Sunday, September 30, 2007

ENGLAND GOES GONZO CARNIVAL

If you speak English as a first language and knowing French for an upcoming trip or move would help then using Internet resources to translate English to French could help you learn. You might not be able to bring an online English-French dictionary around with you, being able to translate English to French on a website can be useful.

Sponsored by For Your Success



Hello and welcome to the England Goes Gonzo Carnival!

I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who has sent over submissions. I do appreciate your support. Also a big thank you to Roy at For Your Success our carnival sponsor and also my co-host Kilroy at Fear and Loathing - The Gonzo Papers for creating the great carnival banner and also for both Roy and Kilroy's help in promoting this event. Thank you also to Eileen aka Cybercelt over at Advertising for Success , Rosemary aka Dirty Butter and all the wonderful friends I've made over at Blog Village for their carnival promotion help. It is much appreciated.

There are some great posts here and I hope you will enjoy them as much I have. Please remember when leaving comments to let people know you are visiting from the England Goes Gonzo carnival.

Without further ado, let the carnival commence!

As your hostess, I’d like to open the carnival by sharing with you some British Traditions and Images from my own blog Diary From England

Sank from Old and In the Way learnt about some of these on a recent trip to England, when he visited Nantwich in Cheshire. You can read about his sometimes humourous experiences of life in England in Damn Yanks where Sank also mentions about having Welsh ancestors.

It's surprising how many Americans, Canadians, Australians and many other nationalities of people in the world have their roots in the U.K. I've always wanted to trace my family tree and probably will one day. It's just finding the time. I know I have some Irish and German ancestry. Maybe that's why German was my best subject at school. Tracing your family tree has become big business. There are tv programmes devoted to the subject and all over the internet there are sites offering to help you for a price. Alastair a Vicar and fellow Brit from New Kid on the Blog gets a lot of people visiting him who are trying to find their roots. Alastair discusses the subject in A Sense of Identity

Cybercelt from Texas RV Travel Blog would love to visit the U.K. one day preferably in an RV (Recreational Vehicle but better known as a Motorhome to us Brits!) and invites us all to join her on a fantasy RV trip to the U.K. in RV Travel in the United Kingdom . There are certainly a lot of wonderful places to see in England. An RV is definitely one of the best and most comfortable ways to travel.

Janey Loree from PJ's Paper Doll Cut Outs would like to introduce you to Queenie and Peppy in A Couple of PJ's Paper Dolls with English Influence . There is a link to a great Earl Grey cookies (biscuits to us Brits!) recipe on there too. As some of you know, I am PJ's International Correspondent! and was happy to help Janey with some of her research when Queenie and Peppy were created. PJ’s specialise in creating books of handmade paper dolls. They also sell a lot of other interesting and educational items for both children and adults alike if you'd like to go over and pay them a visit.

I'd like to share with you a special post I did at Diary From England regarding an enquiry I had from Janey on The Origin of the British Bobby . A couple of people missed this when it was originally posted. So I thought now would be the perfect time to give it another airing.

At a time when the government is encouraging everyone in Britain to recycle and become more aware of global warming issues, I was interested to read Cybercelt's post from Advertising for Success about a green bank in the UK that she favours in Banking with a Conscience . It's always good to hear when large business organisations take an interest in the environment and set an example to us all. Cybercelt describes this organisation's business methods as being safe, sustainable and ethical, all words we like to hear.

Whilst on the subject of the environment, I bet you didn't know that according to a recent New York Times article, it is four times more energy-efficient for Londoners to buy lamb imported from the other side of the world than to buy it from a local producer in England. Sounds hard to believe but apparently it's true according to Cybercelt from Losing Proposition who publishes the surprising details of this New York Times article in Foods that Travel Well .

As most of my readers know, I love Harry Potter and am one of the boy wizard's greatest fans. In my opinion British writer JK Rowling's fictional character of Harry Potter is definitely one of England's greatest exports! Many other readers share my view, including Marsha from Family Adventures who travelled all the way from Italy (where she was living at the time) to see the first Harry Potter movie in English. Travelling to London Marsha was able to take in some of the sights of our capital city during her trip. Read about her experiences in Harry Potter in London

Speaking of exports, another great British export is The Beatles. The Fab Four as they are affectionately known by millions of fans around the world are as popular today as they've always been. Kilroy, my co-host and a Beatles fan himself, from Fear and Loathing - The Gonzo Papers has dedicated a couple of his photos to them in A Day in the Life . (Yes apart from organising great carnivals Kilroy is a talented photographer as well!).

After the Beatles split up, both Paul McCartney and John Lennon went on to form successful solo careers. One of my favourite John Lennon tracks was, "Imagine". It was No. 1 in the music charts here for several weeks. John Lennon's murder came as a shock to a lot of people including myself. Like Princess Diana's death, most people can remember where they were and what they were doing the day it happened. John Lennon's death was a terrible tragedy and a great loss to his millions of fans around the world. Fortunately we still have the legacy of his music to keep his memory alive. Anthony from The Lives and Tims of Anthony McCune shares his memories of John Lennon in John Lennon - A Day in the Life If you are a Beatles fan and ever get the chance to visit England, The Cavern Club in Liverpool where the Beatles were discovered is well worth a visit.

