Wednesday morning we were tired after having got back from the Italian Lakes well after midnight. We just aren't used to late nights and early mornings. But we managed to get enough energy together without having a power nap to go to Crowded House on Wednesday evening at Colston Hall. We were lucky to get tickets - our first attempt said 'sold out' but a friend at work had managed to get some. He was then given 2 more as a wedding present and so we bought his spare tickets - lucky us. Some people said 'Who?' when we said where we were going but there is a pretty big following of this group in England and most people said 'Lucky you' as tickets are hard to come by. Neil Finn was in his element - providing not only good music but entertainment as well. We listened to a number of new songs which we hadn't actually heard before, and then old favourites like "Fall at Your Feet", "Weather with You", "Not the Girl You Think You Are" etc. The show was at Colston Hall and half way through the show Neil Finn asked the audience if they knew who Colston was. The audience was pretty quiet and someone suggested he was a slave trader. Surely not said Neil Finn (well words to that affect). So onto Google during the week and guess what he has a hall and a number of streets named after him and yes he was a slave trader but also established Colston Boys' School in the early 1700's in the same building as we listened to Crowded House. A man with a bit of public spirit and a bit more of a not so public spirit. The show started with Connan Mockasin (ever heard of him - well we should have because he and his band hale from Wellington. They were quite fun to watch and listen to but not the sort of music I would buy a CD of (not that we buy many). It seems that Neil Finn has taken this new band under his wing as they came and played in the last couple of Crowded House songs. To make us feel even more homesick we had taken a packet of Jaffas along with us (Cadbury may be in England but the Jaffa is strictly a Southern Hemisphere luxury). On the packet we read that 'In the days of cinemas with wooden floors, fun loving children would giggle uncontrollably as they listened to the sound of their Cadbury's Jaffas bouncing down the aisles. With the introduction of carpet and grumpy adults this leisure activity is now extinct'. So, I started to remember the times we rolled jaffas down the floors at the movies and Harry said he never did 'probably because he likes chocolate too much'. So, we saved a couple and at the end of the evening we waited for most people to leave and started too roll - and it is sad and true - these willing little Jaffas didn't roll even one step. We got talking to a couple who asked us what we were doing and after explaining and offering them a couple of left over jaffas they told us about their visit and living in New Zealand (Havelock North). By the time we had spent an hour chatting Harry had become an expert jaffa roller explaining the techniques as well as his adventures watching the Giant Jaffa Roll down Dunedin's Baldwin Street (now I am the envious one). He didn't know all the facts and figures eg Baldwin Street has a gradient of 1 in 2.86 at its steepest section and is officially recognised in the Guinness Book of Records, 25,000 Giant Jaffas were rolled down during the charity roll, but did mention that the sweets were numbered, and told of children leaning over to grab one before too much rubber and petrol had got onto the orange outside. Anyway, for those of you who don't know much about the famous jaffa - here goes...
- they are made by Cadbury and are little round balls of orange candy coated chocolate
- they have been made in NZ since 1931
- they are so popular that Kiwis abroad often phone home asking to be sent another box (really!!).
- many Kiwis enjoy rolling a Jaffa around in their mouth and seeing who's can last the longest
- in 2009 over nearly 90 tonne of Jaffas were made and the average number eaten daily were 126,404.
Harry even remember to pick up the rolled jaffas and took them back to wash!!
And that was late night Number 2. Thursday we went to see Jane and Davids new home - no more walking around to their place for dinner - well we could but they don't just live around the corner now but they are about 2 miles away and we went to an Indian restaurant in their new community. That was Late night Number 3. Friday we went to sleep real early. Because Saturday we were up and about to get ready to meet Barbara and Mike up at Carding Mill. We had a nice long walk up the valley, along the top and back down to Little Stretton and Church Stretton enjoying a warm day, the views and the company. In the evening we drove back to Northampton and spent the evening eating a Chinese (fit for a king in quantity and also quality) and the next day had a walk to Kislingbury (a short walk says Mike and Barbara but the internet says 4 miles from Northampton) and around the countryside. Mike told us about St Crispins sitting high up on the hill which was unfortunately an asylum for those less fortunate than ourselves but has since been closed down and is now a housing estate. We had lunch at a pub in Kislingbury, wandered into another (where the publican showed me around and I promised to go back again one day when we were hungry), and then inspected the flood controls in the new estates in Northampton which has suffered from fairly severe flooding over the last few decades. And Sunday was another early night.
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