‘Tis the season for fireworks!
While Halloween is tied as my second favorite holiday ever normally, I have to say, it pretty much just sucks here in the UK. Back home we do it right with decorations, costumes, candy, spooky music, and haunted houses. Here, I saw all of four kids trick-or-treating and not a single jack-o-lantern anywhere. It was rather disappointing, I must say. I was glad that we had gone to the effort to decorate our house for our Halloween/Becky’s birthday party, complete with carved pumpkins and cobwebs. Our night of fancy dress went a long way to get me in the Halloween spirit, even if it wasn’t on the actual night. I just can’t conceive why people don’t make more of an effort here over the holiday, even if it is mostly an American thing – it’s just plain fun.
However pathetic Halloween is over here, I have to say, they do a good job with their own home-grown holidays. I had my first ever official British holiday on Saturday. It was Guy Fawkes Day, otherwise known as Fireworks Day. It has something to do with this guy Guy Fawkes trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament and getting caught before he carried it out, so now they have big bonfire parties and shoot off fireworks in remembrance. It was perfect since I had missed the Fourth of July this summer when I was traveling. I had been told that kids sometimes make a little “Guy” doll and sit outside and beg “a penny for the Guy,” but I never saw any. Their loss – I had tons of pennies I was hoping to get rid of.
For fireworks night I went out to Ravenscourt Park in Hammersmith…with a guy. So now I’m totally going to jinx myself by making this known to the public (all few of you who read this…shout out to Courtney S!!!), but I’ve met a guy and we have been out several times now and things are actually going quite well. For once. It’s been stupidly long since I’ve dated anyone, and I am happy with the change. I had forgotten what it was like! Last week he took me out to this really nice French restaurant in Soho and we had an amazing dinner…much different than my last semi-date where this guy took me to the movies and I had to buy my own popcorn. I’m definitely preferring the way things are now! It just blows my mind, though, that Kelly and I both can go for years with enough dates between us to count on one hand and then we come over here and we both end up meeting people. Granted, she is in a full-on relationship while I’m just toeing the water. We’ll see!
My job is still going really well. The people here are fantastic and we generally have a good time even though the work itself can be mind-numbingly boring at times. It is definitely looking like I’ll be staying on past the initial 8 week project scope, which is a relief. Everyone here is really relaxed about things, so I know I can ask off for a few days when my sister comes over just before Christmas. I can’t wait for her to come over!!!
In other news, Kelly and I are beginning to plan our big Thanksgiving party. This will be our second Thanksgiving in England, but this time we’re shooting for a proper, big meal instead of the thrown-together attempt we did last year. This time we’re having people down for a Friday night and then we’re going to eat on Saturday and have the works – turkey, gravy, biscuits, vegetables, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, pecan pie, and whatever else we can come up with. I’ve never really done a big meal on my own before other than helping out my mom with a few things, so this should be interesting. Cooking for over 10 people is something that I’ve only ever experienced in my nightmares. I love cooking, but my best attempts always seem to go slightly awry…I’m basically just aiming for decent this time, nothing gourmet. I’ve found that English people generally don’t have the same appreciation for Southern cooking that I do, so even the best cornbread and collards probably wouldn’t impress them that much anyway. On actual Thanksgiving I’ll have to work (tear…), but I’m going to bake (or attempt to bake) some pumpkin pies to bring in to work. One of the girls I work with said she wants to cook some stuff and bring it in, too, to make it feel more like a holiday for me. How sweet! I’m not going to argue with that. Holiday season is getting started and I am loving it! The shops around here have already put up some of their Christmas window displays and lights and it makes me smile when I walk down the street. Here, they don’t have the Thanksgiving milestone to get past before it’s appropriate to start decorating so they get started early. For me, it is never too early for Christmas, so I’m over the moon.
And if anybody has any easy Southern biscuit recipes that a biscuit-making novice like me could handle, please do share. I’ve been fantasizing about biscuits and gravy for a while now and something must be done about it.
Tags: Halloween, holidays, London, Random, Thanksgiving, Travel
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I love fireworks! I think we need more holidays in the US where the neighbors wouldn’t complain if you set off fireworks.
What ingredients do you have available for biscuits? Can you get Bisquik? I realized they might print different receipes on the box so here’s what they posted online (http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?recipeId=35897):
Biscuits
2 1/4 cups Original Bisquick® mix
2/3 cup milk
1. Heat oven to 450ºF. Stir ingredients until soft dough forms.
2. Turn onto surface dusted with Bisquick mix. Knead 10 times. Roll dough 1/2 inch thick. Cut with 2 1/2-inch cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Yay! Thank you for the update. I also enjoyed the shout out…almost like I’m part of the story. 🙂 Good luck with your guy and the Thanksgiving cooking.