HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

This is my seventh English Halloween. Although trick-or-treating seems to become more popular in England with each passing year, it's nowhere nearly as popular as in Canada. In fact a poll on a news programme this morning revealed that 94% of people thought Halloween should be banned!

(my candy bowl at the end of the night)

Nevertheless, I had the best turn out of trick-or-treaters ever tonight. About 30 of them! Unfortunately, I had no Jack-o-lantern as I wasn’t paying £4 for a pumpkin the size of my cereal bowl! Instead I turned all the lights on in the front of the house and put some candles in the front garden (it's about 3 square metres big!).

I have fond memories of Halloween as a child. I've dressed up as a clown, a witch, an native Indian, a princess, a fortune teller, a pioneer, a bloke, a bride, a 1950s teenager in a poodle skirt and a Goth (not so much a Halloween costume...I was 13 years old so enough said).

(Laura and Angela trick-or-treating at Grandma's
Halloween 1992 - I think!)

Dad told me a few years ago he almost liked Halloween more than Christmas because like Christmas the family decorates the house, people go to parties and everyone can have some fun. And the added bonus?? ... Unlike Christmas – NO PRESENTS!!! J

LITTLE AN' LARGE


Aimee and Angela have a relaxing night out at the Pub.

No this picture has not been doctored in any way!

STEPPING STONE

Passed my English, Maths and ICT skills tests today!

BUCKINGHAM PALACE RD

Streets lined in enchanting terrace homes are part of the reasons I love London. They are streets of history, mystery and the big screen!

COMMUTING IN LONDON

18.02 Weybridge Train - 1832 at still at the platform

The people standing outside the doors are not moving to get on. They are standing there so that when the train's doors are about to close they can squeeze on.

I wish I could say that this doesn’t happen often. This time it was because two carriages derailed at Waterloo yesterday evening. No one was hurt. You couldn’t move in Waterloo Station. It was jammed and bursting at the seams.

SHAMBLES

Victorian children in the Shambles

(Photograph of an enlargement in a York Station Waiting Room – original photographer undeclared)

This historic street is the only one specifically mentioned in the Domesday Book. The word Shambles is believed to have originated from the Anglo-Saxon word Fleshammels meaning flesh-selves. It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that in 1270 the Shambles were home to seventeen butchers. In 1895 this had increased to thirty-one butchers.

However infamous in status, this street remains tiny and cramped. I can’t imagine what it would have been like with thirty-one butchers and no modern means of refrigeration. As a vegetarian, I can’t imagine it would have been very nice.

A SPECIAL PLACE

I hope these photographs of a beautiful autumn day in York will convince everyone of what a special place it is.Tourists and locals walk the ancient Roman wall that surrounds the city centre. In the distance, the Minster and to the right GNER’s headquarters. Outside the wall to the left (out of view) is the Train Station and Royal York Hotel.

The Market in York has had numerous homes throughout the centre over the centuries. It spent much of its life in St Sampson Square and then Parliament Street and since the 1960s it finds itself here in the Little Shambles.

(York Train Station and the Royal York Hotel) I’ve been to the Royal York for a Christmas Ball. I found the ball a bore (debating society’s ball), but the venue was amazing.

How many Canadian buildings were built in 1434 and are still open to serving the public? The buildings in York are ancient but that doesn’t mean just look don’t touch. They are used today just as they were used so many centuries ago.

AUTUMN IN YORK

The University of York – Next to the Department of Biology

ENCHANTING TRANSPORT

Kings Cross Station – Clock next to platform 1

Kings Cross Station – GNER trains and platforms 5, 6, 7 and 8

Yes, there is actually a platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station.

THE DAY I FOUND THE THAMES

I know this sounds ridiculous but I have lived in Kingston for 6 weeks and despite being directly next to the river on numerous occasions I've not seen it! But finally today I took the time to see the river in all of its glory.
(NEXT family clothing store)
When I'm not running all over the place to get things done, like most people, I enjoy looking at the elaborate buildings and scenery. Where I'm from we do not have such historic landmarks and when we do we are not permitted to visit them let alone shop in them as you can in Kingston and many parts of the United Kingdom.
(Guild Hall and Market)
Brantford demolished its original city hall in favour of a more modern building that lacks ornate beauty and our farmers' market is in the rougher part of the city, lacking the charm of farmers' markets that take place all over England. They have a charm that Walmart nor even its cleaner competitors can replace.

WHAT'S ON YOUR BEDROOM WALL?

Anyone who didn't know what I was trying to do here would think I was actually loosing my mind. The idea is that by mind mapping the my assignments for my course I will have a greater understanding of what is required to succeed.

Howard Gardner is a guru in the field of how we learn. He believed in 8 forms of intelligence which impact the way we learn best. People tend to be a varying combination of the 8 factors. I've come learn that I learn best visual or spatial hence I do ridiculous looking things like this on the wall.

