flicking a V
So, I'm out with my homies on Friday night, and it comes time to take the usual group photo. We all gather around, check that we can see the camera, maria pulls out her "psycho" face, and everyone flashes their gang sign. We settle back down into our seats, sup on our ale, and maria points out that the 'V' sign that most of my homeboys/homegirls have just flashed is actually a rather rude sign in England. NOOOOOOOOOOOO! They say is shock. YEEEEEEEEEES! We reply. WHAAAAAAAATTT? They demand. 'Tis giving the finger, except in this case it is giving it twice. We inform. NOOOOOOOOOOOO! They say is shock.

remember, remember
Stop me if you've heard this before, but I am going to talk about Bonfire Night. Now, I'm fairly sure that I've written about this before, but after searching through my blog, I can't find anything.I've checked with maria, and she was convinced there should have been something, but there's nada. In the deep, dark recesses of my memory, just over there, behind the hidden memory of being molested as an altar boy, I faintly remember telling Efrain about Bonfire Night. So tha

dodged that bullet
Monday 2nd November, Day of The Dead. No work. Sheffield United are playing football, in England, at 7:45pm their time, 11:45am my time. According to the t'internet, which has never been known to lie, the match is being transmitted live by Setanta. The match would be shown (live) in The Shakespeare Pub and Grille. Your mission, if you are willing to accept it, is to get across the border, on a Monday morning, with no visa, and watch the match. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Game On!Woke at 7:30am. Got up thirty minutes later. Got dressed. Hung around flat for twenty minutes more while maria finished getting ready. Exchanged money. Drove towards San Ysidr

all souls day
As any good Catholic boy knows, November 1st is All Saints Day. It is the day that the Catholic church has assigned for all those saints who don't have their own (actual) day. Which means that if you have a Christian name then today is the day you celebrate your saint. Me, I'm named after Saint William (I was baptised in a church called St. William), which means I get to celebrate my saint's day on June 8th.The day after All Saints Day is All Souls Day. A day that is devoted to all the dead people. It was the day my mother would take us to church to light a candle for her parents, who were dead. When my mother discovered that I had run away to Mexico, the first wo

whatever
I'm sorry, I just don't get it. I really, really don't get Halloween. When I was a kid there was no Halloween. Well, of course there was Halloween, it was the night before All Saints Day, it was All Souls Day. But for me there was Mischief Night. Mischief Night was all trick and no treat night. This was the night when tricks were played. From an early age we'd ring doorbells and run away. We would hear about people who would do the lit-bag-of-dog-shit but I never did that. I did once put a lit banger (fire-cracker) through a letter box. Oh, and before you think that I was picking on someone, I'd like to point out that I posted it into a P