Stonehenge & Salisbury Cathedral Trip

It was an early start to the day as we gathered together at our meeting points for the coach. Once we arrived at UWE we were missing just two people –Nahaul and his brother who had accidently boarded the UWE bus bound for Wales! A quick phone call resolved the confusion and we were all aboard the BISC bus bound for Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral, with 20 regions/countries being represented amongst our group of 53.

En route, we drove through beautiful countryside and saw lots of rolling hills as well as sheep and cattle grazing in the fields. Tony, our wonderful coach driver gave us an interesting and detailed history about the Monmouth Rebellion, and as we drove through the pretty village of Philip St. Norton we stopped to see the George Inn, a grade one listed building where battle tactics of the rebellion were reputed to have been discussed. See http://www.thegeorgeinn-nsp.co.uk/history.htm for more of a detailed history.

The countryside led us onto Salisbury Plain where we arrived at Stonehenge –the most famous stone circle in Britain. There were mixed opinions about Stonehenge. Impressive as it might be, it is after all just a stone circle, and most certainly one of the most photographed ones at that! We all made our way around the circle at a leisurely pace. The Spanish girls even made an amateur video production whilst there, while others posed for their photo with the famous stones in the palm of their hand!

After buying postcards, mugs, guide books and other trinkets from the gift shop we headed back to the coach and drove to the city of Salisbury. The sun continued to shine all afternoon as we had free time to get some lunch before our guided tour of the cathedral. Hannah and May sat outside at The Mill for their lunch, and enjoyed the warmth of the sun whilst munching on a pub lunch. Others explored the Market Square and the pretty streets of Salisbury. Some were even inspired to buy some knitting needles and wool from the market, having just learned to knit at the BISC Knitting Afternoon earlier in the week!

At 2.20pm we gathered together at the Cathedral for our guided tours. The Cathedral attracts some 600,000 visitors each year and it is clear to see why so many people visit the building because it is truly spectacular. We saw the oldest Medieval clock without a face and the newly built font where you could see amazing reflections of the ceiling. The tour included a visit to the Chapter House and the Magna Carta –an English legal charter, written in Latin, originally issued in 1215. The cathedral had some quirky features, including being built on very shallow foundations, plus the central columns were not 100% straight when you looked up, because of the weight of the tower. The cloisters were filled with sunshine and the Cathedral cat was popular with the visitors. The guides were excellent, and particularly helpful with giving the correct answers for the quiz sheets issued in the morning!

Once back on the coach we watched the sun set as we headed back towards Bristol. There were a lot of correct quiz answers and 3 people scored 12 out of 12. The deciding question ‘What was the name of the pub in Philip St. Norton that we passed through in the morning?” was correctly answered by Anett from Hungary, who was the proud winner and owner of a special Salisbury Cathedral mug. A good day out was had by all, and we look forward to the next BISC trip to Oxford on 14th March.

Knitting Afternoon

So it appears to be that time of the year again, "What time?" I hear you ask, well the BISC annual knitting afternoon of course! This year was a great success, starting shortly after 2:30 six brave international girls and a couple of foolish guys from the CU started knitting or rather didn’t! It took about 25 min to learn the first stitch called "casting on" though it wasn't our teachers Pat's fault that there was only one of her and eight of us.

After the first few mistakes and lots of snacks later we were all adept at casting on except me, I couldn’t seem to get it at all but then help arrived in the form of Camilla! Camilla taught me the Peruvian way of knitting (everyone else was learning the English way) and I must say I found it a lot easier! Not too long after Camilla's arrival everyone had learnt the next stitch "plain stitch" and later some were adept enough to learn "pearl stitch". I only progressed to plain stitch but got quite a bit of knitting done before I had to leave at 4:00. I was very pleased with what I had learnt, we all agreed that once a year was too long a time between knitting sessions and a monthly knitting session was proposed so watch this space!
Our thanks for Joe Bain for the blog blurb.

SCANDINAVIAN NIGHT 11/2/09

Hei, Paivaa, (Finnish), Hei, God dag, (Norwegian), Hej, Goddag, (Danish), Bonjour, Salut (French), bzia, Jo’ nepot (Hungarian), Hola, Buen Dia’ (Spanish)., Hallo, Gutentag (German), Czesc’ Dzien’dobry (Polish), "Ahoj, Dobry den" (Dobrý deň), Have you had your meal yet/ (Mandarin), Hoot hoot or twit twoo (Oscar the eagle owl), and hello again you lovely blog readers.

Tune in to the wonderful Scandinavian night held on the evening of Wednesday 11th February 2009. The evening with its food, entertainment and gig were provided by the University of Bristol’s Scandinavian Society and what a wonderful job they did. The evening started with nibbles and socialising, serenaded by Oscar’s hooting. My wife though it was me hiding behind some bushes trying to scare her. I can do this anyway without hooting like Oscar!

It was my first taste of caviar! After tasting it I wondered what the big deal was about its value! However I did notice Xiaomei with a horrible expression on her face, rushing into the toilets. The black herring or what ever it was was apparently much too salty!

The food was fantastic, meatballs from Ikea. I thought Ikea was the capital of the Faroe Islands!! Or for that matter Nokia being the capital of Sweden. But there you go; I learnt something from last night. Yes BISC activities are good for your education. The only Scandinavian country I have visited is Norway. I cannot say that it was inspiring at the time. I saw Oslo, for 20,000 feet as we flew to the northern of Norway. This was 40 years ago whilst I was in the Army. We were there for winter warfare training. It was totally boring!! An afternoon visit to Tromso was good though. It was the only time that we met the local people.

The folk singing was extremely good with the story behind the song being interpreted as we went along. I liked the one about the man in Italy near San Remo I think, who took his clothes off and with a bottle of wine, met a young lady who had taken her clothes off! I didn’t hear the ending of the song though. Mind you, had a similar event happened in Bristol during the last week, both the man and women could have either been arrested or died of hypothermia! My original introduction to folk music was in an old inn over 40 years ago not for from Stonehenge Wiltshire, sawdust on the floor, an old bashed in piano being played by a bashed in old pianist, and two equally bashed in musicians one playing the violin, the other the clarinet. They became a well known British traditional jazz band led by ‘Akker’ Bilke, who still lives in this part of the world.

The quiz was something else. How did your group do? I was in the Oscar team and we got nine questions correct. Out of a total score of 15, I guess we scored a 2:2 in academic terms. I think that we miscalculated the ration of pigs to humans that reside in Denmark!

Looking around last night at happy smiling faces from many different nations engaged in talk, socialising and making merry, I could only reflect on what a marvellous place BISC is with the integration of all the beautiful international students. But above all let us hear it for the Scandinavian Society. They were brilliant. Thank you very much.

I am waiting in trepidation for the Stonehenge and Salisbury trip on the 21st February and Pancake Day.

See you all soon. The BISC Blogmaster