I CANT WORK THIS NEW BLOGGER THING...AGGGGGGHHHHHHH

bounce bounce bounce

Had another formal in college last Thursday...this time a toy formal! After much deliberation as what to go as I decided to make myself a spacehopper costume. I wasn't much in the mood for a formal after a more than stressful week (as the senior tutor kindly commented that I looked really ill that night! thanks!) but after a lot of alcohol I soon forgot about everything and had no more worries until the next morning! I literally spent all evening bouncing around and the efforts everyone went to with their costumes was just phenomenal! A successful formal all in all. Bring on the Xmas formals (which scarily aren't very far away now)

to kiss or not to kiss...

Had a bit of a marathon these last few days of films. I've watched Love Actually, Brokeback Mountain (twice!), Brief Encounter, Bridget Jones:The edge of reason, all six hours of the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, and all 23 episodes of the first series of Desperate Housewives. Just because it's an excuse to put a picture of Colin Firth in a wet shirt up thought I'd make a brief comment about Pride and Prejudice. They were talking about it the other day in one of my lectures. The new film that came out with Keira Knightley last year (which I went to see on my own at the cinema in Finland- those were the days!) was made with two different endings. One for it's American audience, and one for the British. In the American version Mr Darcy and Lizzy kiss at the end whereas in the British one they don't. Apparently it's to satisfy the different sort of audiences- says a lot about the British to me!

Isänpäivä

it's also Father's day in Finland...again, memories, but wont bore you with all the details. and just because I've been doing my homework! it's called Isänpäivä. But with his birthday a couple of weeks ago, and a trip to the States ahead of him a week today Dad's just gonna have to wait until June for a proper Father's Day from his daughter!

remember, remember, the 11th of november

It's 4.20am and I'm sat looking at my red poppy unable to sleep so figured I may as well do a post about it! Remembrance Sunday is another national tradition in which the soldiers who died in World Wars I and II, and consequently wars such as the Falklands War and the Gulf War, are remembered. It is held on the nearest Sunday to the 11th November as this is the day that peace was declared for WWI. The day is commemorated by church services around the country and a parade of ex-service personnel in London’s Whitehall. Wreaths of poppies are left at the Cenotaph, a war memorial in Whitehall, built after the First World War. By tradition, at 11:00am on Remembrance Sunday a two minute silence is observed at the Cenotaph and elsewhere in the country to honour those who lost their lives. The reason for poppies is to represent the poppies that grew in the cornfields of Flanders in the First World War where many thousands of soldiers lost their lives. The paper poppies that are worn today are made by ex-service personnel and are sold by representatives of the Royal British Legion, an organisation of ex-servicemen and women.

Helsinki the 'cult'

There's always one module every year which takes you by surprise, which you expect to be rubbish and end up thoroughly enjoying. Last year it was Christian Fundamentalism in the U.S, so it shouldn't be surprising to me that this year it's the Religious Innovations course. It's been fascinating. This mornings lecture though was on 'brainwashing'. We were looking at what the media portray as brainwashing and what actually goes on. All the 'symptoms' of people, who have been involved in New Religious Movements, put forward by psychologists, theologians, sociologists, the media, example after example. And I sat there for most of the lecture thinking, that's what I was like when I got back from Helsinki. I saw my mate go through that, I still feel like that. So is going to live abroad for one year like becoming fully indoctrinated into a 'Cult'?? If so can someone tell me where I can get hold of a deprogrammer to get me out of the horrific adaptation?!

Death Penalty

Wrote all these details for my international students in Durham about what goes on in November as you've already seen from Halloween and Bonfire Night. This fact just interested me. Then they told me they were so impressed with the email they were sending it home to their parents! Think I maybe need to reconsider what goes in next months and not show my crazy side so much!
The last public hanging took place in England on the 7th November 1783. The man was John Austin, a forger who met his fate at Tyburn.
Thought it was quite apt in the end though with everything that's been going on this week in the news...

Back to the dark ages...

Monday 6th November. I opened a book I started last night and read a couple of chapters on how New Religious Movements are affecting people through brainwashing, in particular Satanism (which just as a matter of interest the book doesn't believe is happening!). I then spent the majority of the day flicking through the English newspapers online to find out what they say about exorcisms. I've just returned back to my computer and checked my emails which I haven't really read over the last four or five days. Amongst them was an email from Youth 2000, a Catholic Youth Group based near Ampleforth in England. I've included the links that they gave from media coverage, and also their statement on what happened:
Here are some examples of the coverage:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2436968,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1939477,00.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006510299,00.html
You can read their statement on the matter on the website:
http://www.youth2000.org/knowledge/Glastonbury_statement.html
I've had a few experiences of Y2K and with that and what I've been reading all week, I'm going to keep my opinions to myself- unless you ask me personally! But with pages and pages of quotes driven from newspapers today, who said evil, demonology and exorcisms are antiquated ideas amongst the general public?!

My bonfire night

It's always a bit of a contradiction Bonfire night. Everyone goes, but it's about burning up Catholics! Hardly anyone actually thinks back to the events of 1605 anyway! We always went as kids, but when we were older it became, traditionally, a night to rent films from the video store and buy sweets! Last night I went to Grey College for their fireworks display. The last time I went to a fireworks display was at Linnanmäki last September in Helsinki. For Bonfire night last year I was sat in a Jazz club in St Petersburg. It's always difficult at the moment doing the whole, this time last year scene but I made the effort last night, kitted up in scarf and gloves and camera and set out. (only to find the batteries were dead in my camera!) It was helped that Krissy who I lived with for my first two years in Durham is up for the weekend along with a couple of others who were in my year. So we all set out together. Grey is the only college big enough to hold such an event and with the Cathedral as a back drop it's perfect. The display lasted a good half an hour and was made even better by the music they played over it. Starting with the theme tune to 'Pirates of the Carribean' it moved on to the Nutcracker, to some classic night club tunes and the best bit of the night- to Lordi's 'Hard Rock Hallelujah'!!! One of the fourth years turned round and said, 'I thought you'd be enjoying this!' and I think I had the biggest grin on my face! Completely random mixture of tunes, even more random that that was thrown in there, and the night was a great night, followed by drinks in the bar just like the good old days! Best bonfire night I've had in a long time. :-)

Bonfire/Fireworks/Guy Fawkes Night

In 1605 Guy Fawkes, a Roman Catholic, and his fellow conspirators attempted to blow up King James I and the Houses of Parliament, as they disagreed with the King’s Protestant policies. They succeeded in storing some 30 barrels of gunpowder in a cellar under the Houses of Parliament, but before Parliament opened on November 5th, the ‘gunpowder plot’, as it has come to be known, was discovered. Guy Fawkes and his colleagues were executed for treason.November 5th was designated by King James I (via an Act of Parliament) as a day of thanksgiving for "the joyful day of deliverance." This Act remained in force until 1859. On the very night of the thwarted Gunpowder Plot, it is said that the populace of London celebrated the defeat by lighting fires and engaging in street festivities. Since then, the 5th of November has been celebrated in England by the burning of stuffed figures of Guy Fawkes on bonfires, usually accompanied by firework displays. These may be large organised events open to members of the public, or smaller, private gatherings of family and friends held in people’s gardens. ‘Guy Fawkes Night’ is also known as ‘Bonfire Night’ or ‘Firework Night’. In the days leading up to the 5th of November children traditionally take their home-made Guys out onto the streets of their town or village and ask passers-by for ‘a penny for the Guy’. This money is supposedly used as a contribution towards their fireworks.