Brown Girl in London

Happy Canada Day!

Well, another weekend has come and gone in London and this past weekend was a good one. It’s Canada Day weekend at home but there were also celebrations for it’s birthday over here. On Friday, Trafalgar Square was transformed into Canada Square for an evening of “all things Canadian” – supposedly. HD had to work that evening until 11pm so I went to check out the event by myself, which was fine. It was pretty packed and they played a lot of music from the martimes – apparently this is what foreign places think Canadians only listen too, but then again it's the same music you hear at celebrations at home. The performers were semi-country-fiddle types – it was all entertaining but all the same. Although, the highlight for me was watching a really short set by Ron Sexsmith – that was very cool. I went to the Café to see what they were selling – I wasn’t hungry but if I was I would’ve got a bag of proper chips – Ruffles All Dressed or Ketchup – because one thing that is definitely worse here than at home are these British crisps (chips in Canadian, because chips in the UK are fries in Canada) – they are all like Lays, which are probably the worst chips out there (remember Wasabi and Spicy Curry, Sisy?) – and they come in flavours like prawn (shrimp) cocktail, lamb curry, beef prime rib, roasted chicken, tandoori chicken, etc. I’ve tried to like them but man, it’s definitely an acquired taste.

Ok, enough about chips/crisps!

After Ron Sexsmith they played some more typical tunes like that one that goes “Way hey hey it’s just an ordinary day and it’s your state of mind” by Great Big Sea and the “I’ve been drunk for a month and I’ve been drunk since I left…I’ve been sick from the drink, take me home for a rest” (which always reminds me of my frosh week at Guelph, just b/c the song was out then, not b/c I was actually like that, gosh!), and all these people were jumping around and sloshing their beer everywhere – it was time to go home.

The thing was, even thought it wasn’t my cup of tea, it was clearly Canadian – this celebration was exactly like the ones they have at home, minus the fireworks and barbecue, my favourite parts!

posted by RC @ 6:58 AM