Pancakes, Papers and Poutine
A long collection of little events in between the writing of papers.
Matt had invited me to a 1940s pub night, so I spent an unmentionable long time trying to get my hair to do victory curls, with marginal success, and caught the bus to Dover. The pub was all decked out in flags and posters, they'd hired singers to serenade us with proper era songs, lots of Andrews Sisters, and Matt and Jan had worn their WWII uniforms. The pub was a bit small but there was just enough of a dance floor for me to try jiving and a 40s version of line dancing.
We had another trip to the Cathedral archives, this time to look at Reformation printed books. Actually getting to touch these pieces was really surreal. Printed about 500 years ago, and showing signs of the religious upheaval, just seeing the evidence in my hands, was unforgettable. There was a copy of William Tyndale's English Byble, the title page depicting Henry VIII as right under God (no Pope) and handing out Bibles to his priests and people, The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe (also called Foxe's Book of Martyrs) painting the history of England in a pro Protestant light, and the Golden Legend with the pages of Thomas Becket of Canterbury ripped from the centre.Those centuries old pages let out little Entish groans and creaks when you open them and I love that you see marked up margins, or empty places where someone forgot to finish an illumination. These little human imperfections give the books more character and a story of its own.
Shrove Tuesday this week, also known as Pancake Day, even though Brits do pancakes wrong (they're really crepes) it's a very delicious holiday. CU ran out of pancakes so Grace, Rachael and I went back to my place to make more and drown ourselves in Nutella. I also threw a Canadian night party, no particular reason but we had an evening of Hockey, Canadian triva and food. The menu included poutine, maple bacon, beaver tales and s'mores. I think I got mixed reviews on the poutine, which I attribute partially to not having real cheese curds and therefore not proper poutine but the beaver tales were a hit. For clarification, beaver tails are deep fried bread, rolled in cinnamon sugar, and then drizzled with Nutella and maple syrup - heaven - but interesting to make, I felt like a kid playing with really sticky play-doh for a good chunk of the evening. I had made a Canadian Words quiz where my mix of American, British and Belgian friends wrote down what they thought they were. Best ones as follows:
Caribou: Carbonara sauce, a cow, a kind of car, Canadian version of Haribo (German candy company, pronounced Har-ee-bow)
Timmies Run - a sled route, a lot of people named Tim running
Canuck - waterproof, weapon, a canoe for a duck, when you knock on the door and it goes wrong (Can't Knock),
Double-Double - a high ten, a hockey team, shots,
Chinook - Biscuits, when you put your head in your hands (a chin - nook)
Clicks - high heeled shoes
Klondike - a horrible duck, a Canadian clan dress, a clandestine bike
Deke - punch, walking into a window, knife, a hat
Puck bunny - ice hockey mascot thing
Stagette - A sandwich made out of a baguette and stag meat
We also watched a hockey game, Flames and Oilers (pre-edited so that the proper team won) and then a few montages of hockey fights - including the Canadian version of Romeo and Juliet. There were a few other cultural tidbits, Arrogant Worms songs, Molsen Canadian Ads, Moose fights, Newspaper headlines that could only happen in Canada,
As a little day trip, Matt, Tim and I went to Richborough Roman Fort, to run around the windy fields and ditches and broken walls that I really wanted to try and climb. Again, just that feeling of this little nothing field was once a Roman civilian town in 43 AD and then a Saxon shore post in 227AD is really hard to wrap your head around. We walked around Sandwich for a while, had a nice lunch in a pub (yes, a sandwich) and talked about the upcoming show at York.
