Meri ([info]merimalfoy) wrote,
@ 2004-11-17 22:33:00
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Current mood: drained
Current music:Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Christmas Eve, Sarajevo

Travels in England...
OMG I love Stratford! Beautiful little town that hasn't changed a whole lot since Shakespeare's time. My favorite part was getting to fly birds of prey on the farm next to Mary Arden's (the Bard's mother's) house. Jessica the Bengal Eagle Owl and Cleo the Harris Hawk were so cute! Watching them ingest raw chicken with great relish right in front of your face is a minor drawback. :P

It's easy to see how so much great literature came out of the English countryside. I've never seen landscapes so beautiful. It's gorgeous whether the sun is shining or not. It was so cold in Stratford that I thought my ears were going to snap off, but that's part of the beauty. Crisp, cold weather that wishes for snow, but can't get enough moisture together to form the flakes.

Manchester was a leeetle scary. :) Apparently being drunk is a requirement to live there. (I sincerely apologize to any people from Manchester out there.) :P But seriously, the first 20 people we ran into were completely shnockered. But [info]misterfizzy got to see his band, so it was all good.

From there we went back to Oxford to do more shopping and to walk around some more, since the school trip hurried us too much. We walked along the Thames and saw the Head of the River, the pub where the winners of the boat race between Oxford and Cambridge celebrate their victory every year.

Miraculously, my flatmates managed to avoid destroying the building over the weekend. Apparently, this was because they were in Spain. In that case, I'm surprised Spain is still there and that they haven't declared war on the U.S. ;P

My body has decided that I do not need any blood. If I grow fangs, we'll know why. It's so vunderful being female. :-F <-----fangs


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[info]spes_unica
2004-11-18 11:06 am UTC (link)
My favorite part was getting to fly birds of prey on the farm next to Mary Arden's

Wow! *is jealous*
I have always been fascinated by falconry, and I'd like to learn more about it, not least because one of my fictional characters keeps falcons. I'd love to experience myself one day the weight on your arm, or what it feels like when they grip you.
- A falconer told us some months ago that her goshawk would with infallible precision put her talons right into the one hole in her glove, and that while it didn't actually pierce her skin, it left a rather interesting deep bruise. This surprised me. I'd have thought it'd be all sharp, but if you think about it, how could it...

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[info]merimalfoy
2004-11-18 04:21 pm UTC (link)
Fortunately there were no holes in the glove! O.o

Actually neither of the birds weighed that much. Well I guess they wouldn't, hollow bones and all. :) I couldn't really feel their talons. The glove was too thick, for which I am glad. ;) After they ate the chicken they just sort of stared at me, wondering why I didn't produce more food. Then after deciding that it was useless to sit on my arm anymore, they took off toward the lady with the food. :)

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[info]spes_unica
2004-11-20 01:40 pm UTC (link)
Actually neither of the birds weighed that much

I've no idea about the size of them of course (makes a note to look at a bird book).

Another falconer at the show day I was talking about began to grumble that his goshawk was now, as an almost-adult of 800 grammes, becoming a bit heavy to hold for hours on end - but then I suppose anything will get awkward to hold for hours on end...

Then after deciding [...]
LOL
*puts on fake cockney accent*
" 'ere, now, what's this mean, no more grub comin' up, then? O, right, I'll jus' push off to the boss, then, ta very much... bloody tourists..."

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