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wytchcroft[Error: unknown template qotd]
Ah the old traditions - (insert spontaneous Topol dancing) well they come and go... and it's always sad to lose a favourite. In the UK there are many traditions that are swept away by the years - progress - fashions - whim - politics or just expense. One such tradition was the annual 'Let's shoot the sh!t out of Santa' that for many years kept Manchester a-giggle.
The Santa in question - a large inflatable chap - suffered years of indignity until being replaced by what can only be described as a Japanese Giant Killer Robot. A killer, if only in the sense that the current needed to power the thing means draining the supply from several other small European cities - that's Mancuians for you, put one down a manhole and you can have free power for a year, if you don't mind never seeing Naupland again.
Personally i miss the first Santa - clinging to the spires of the town hall for dear life like an unhappy King Kong- and quite often to be heard farting air noisily through various bullet holes. Eventually Santa v.01 burst from its hold completely and like a Pink Floyd pig was last scene flying at speed out of the North of England.
Santa v.02 was friendly looking - but it didn't stop him from getting the same gleeful treatment as his predecessor.
Santa v.03 - though it's fun to watch Christmas revellers, hit by the strobe effects, fall into epileptic spasms and psychosis - lacks, oh - i don't know... charm perhaps.
santa no.2 santa clausv.03
Here is a link to the 'official' euphemistic version of the story - note, even the newspaper can barely keep a straight face.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/229/229138_town_hall_santas_last_christmas.html
The Santa in question - a large inflatable chap - suffered years of indignity until being replaced by what can only be described as a Japanese Giant Killer Robot. A killer, if only in the sense that the current needed to power the thing means draining the supply from several other small European cities - that's Mancuians for you, put one down a manhole and you can have free power for a year, if you don't mind never seeing Naupland again.
Personally i miss the first Santa - clinging to the spires of the town hall for dear life like an unhappy King Kong- and quite often to be heard farting air noisily through various bullet holes. Eventually Santa v.01 burst from its hold completely and like a Pink Floyd pig was last scene flying at speed out of the North of England.
Santa v.02 was friendly looking - but it didn't stop him from getting the same gleeful treatment as his predecessor.
Santa v.03 - though it's fun to watch Christmas revellers, hit by the strobe effects, fall into epileptic spasms and psychosis - lacks, oh - i don't know... charm perhaps.
santa no.2 santa clausv.03
Here is a link to the 'official' euphemistic version of the story - note, even the newspaper can barely keep a straight face.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/229/229138_town_hall_santas_last_christmas.html
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Date: 2008-12-11 05:42 pm (UTC)Also, we're putting an inflatable Santa in our front yard. It's embarassing but the things we do for our children is downright scary.
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Date: 2008-12-11 08:47 pm (UTC)That aint Big Ben, it's wee Ben, Manchester.
And why'd you think we used try and kill Santa Balloon so bad -
coz it was bloody 'orrible! :D
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Date: 2008-12-11 08:55 pm (UTC)Husband and I were in the Birmingham area last summer. Very nice city. Who knew there were canals all over England? Well, you probably did but this Yank was surprised.
And we drove to Flash to see the pub from An American Werewolf in London. Not sure if it was the actual one but I think it was the inspiration? It was closed so we roamed through the graveyard and gawked at the moors.
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Date: 2008-12-11 09:05 pm (UTC)ah the Moors, (or as me and the dad say, in our Cornish voices, the moooooooooooors - beware of the moooooooooors )
i wish I could be jealous of you being so close to The Slaughtered Lamb... but somehow i'm not! ;))