Today is the first hard soaking rain we’ve had in Birmingham since I’ve been here (not counting the sideways rain in Ireland and the downpour in Cornwall). I can hear it pelting against my bedroom window and am thankful I don’t have to walk in it. Dean will drive us to our seminar.
We are, once again, at Wast Hills House. During the morning, it rains so hard that the conference room ceiling begins to leak. I decide not to run the 50 or so feet between buildings to go with the rest of the group for coffee during the mid-morning break. I am content to sit alone in the seminar room and listen to the rain.
The attendees in this workshop are more policy-oriented than Wednesday’s group. There is a lot of good discussion. I hope I am learning something through absorption.
Today is Guy Fawkes Day, also known as Bonfire Night. It commemorates the foiled attempt by one Guy Fawkes and his treasonous compatriots to blow up the House of Lords and kill King James I on November 5, 1605. Parliament declared it a day of national thanksgiving and nearly 400 years later revelers still celebrate with parades, fireworks, and throwing straw figures representing the would be assassin onto bonfires. The fireworks represent the gunpowder that never exploded.
Remember, remember, the fifth of November Gunpowder treason and plot We see no reason
British nursery rhyme
Why Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot ….
The papers connect Guy Fawkes to what is happening in Westminster now with the House of Lords voting down Tony Blair’s welfare bill. A clever Times political cartoon turns the table and shows the King and the Lords trying to blow up the House of Commons.
Photo: Awareness Day website
As I type this in my room at Glenelg, I can see fireworks from my window. They echo across the city. The leaves have mostly fallen from the trees from today’s wind and rain, leaving me a clear view of the university clock tower. I think the fireworks will go on all night. It is still raining and although I love fireworks and normally would be out watching, tonight I prefer the obscured view from my warm, dry bedroom.
Jody’s UK Memories 
