briefly noted

I went to England and France about one, two, three, FOUR months ago and just realized I had all this video on my old Flip cam. So, I’m spent half of the weekend compiling all these little stardust memories of my trip into Part I of a two-part series. 

My trip began in Lavenham, a charming, medieval English village in Suffolk County which used to be the center of England’s weaving industry. My great uncle and aunt live there in a beautiful 500-year-old house and it’s always a wonderful experience every time I visit. In fact, I we were so busy taking in the history of each new town and stopping for tea every two hours that I rarely thought to pick up and film, which explains why I had very little video of England to work with upon my return. I took plenty video in Paris, but then again it nearly led to my death. I’ll tell that story later. 

One other thing, not sure if this applies to the British as a whole, but just a general observation, my aunt and uncle are retired, but their social schedule would put a lot of New Yorkers to shame. They meet up with their friends every night of the week for some activity, including snooker (like pool),  scottish dancing (I tried it and loved it), table tennis, badmitton, lectures at Cambridge, jazz nights, etc. And it’s not like they do these things every so often, it’s nearly every day, always every week! I suppose that’s why I enjoy spending time with them so much. I don’t see them that often, in fact, I can count our visits on one hand, but I completely agree with their philosophy on life - live, learn and enjoy it! 

For example, the night I arrived I joined eight of their friends for a dinner of fish & chips and mushy peas, a regional favorite, but the night did not stop at dinner. After drinks and good conversation we headed to the adjoining medieval barn, which also serves as a photography studio, for a screening of Cinema Paradiso. Here I was sitting in a room with so much history with people 45 years older than I who were interested in Italian cinema. I was elated!