April 23rd 2013. What does this date mean to you? Anything or is it just another Tuesday?
I’ve been up since 4 trying to catch a glimpse of the Lyrid meteor shower (I didn’t see anything but NASA captured the celestial shananigans for me HERE) and now, here I am, at 6.30am telling you why today is a great day.
Firstly, it’s St Georges Day. A day when the English should be wearing green and drinking Guiness, oh wait, wrong day. Can somebody tell me why we celebrate St Patrick’s day? I have no idea, yet we do. When it comes to embracing our own heritage, our own fantastic nation, many are afraid to do so for fear of ‘upsetting’ the others. Well I’m here to tell you that I love my country (although I wouldn’t mind it being closer to the equator), I love the people in it, I love our neighbours (here’s to you Scotland, Wales & Ireland) but I hate the fact that we celebrate for everyone else but not ourselves. Grow a pair England!!! A website specifically set up for this day and our fabulous nation can be seen here.
Today is also the anniversary of the birth AND death of the great William Shakespeare.
“Cry God for Harry, England and St George!”
William Shakespeare
I bet he’ll be waving his flag somewhere today.
And last but not least it is WORLD BOOK NIGHT!! For the past few years my mum has applied to be a WBN giver. This essentially means that prior to April 23rd she gets a big box of books, FOR FREE, to give away to unsuspecting individuals. This is the first year that I too received a box of lovliness.
The first thing I did when I opened the box was sniff inside it. It’s a weird habit of mine which includes magazines, diaries etc. I can confirm that they passed the sniff test and are good to go.
WBN is about spreading the joy of reading, getting lost in an adventure, crying with sorrow at the death of a favourite character, laughing like a lunatic on a train then forgetting that you actually were on a train and everyone is looking at you. We went to a few neighbours last year and offered these books to the occupants and I was so surprised when one neighbour told me that that NEVER read books in their house. Exact words were ‘Never have, never will.’ SLAM. He was off the BBQ list for that little outburst.
If you happen to be in Formby tonight then come on down to Cafe d’art. I’ll be there, with my books and you may have one. For those not quite close enough I have a couple of copies of Casino Royale that I can send to two people who comment below. Make me smile!!
If you want to be involved in World Book Night next year follow the link and sign up. It’ll be worth it.
Think big and reach for the stars,
Vix x