centre in Kent and it's staffed by the learning disabled adults who both live there in supported housing or come in from home to use the day services provided. For more info on how to visit go here or to support the charity which runs the farm go here. PLUG ENDS.

Anyway, these small villages had a series of...I think the best word is effigies, hanging outside various houses, 'in honour' (you'll understand my use of inverted commas later) of the Queeen's Diamond Jubilee.

I bravely got out of the car several times to photograph some of the best ones. Mum kept the car running though as, despite the streets being eerily empty, we concluded that the villagers were almost definitely waiting in a nearby hedge for a victim to burn along with the effigies inside a giant wicker man.

I even wondered at one point if these effigies were really made of fabric and straw. They might have been real people, who had driven through the villages, been lured out of their cars and then gagged and covered in fabric with a crude felt tip pen face drawn on them.

That all sounds very far fetched I know, but you can't be too careful in the countryside.

So, here they are:





























We also discovered that Gary is going to be performing live this Sunday. Yes, the Gary:


And in one of the towns we went through, we saw a man dressed as a Jubilee potato





I am so proud to be British right now.

Friday 10 February 2012

Sapporo Snow Festival 2012

I wouldn't usually take a ten hour train ride to a city experiencing sub-zero conditions, but I made an exception this week to go to the Sapporo Snow Festival.

It was more than worth it. Not least because the hotel had a massage chair in the room. But mostly because it was an amazing spectacle. Here's some pictures:

A Japanese castle


An underwater scene


Underwater scene at night


Mickey Mouse


Characters from Japanese cartoon 'One Piece'


The Taj Mahal


My favourite kawaii character, Rilakkuma


A games controller


Mario Kart


Sonic


A monkey


A dragon being carved


A crashing wave being carved


Peacock ice sculpture


Bear ice sculpture


Fish frozen in ice


Suntory Whiskey ice bar


Sapporo Beer ice sculpture


'Illumination Road'


There was loads more too...

Whilst in Sapporo I was reading about the snow and ensuing travel chaos back in the UK. Now, given that I was somewhere you kept seeing bikes in this condition...


...and that I'd got there without any delays, even though this was the view out of the train window most of the way...


...well, 'embarrassing' comes to mind!

I particularly liked this from my local paper:
(click on the picture to maximise)

Attention. Only make essential journeys. There has been a 'smattering' of snow.

The horror.