Busy Weekends Part I

The weekend before the weekend before last, Ruth, JTA and I went up to Preston, for:

My Sister’s Birthday


Sarah on her birthdayMy sister, Sarah, turned 21 at the start of this month, and we – accompanied by her friends and family – went out to a new Punjabi restaurant called East Z East. The food was fantastic (although in hindsight we probably should have adapted the formula as far as naan bread is concerned, at least – each naan bread was about three feet long!), but the restaurant was a little full! Perhaps be better on a midweek night.

And…

Hoghton Tower

As has become traditional (see blog entries for 2009, 2005, 2003), the next stop was Hoghton Tower for their annual concert and fireworks display. As usual, this event began with the erection of a gazebo in which to have our picnic.


JTA and Ruth building a gazeboThe instructions for the gazebo clearly stated that it was to be constructed by two adults, so unfortunately I wasn’t able to help Ruth and JTA building it, except in a supervisory capacity. I helpfully assembled the first deckchair and sat in it, drinking a beer and overseeing the process.

JTA gets lost inside an incomplete gazeboJTA gets lost inside an incomplete gazebo
My management skills paid off, and soon we had a gazebo, tables, and a (huge) picnic.

The picnic gets started
Some of my sister Becky‘s friends had brought face paints and brushes with them, so we formed a line of people, each painting the face of the next. My mum painted mine: she asked what I wanted, so I told her that I wanted a narwhal, breaching the water and leaping for the sky. I think she did a pretty good job:

Me with a narwhal on my head
Then came my turn. I was to paint Ruth, but she didn’t know what she wanted. The suggestion came that I should paint a rubber duck on her forehead, and so long as you don’t mind ducks that look like they’re from canary heritage:

Ruth with a duck on her head. Sort of.
The concert itself was even better than normal – the arsenal of fireworks was even huger than we were used to, and was supplemented by the addition of a laser show, too! I was slightly disappointed that God Save The Queen wasn’t performed (not for any patriotic reason, I’m sure you understand – I’m just used to them playing it!). Still, a great night, and a fabulous excuse for me to re-educate Ruth in how to count to three (in order to waltz, you see: it’s incredibly difficult to dance when one participant is counting to three and the other is counting to two).

Fireworks at Hoghton Tower

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Playing about with dry ice

Some frozen food was delivered to me by courier, packed in a box stuffed with dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide). Not to be deprived of an opportunity, I used the ice to make fog, foggy bubbles, screeching sounds… and to keep my drink cool. Here’s a video of some of the highlights. (I also tried blowing things up, but couldn’t find a plastic bottle with a sufficiently strong outer wall to make the explosion worthwhile)

Also available on YouTube.