The 5th of November
Hiya everyone, happy Guy Fawke’s Day, or bonfire night as its also known.
For those who don’t know (because I didn’t before today either!) tonight there will be fireworks lit off all across the UK to commemorate the arrest of Guy Fawkes who was associated with the gunpowder plot to blow up the Parliament back in the 1600s. Since then the holiday has been celebrated with bonfires and fireworks ever since.
Earlier tonight my friends and I went up to Calton Hill in New town. We were hoping to see the big annual fireworks display, but it was cancelled tonight due to wind. We still got to see some other, smaller displays from that view, but nothing as big and spectacular as we were expecting.
The rest of my week hasn’t been too exciting, aside from my parents coming to visit me. Unfortunately I had to work through the whole week, so I only really got to see them at meal times.
This week in Parliament, I got to learn a lot about biodiversity in Scotland (long story short: it needs to get better) as I had to help write two speeches for my MSP. One was about a spider, for which he is species champion, and the other welcoming a report on biodiversity by the Scottish Parliament.
Yesterday I went out to the constituency office in Grangemouth. I had the opportunity to go with my MSP to his surgery (Which, as I found out, does not mean ‘surgery’ as in the medical term like we use here in the US– here surgery can mean an overall appointment) in Bo’ness. He had meetings with some local people to listen to their concerns in person and to assure them he will do all he can to help them. After that we went to a local chippy and got some lunch. We rounded out the trip with a visit to the Kelpies, a relatively new, but no less spectacular, landmark in Falkirk. They’re basically giant (like, almost the size of the statue of liberty) steel statues of horse heads to commemorate the Clydesdale horses that used to pull barges up and down the canals. The name ‘kelpies’ comes from the Scottish myth of beautiful young women who used to lure young men down to the river, transform into horse-headed monsters, and drown them. Warm and fuzzy, I know.
Anyway, my head is really hurting right now and I really am quite tired; that’s all from me this week folks!
Cheers,
Kim