General Chat

FYI, the preparations involve:

Buying a two-four or two.
Assembling some home fireworks.
Putting on a plaid flannel jacket.
Going to the cottage, for the more landed gentry.
Hanging out in the back yard and barbecuing something, for the less landed.
Going to a public fireworks display, for the unlanded or bigtime fireworks fans.
Just lying on the chesterfield and watching TV like on any day off work, for the unmotivated.

The chesterfield option for me. :-D

Me too. ;-)

Aside from the fact that I'll actually be sitting at the computer all day. No rest for the self-employed...

In the small city we have moved to, backyard fireworks are allowed, and a couple of households on adjoining blocks do them every holiday. They started last night, actually, and the bang bang went on for some time, but I stayed on the chesterfield. There will probably be more tonight and tomorrow.

I actually love fireworks. The roar of the gunpowder, the smell of the crowds. :-)

Thirty years ago, No. Minus One and I used to travel to small towns on the St Lawrence for Canada Day and watch the fireworks in parks on the river banks. That was all lovely until I got a cinder under my contact lens one rainy July 1.

No. 1 is not mobile now and is even lazier than he already was. Getting into his chair to go to the veranda to watch fireworks is asking too much, as is pretty much everything else.

/moan

umm.... no :-D

No cases of beer, no huddling around an outdoor fire in the rain, no things going bang in the night?!

She would not be amused! :-D

I didn't know she/it had a special day :-S
Are we talking queen? Falls? aussie state? Mrs Beckham? LOL

We obviously revere our late Empresses more in Canada. :-D

Born May 24, 1819, at Kensington Palace, she was.

May 24 has historically been the day you get out your beer and your barbecue, or, for farmers in older times (and for backyard flower & veg gardeners in these times), your seedlings for planting out.

These days, you can plant out a good week or two earlier, in my part of the country, and, in addition to the beer, barbecue and fireworks, we generally get the obnoxious roaring motorcycles celebrating their release from winter captivity up and down the street.

Be the first on your block to have a Victoria Day barbecue!

Why the plaid? And has the flannel given way to polyester?

I just have visions of garish fleecy jackets in all shades of red, green and yellow...

Ah. so that's why May 24th is Empire day - or was :-S

Oh so that's why the neighbours are smoking the place out with noxious fumes and obnoxious rowdiness, plus the thud thud thud of what they imagine to be music? ;-)

But I think it's just the first really warm weekend.

Your neighbours too eh Rose? Mine lit the barbie and it stunk of last years fat. :-0 :-|

Yes I'm afraid so Island, it will be a feature for the rest of the summer if it's fine :-(

There have been summers when I prayed for rain for just that reason. One recent summer was particularly awful, as neighbours to the rear had just moved in and repaired the long-dead inground pool. In addition to the music, they had acquired one of those outdoor games called "cornhole" where you toss a small beanbag onto a piece of plywood hoping to hit the hole, but you never do, and the resulting sound resembles a Desert Storm 50-calibre handgun going off, over and over and over. The next year it rained constantly. Heaven. I continue to pray that the next door neighbour's kids remain uninterested in the basketball hoop at the end of their asphalt driveway, 20 feet from our family room window. Something else that sounds more like a gunshot than a gunshot itself.

As for barbies ... my next door neighbour in my previous house, when I first bought it, was from the Azores and spent his spare time smoking some sort of garbage fish, again 20 feet from my window. He was replaced by Chinese neighbours on the other side who used their kitchen exhaust fan to blow the savoury smells out of their kitchen and straight across the driveway into mine. I am quite fond of garlic and onion ... my own.

I am containing my horror at the idea of polyester lumberjack jackets.

We get a giggle out of the criminals in the UK who think nylon track suits are the height of bad. They'd be laughed out of the hood over here.

criminals in the uk? nylon track suits? sounds like an 80's american tv show LOL

Happy Victoria Day. JoonieC

Here, it's more get out for the first weekend camping, bring along many 12-packs of beer, and lets make as much noise as we can.

It's cooled down a bit here, and we "may" get showers.

OH used to get his veggie plantings in before the middle of April, seeing as how we live in the Banana Belt

Happy Victoria day ladies.

On top of everything already mentioned it's now the season of the backyard fire pits, where people who would never dream of actually sleeping under canvas suddenly have the need to sit in their little backyards around a smoking fire pit - even though they're banned in the city. You've had your windows open getting fresh air into the house then suddenly it's full of foul-smelling thick smoke because they don't know wet leaves they just raked up are not a great addition to a fire!!

Every year I'm asked if it's celebrated in the UK and they're surprised when I say no. :-)

I'm in the UK and never heard of Victoria day. :-S

Ah so it is actually "Empire Day" . My mum used to talk about it as regards her school days, but I am too young to remember it myself ;-)

"A now largely forgotten anniversary, perhaps only your grandparents will recall the chant "Remember, Remember Empire Day, the 24th of May". Only your grandparents and several million loyal Canadians that is, who still celebrate Victoria Day each year on the last Monday before 24th May."

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Empire-Day/

I’m with Island over the tracksuits, Joonie. They have not been in for a long time - defo a throwback to the past.

It’s difficult to pin down clothing to the criminal classes at the moment. Hoodies springs to mind but they are worn by all youngsters nowadays.

Years ago, I was once told that there are more crims outside in shirts and ties than there are inside.. :-0

Spot on with criminals wearing collar and tie Joy although some are fooled by ties.
Not that I'm familiar with any criminals but I've seen pics on t'internet and have done jury service twice.