New Experiences #51 - #53
I have been extraordinarily busy recently as a way of making up for all that time stuck indoors during study leave, hence the tardiness of this, and all following, posts. However, I’ve had many excellent new experiences and I hope you enjoy the variety as much as I have. As always, comments and suggestions are very welcome.
W/C 4th June 2012
New Experience #51: Diamond Jubilee Street Party
As much of a royalist as I am a fan of Jedward, the Jubilee could have been a time for cynicism but I put my views behind me to embrace the great food and community spirit that the day brought. Our street had a house party kind of affair on the Sunday, and then on bank holiday Monday we had a proper street party on the neighbouring road. When I say ‘proper’, I mean face painting, egg and spoon races, penalty shoot-outs, welly throwing, arts and crafts, plates of sandwiches, crates of cake and more bunting than you could shake a ‘royal stick’ at. I enjoyed myself far too much.
Rating: 4/5 Fabulous family fun, which we need more of to gel better as communities.
New Experience #52: The Hay Literary Festival
As a lover of words and live events, it seemed ridiculous that I had never ventured up to the world-renowned Hay Festival before. The annual, weeklong celebration of arts takes over the quaint little village of Hay-on-Wye and bombards it with poetry, literature, music, philosophy, politics and the brightest of speakers. The site itself is free to enter and once inside you are undercover from the likelihood of a shower and able to purchase tickets to heaps of different talks, readings and debates. Edifying, inspiring, life-affirming and reasonably priced. It made me realise how much I want to be a writer.
Rating: 5/5 Just brilliant. Top tip: book in advance to make sure you get to see what you want.
New Experience #53: Campaigning In A Banana Suit
Every minute, at least one person dies from armed violence and in recent conflict 80% of those killed were civilians. So as a wet, miserable Thursday in Cardiff dragged by, I dressed up as a banana with some Oxfam friends to collect signatures and pose for photographs in support of the Control Arms campaign. Oxfam and Amnesty are putting pressure on governments to agree to a strict Arms Trade Treaty at the current talks in New York, in order to restrict the sale of small arms.
The relevance of the banana is the shocking fact that it is easier to trade guns across borders than it is bananas. We want an internationally binding agreement to make it much more difficult for weapons to be bought and sold, although it is thought that it may not be until October when talks will lead to some sort of action.
Managing to entice passers by with lines such as, “Would you like to speak to a banana, madam?” and “Oh go on, I’m one of your five a day” the petition filled up pretty quickly. Yes, I was heckled and jeered at but was also hugged by one lady who seemed a wee bit too jolly for a Thursday afternoon.
Rating: 4/5 The picture of me riding a bike, in the rain, in a banana suit, is, in a word, priceless. Plus, this campaign could save countless lives, so please sign the petition here.
The rest of June will be coming very soon!
Click here for more New Experiences
Info World, Europe, UK & Wales Politics Rest of the World Politics
IMAGE: New by chrisinplymouth
1 Comment – Postiwch sylw
SamuelPatterson
Rhoddwyd sylw 46 mis yn ôl - 19th July 2012 - 14:34pm
I thoroughly enjoyed our Jubilee street party! It was amazing! We had a Great British Bake-Off, throwing pennies, and it rained nearly all day :D