Aloha_50 from In Praise of the Female Form would like to share some photos with us all of his favourite English Rose. No it's not me! Only joking! The photos actually feature English Rose Elizabeth Hurley. You can see them by going to What I dig about England Liz Hurley .

As more and more British companies set up business on-line, Cybercelt from CoolAdzine for Marketers highlights a U.K. Web Design Firm housed in a unique building. This company's premises are certainly different. They were built in the 1300's using stones reclaimed from a Roman fort! Click on the link to find out more.

Many great films have been set in England over the years. Janey Loree from Notes that Touch the Heart tells us about one of these in Random Harvest . Random Harvest is based on a novel by James Hilton and is a truly wonderful picture that tugs at your heart strings with a great ending.

London is one of my favourite cities. There is so much to see and do there. Shakir Hasnain from The Crimsonflaw Lived to tell the Tale would like to share a poem with us, which is set in the city of London in Waif .

The Gatekeeper from Pieces of Me was lucky enough to spend a day in London as a child and still has fond memories of the wonderful sights and sounds of our capital city. You can share her memories in The London Mystery

Kilroy would like to share with us a photo featuring a piece of artwork exhibited around London in The Next Dive will be a Triple Gainer with a Full Twist from his other blog The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Things I've Found in the Blogosphere) .

My grandmother was a great John Wayne fan. I used to sit with her and watch some of the Duke's old films when I was growing up. You may be surprised to learn that "Harbour Lights", the background theme used in John Wayne's 1940's movie, "The Long Voyage Home", actually originated in England. Janey Loree from The Fisher Family Singers tells us all about it in Song History - Harbor Lights . You can also hear Janey and her dad singing the song.

Hopefully this country's fortunes will change for the better now that we have a new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who we're all hoping will put the Great back into Britain, something his predecessor Mr Blair took out. I like Gordon Brown and I'm sure he'll do a good job of running the country. Cybercelt from Endangered Spaces Blog also likes our new Prime Minister and tells the world in Another World Leader Steps up to the Plate

Gordon Brown hails from Scotland, a near neighbour of England. England, Ireland and Scotland form the British Isles or Great Britain as they are also known. I spent many happy caravanning holidays in Scotland with my family when I was growing up. Marion Acres from The Herbal Connection knows quite a lot about Scotland as her partner Graham hails from there. You can read Marion's Scottish-themed post at Scottish Dreaming . There are some great Scottish photos posted on there too.

Speaking of photos, I'd like to end this carnival by sharing some photos I recently posted at Diary From England . They were taken in the beautiful English Lake District. You can view them at The English Lake District . There are some interesting links posted there too for your enjoyment.

Well that's all for now. I'm off for a well deserved cup of English tea. I hope you've enjoyed the England Goes Gonzo Carnival and hope to see you at Diary From England again in the future.

NAOMI

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Naomi don't forget the Earl Grey Cookies (biscuits) with your well deserved cup of English tea!! You did a wonderful job of weaving the posts together! It will take me all week to get through all of these posts (maybe longer...)

I am hear via the England Goes GONZO! Carnival!!!

Kilroy_60 said...

GREAT job on the carnival, Naomi!

Thanks so much for all your time and effort. You put together a great Gonzo event.

Will definitely get around to comment on the posts. I'd like to encourage everyone to do that as well.

We'll be announcing a new carnival soon.

The Gatekeeper said...

Wow! What an awesome job you did, Naomi. You really love us, don't you? You write wonderfully and I think you need to go rest now. Thanks, my friend and I'll go through all these cool entries within the course of this day.

Marshamlow said...

Thanks for all your kind words, and all this work you have done. What a fabulous collection of reads.

Marion said...

What an amazing job re the Carnival, Naomi. Thank you so much...now it's time for you to take it easy for awhile, lol!

I'm enjoying reading all of the sites that entered.

Sheila said...

Naomi,
Kudos for a fine job with organising all of the entries.

Anthony said...

You got an Out click from Blog Village. :o)

I'd also like to pass along congratulations and thanks for the great work you did on this carnival.

crimsonflaw said...

Great carnival to honour the city that is a poem in itself.

I am so thankful to you for granting my piece a place in this lovely mosaic.

shakir

Aloha_50 said...

You rock! Thanks for including me.

Miss Trashahassee said...

Excellent, Naomi!

Gotta go check out all these cool links.

BFF,
Miss T

Naomi said...

Thanks for all the lovely comments on the carnival. I'm glad you all enjoyed it. It was my great pleasure to organise it and something I had always wanted to do.

Unknown said...

Naomi, I just added a link to your carnival over on my Twiglet the Little Christmas Tree blog...I will be doing this on all my blogs!!