On Hockey and Fifth of November

This week is turning out to be a lot more interesting than I had thought it would. I had Sunday off this week which severely limited what I would be able to do that day because not much is open and I don’t have a lot of time to plan things out. I ended up not really doing that much. I just took a day to sit around and relax pretty much. I went for a long run made myself a big dinner and was going to go to a Bond film. I went to a coffee shop around here to read for a bit too. I went to go buy tickets to the movie and it turned out that the times they had listed were nothing like what time the movie was actually playing. So, I just wandered. There is a pub near here that does sport, so I thought I could catch something on and headed there. It’s a Canadian pub called the Maple Leaf and boy was I surprised when I saw that they were playing hockey. Apparently every Sunday they put on the live game of the night. I was more than a little happy. I grabbed a beer and sat down to watch.

That’s where the night took a turn for the very interesting. I was sitting at a big table by myself when a group of asked if they could join me. The pub was fairly busy and I didn’t mind so I said sure. I was just really struck by the fact they would ask me that at all. I guess I just can’t see it happening back home anywhere. For example, I would be floored if someone asked to sit at my table to watch a game at Cubby’s or Senser’s. I just don’t think it would happen. Once that beer ran dry I went to get another and moved to an open table since it sounded like those three hadn’t seen each other for a long time. I ended up sitting next to this guy who was really into the game. I asked him where he was from and he said Canada. We got to talking about he came to be over here, how I found my way and what I was doing afterwards. I was talking about where I was planning to go. Another Canadian guy at this point chimed in when I said I wanted to go to Greece. His name was Barry. He was a really cool guy. He had backpacked it sounded like the better part of the world and so I asked him for tips and advice and he recounted some of his travel stories to me. When the pub closed down we went to a bar not far away for one more. Another Canadian guy appeared from somewhere with his girlfriend. We were sitting down and the conversation turned to politics, which was rather interesting to be honest. I always find it really interesting to hear Europeans, or even Canadians talk about US politics because they know so little. Its pretty funny. That was over pretty quickly and I walk Barry back to Trafalgar square. He ended up stopping in the Chandos the next night for a drink.

The next day I went to coffee shop and got the trip for Mom and Nancy all hammered out. More or less. That took me the better part of the afternoon to find a place to stay and a good tour to take us around the Scottish country side. The one I had wanted to do wasn’t running this time of the year, but they had a version of it that we could do. I had an early night that day so got some extra sleep.

I went to the Waterstone’s coffee shop the next afternoon and there I realized something. I’ve become a regular at the coffee shop. There are about three or four people I ever seen working there. There is one girl in particular who is usually working the register who pretty much has my order memorized. I get a coffee and on the first one something sweet to munch on while I’m reading. The second time I came up she was serving and asked me about it.

Also got dressed up for Halloween at work. Pretty much all the barstaff downstairs had some sort of costume on, so it was a good time. Not many people were out dressed up. There were quite a few college kids out though. We had at the very end of the night some people out in some really detailed Mickey and Pooh outfits like you might find in Disney World. I was impressed.

The big news so far this week has been the fifth of November though. To those of you not English that would be Bonfire day. Why do they call it Bonfire day? Its because this is the day of the year where they burn effigies of Guy Fawkes for being a traitor to the crown. Fawkes was part of a group of individuals who had planned to blow up Parliament and had nearly gotten away with it. They were only caught at the last minute. It was a group of Catholics rebelling against what they thought was unjust rule by the Protestants. So no every year they celebrate how it was stopped.

The interesting part was right away when I opened the bar a huge group of people walked in and started talking. It was a really mixed group which had me a little confused at first. At around ten to noon they all pulled Guy Fawkes masks and started getting kitted out like the main character in V for Vendetta. They left, I thought it was funny and didn’t think any more of it. That is until the Met showed up asking for them. Turns out they had started marching down Whitehall Street towards the Prime Minister’s house and Parliament and got stopped by the police. They were searched under the antiterrorism act and sent on their way. They came back to the pub and starting drinking heavily. About 20 people or so all put 20 pounds into a cup that just got drained. Amazing.