Current mood:	okay
Current music:	David Bowie - Heroes
Entry tags:	fireworks, funfairs, hazel close, light, quotes

All's Fun at the Fair
(following on from last update)

The approach was fun, as the blaze of light contrasted strongly with the dark of the green and the surrounding woodland. Once there, it was almost surreal, as it was a fair in the traditional sense, lacking the Ghost Trains and small-scale theme park rides of the common funfair. There was a coconut shy, a stall selling toffee apples and candyfloss (cotton candy), three carousels and a hall holding a number of vintage coin machines. A hook-a-duck stand, a large steam engine and a few fast food booths completed the atmosphere. With the lights in the dark, the smoky air (steam, in this case) and the smell of hot dogs smothered in brown sauce, it felt like a night in mid-Autumn, and the firework display only helped cement the November ambience.

With my camera in hand, worries were forgotten in lieu of gaining good photographs, and enjoying the light show with the mix of barrel organs and Elvis Presley songs. The firework display was nothing special, but it was free, in early September, and very pretty nonetheless. My hair got stuck to Viv’s toffee apple, causing trouble for us both, but I noticed when offered some quite how things had changed since the funfairs of my past. I used to eat the toffee off the toffee apples and then struggle to get past the apple skin before giving up. Now, I can bite through the toffee, and the skin, into the apple, and it works much better. Yum. Holly, meanwhile, was blowing bubbles and bouncing balloons with prizes won on the hook-a-duck (is it the duck that is hooked, or is it you?). Without actually spending any money, I had a really fun time, as did Viv and Holly, which was fantastic. I have plenty of photos to remember the light show by, as well.

Viv then took us to her place to show us around. We’d heard English Nick describe the place a few weeks ago, but we now got a tour, and we were dumbstruck. It felt more like a Bed & Breakfast than a student house, and the amount of space everywhere combined with the furnishings gave the impression of a real house, rather than our random mishmash in Hazel Close. The housemates are fantastic too, given that three of them are good friends of mine, and a further two are pleasant acquaintances. Viv’s room was unexpectedly appealing to me, given its dark wallpaper, spacious writing desk and other things I felt hard to put into words (a certain ‘Ich weiß nicht’). Ah, well, Viv’s lucky to have it. My room back here isn’t bad, even though it’s small, and the shower in the corner still has no mat, so the carpet around is growing ever more mouldy. I’ll bug Prem (our eccentric landlord) about it when I get the chance. There’s always something to bug Prem about: this house is a comedy of errors.

On that vaguely Shakespearean note, I’ll leave you there with two quotes I recently overhead. The first is from a young boy in Windsor, and the second…well, I won’t embarrass them.

‘What’s the webpage for the internet, again?’

‘It’s about fifty-fifty. No, wait, not that, it’s the other way round!’