View from the base View from the top Those little white specks in the field are sheep On Sunday morning we went up to Almscliff Crag, just outside of Pool (between Leeds and Otley). It wasn't too bad of a climb, but it was really exposed--so windy and cold! I overcompensated a bit and took loads of pictures of the view to really make it worthwhile :) It really does have a gorgeous view, though.
Mile marker on the canal near Kirkstall Having dinner at the Christkindelmarkt before the light switch-on event The crowd went all across the Headrow and all the way up the road Watched a few performers--some bad and some decent And then Father Christmas came to switch on the lights! Fireworks
The German Christmas market opened tonight, so we went down and checked it out after work Enjoying some mulled wine We didn't stay long this time, because we got rained out, but we've got plenty of time to go back to it--the market stays open until New Year's :)
This is unrelated to the protest, but I just wanted to show my new hair color... Ready for action! Setting up before our march towards Parliament When we finally got there, it was packed. I couldn't even tell how far the crowd went up the street towards Trafalgar Square and Downing Street--it was just full of students as far as I could see. Very calm, pleasant crowd Most of the signs were about Clegg rather than Cameron, and how he went back on his pledge against fee increases. There were a few crude ones, but they were mostly funny/clever. There's one on the left there that had a nice Pink Floyd reference--"We don't need no education" on one side, and "Leave those kids alone" on the other :) Part of the crowd was doing a sit-in...or they were just tired... The big peaceful protest, with the sun shining on Parliament... The reporters set up shop across from the Houses of Parliament (I think they're technically on the grounds of Westminster Abbey?) Past Big Ben, it really did all just sort of spread out and calm down I'm guessing these students would be affected by the proposed cuts to arts programs... This picture was taken on Lambeth Bridge, only a block or so away from the Conservative Party headquarters at Millbank Tower. It's interesting to see this now, to see just how unaware I was that there was violence going on right behind me. I was just taking a picture of the Thames! I suppose it shows how non-violent the day really was for most of us... Downing Street--it was very quiet. There were just a few tourists at the gates, no students... As we wandered around waiting for the bus to pick us up, we popped in to Somerset House and saw where they were setting up the ice skating rink--so pretty!
I got to the University about an hour before we were set to leave, and quickly found people to hang out with--a couple of nice undergrad girls, one studying politics and the other journalism. The ride down to London was very long...and getting through the city itself was even worse. We were just stuck in stop and go traffic for over 1 1/2 hrs. When we finally got dropped off along the Thames, we got our placards and Leeds University Union marched up as a group towards the crowds. In the huge mass of people outside Parliament, we lost track of the Leeds University Union people. We just followed the crowd to the end of the park, and then crossed Lambeth Bridge to the South bank--which turned out to be a very good choice. Only one block further down the road and we would've been at Millbank. At one point, we saw 6 riot police vans speed by, so I called my mom to check on the news and let her know I was going in the opposite direction of the riot vans ;) That was the first we heard about the situation at Millbank--we were just wandering around London, unaware of any violence. It sounds so tame and uninteresting to say what we did: we stopped at Pret A Manger to get some dinner for the bus ride home, briefly went to LSE's after-party which was really lame, browsed a couple of shops, then went to a pub near the Savoy until bus pick-up time (very cool old place!). We really had a great time, and I'm so irritated by the fact that the protest got undermined by a small group of idiots. They didn't accomplish anything at Millbank, other than making students look bad. It was just needlessly destructive, and of course the media is going to focus on that--not on my nice experience, because that's not newsworthy...
We've been pretty busy over the past few days (despite the fact that these pictures are all very chill and relaxing). On Thursday night, we went to the opening night of the Leeds International Film Festival and watched "The King's Speech" at the Town Hall. It was fantastic, I really recommend it to all of my fellow Colin Firth fans--it'll be out in the States in 3 weeks :) On Friday, we went to a Marina and the Diamonds concert at the University Union, and that was great, too! On Saturday we went for a walk around Roundhay Park, and on Sunday we went to Otley for the boot fair and a picnic lunch at the riverbank, followed by a party at Richard's friend Matt's place. Today I went on a nice cafe crawl with the netbook. I did 2 Starbuckses and a Caffe Nero, so I got quite a bit done--am really feeling good about the PhD lately :)
