This week’s edition by: David

Ok, so it’s yet another week at the office. We had two clubs last week, both pretty successful, which you’ll find out about next. Also we have a feature on a popular British celebration, Bonfire Night, which took place on the evening of the 5th. This is an opportunity to find out about a pretty unique celebration, so read on!

REVIEWS

ROCK CLIMBING CLUB

Three students attended this club, hosted by myself, a great success. One was a bit of a seasoned pro (i.e. had climbed before) and two were absolute beginners, and seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly! So congratulations, and well done! As for me, I woke up aching all over, and with a banged knee. Painful.

ADVANCED CONVERSATION CLUB

Sean held this club, and only one student attended. However, they both had a good chinwag about subjects as diverse as education and the acquisition of language. After an hour and twenty minutes of hard intellectual battle, both people retired with swollen brains. Well done guys!


NEWS AND EVENTS

LECTURE – EUPHEMISMS

Friday 10th November, 19.30.

This week sees our resident co-editor, Daniel, host his lecture. He will be talking about euphemisms, which are ways of making something bad sound good. This is a fascinating topic, and can be quite funny. You’ll get to hear some strange phrases you won’t have heard before, and some which are typically British. If you want to attend, you know the drill – sign up in the secretaries’ office.

There’s not much else happening in the world of Speed. However, we do have another Music Club coming up in ten days or so, and we also have another Kids’ Club around the same time. More on those next week.

IN OTHER NEWS….

The Callan teachers all begin their Polish lesson this week. So beware! We will know all that you say in class VERY soon! It will be quite funny to see how it goes though. We’ll let you know next week how the first round of lessons went.

FUN AND OTHER RANDOM STUFF

WORD OF THE DAY

EXEUNT - ex·e·unt [ éksee ənt ]

This is commonly found in old plays, especially Shakespeare. It is used when there is more than one actor on stage, and more than one is to exit the stage. For example, “exeunt left” means that the actors are to leave the stage to the right. It is a 15th Century Latin word.


THOUGHT OF THE DAY

What happens if you get scared half to death twice?


RANDOM BRITISH JOKE OF THE WEEK

"I told my wife that a man is like a fine wine... I always get better with age. The next day, she locked me in the wine cellar."


"REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER; GUNPOWDER, TREASON AND PLOT"

Guy Fawkes Night, more commonly known as Bonfire Night, is an annual celebration (but not a public holiday) on the evening of the 5th of November primarily in the United Kingdom, but also in British colonies New Zealand, South Africa, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (Canada), parts of the British Caribbean including the Bahamas, and to some extent by their nationals abroad. Bonfire Night was common in Australia until the 1980s, but it was held on the Queen's Birthday long weekend in June.

It celebrates the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, in which a group of Catholic conspirators, led by one Robert Catesby, and including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in Westminster on the evening of 5 November 1605, when the Protestant King James I (James VI of Scotland) was within its walls. The plot was only prevented when one of the conspirators warned a Member of Parliament that he should not attend that evening.

The celebrations, which in the United Kingdom take place in towns and villages across the country, involve fireworks displays and the building of bonfires, on which "guys", or dummies, representing Guy Fawkes, the most infamous of the conspirators, are traditionally burnt. Before the fifth, children traditionally used the "guys" to beg for money with the chant "Penny for the guy", although this is now rarely seen.

Note from David: This begging for money is in fact more prevalent than ever among the young and behaviourally challenged. In Britain anyway.

UNTIL NEXT TIME, ADIOS!