I can't wait to have a normal, non-student bedroom!

THE HOTTEST EVER ENGLISH SEPTEMBER ENDS
(the first frost of the season)

I've been waking to campus a lot lately. By the time I wait for it, squeeze onto it, wait in traffic and get off it, the bus takes about an hour. Therefore, taking the four mile hike to campus doesn't seem as irrational as you might think.

The walk takes me through all sorts of urban landscape. Some of the buildings, like the County hall (image below), are truly beautiful. Unfortunately through the rush of everyday life, in streets full of cars, buses and lorries, we tend not to see just how beautiful they really are.

NIGHT ON THE TOWN

Leicester Square

(Christina and Angela)

It was one of those nights where every stranger you crossed paths with revealed to you the best of themself.

LIFE IN LONDON
I've been here for one and a half weeks now. I have to say that I really love it. Surbiton is a beautiful area; far away enough from Central London's disadvantages and close enough to be in the thick of it all within half an hour. London truly is an amazing place.

I start my course on Monday. I'm mostly excited, with a hint of nervousness. On October 30th I have my first day at school. I don't know which school, or what year group, but I loook forward to the experience. Back in Canada on Decemeber 16th. I'll need that holiday by then.

The buildings around here are beautiful. I'm in the Public Library at the minute. It's a Georgian building designed to match the fire hall next door. Very beautiful! Most of the banks are in the original bank buildings that have been around for donkey's years. They are so grand and elaborate. They don't make buildings like they used.
With such a dense population here the advantage is you never have to travel far for what you are looking for. Grocery shops, pharmacies, doctors' offices, banks, post offices, hospitals, libraries and schools are everywhere.
A good friend of mine from York is coming to visit today. We are going to venture into Central London tonight. A return train journey to the centre will cost us less than a drink but it's not about that. It's about being in one of the most famous places for a night out in the entire world! Me and 7 millions other people!

MOM's GARDENMom worked really hard planning the gardens this summer. The photos really don't do these massive flower beds justice.

PURRS and BUBBLES
Callum plays hide and seek......not very well!!Rocky loves a cuddle. I think he is the only cat in the house who doesn't know he has only one eye. The others use his blind spot in fights to their advantage.
And the new addition, a big-go aquarium! Go fish-the cats wish!

CHILDHOOD HAUNTING

(Clerks' Bedrooms)
When I was a kid my parents were members of a society downtown. They spent much of their time at the local office on the weekends. As a kid, this meant I went along.
This building always terrified me as a child. It hadn't been updated in what looked like forever, especially through the eyes of a child. The society had its residence upstairs with one way in, and one way out, a 26 step stair case. 26 steps in a row!! At the top there was a hallway lined with offices; formerly the professional quarters of doctors, dentists and brokers. In broad daylight this corridor is still pitch black.
At the end of the corridor, where it's particularly dark, another staircase curves around a corner. As child I was terrified of the end of this corridor, as if something would drag me up the stairwell. This building scared me so much that I remember one night watching the Santa Clause parade from an office window in terror. Mom had turned out the light so we could see the parade better. Not a wise move!
This building has haunted my dreams into adulthood. In my nightmares I get to the floor beyond the mysterious stairwell (somewhere I had never been before), but in my dreams I take an elevator (something I never knew to exist in the building). In the dreams the floor is a hallway with smaller rooms used as bedrooms.(Elevator Shaft)
I decided to face this mysterious building again this summer, for the first time since childhood. I went up the creepy set of stairs to the abandoned floor, that I had never visited before and knew nothing about, to find it was as it had been in my nightmares. Better yet I found the abandoned elevator shaft.

I couldn't believe it. Apparently the bank, below the society's residence, had had accommodation for its clerks on the top floor; small very basic bedrooms, just as there had been in my nightmares. My parents had told me years before that there were offices up there, like downstairs. I had no way of knowing this.

I wonder if children really are more attuned to mysterious things?

Apparently the first person to die in Brantford from Spanish influenza was a doctor who had his office at the address and as for the rest of the building's history?... I'd like to know.

SILENT HILL (Downtown Brantford) IN THE SUN(Colborne Street)

Former shopping district in Brantford, now abandoned and decaying, became the ideal film set for the horror blockbuster Silent Hill (Terrible film! Don't see it!). I used to shop on these streets as a child. It's sad to see it like this.
However, there is hope. Laurier University has moved to the old public library a stone's throw from the main site of the decay. The university has purchased many buildings in the area for renovation. Hopefully Brantford's downtown will get off the big screen and start flourishing as so many people remember it once did.Unfortunately the casino is cleaning out the pockets of people in the same locality. Maybe not a good thing for the locals? Brantford certainly has some interesting city planning schemes.

GRADUATION DAY