All in a weekend's fun - The Chinese New Year, JFK, KFC & The Darkness

This weekend saw the beginning of the Chinese New Year and for the first time on their American adventure Marguerite and Jude went to the festivities. Here is Marguerite with one of those dragon thingymabobbers.

Earlier in the weekend and here's Marguerite trying to stay warm while carting home some shopping. This was not easy on this day folks as it was the coldest day of the year so far in Boston with temperatures of minus 15 degrees. Don't be fooled by that nice sunshine either, trust me it was baltic!! Actually this winter has seen very little snow fall in the city of Boston, which is very unusual indeed, weird even. Anyway....check out Marguerite's cool new hat there (thanks for that Emma), it makes her look all Russian and cool and all.

It's Saturday late afternoon........

.....and Marguerite takes a pic which she rambles on about all night saying that it perfectly captures Jude when he's in-the-zone, i.e. when he is on a mission and headed some place. Just look at the focus on his face!

But where was he headed?

He was only headed down to St Mary's to Saturday afternoon Mass. Today the Chapel served as not only a serene place to say a wee prayer or two, but also as a great place to get in out of today's bitter cold.

So just who do you think may have got Baptised in the Baptismal font in here then? Ok........here's a clue then. He was the President of the United States and he grew up just around the corner in Beals St.

JFK of course. As you can read on the plaque there he was Baptized in this Baptizimal font on June 19 1917. Magic....wha?

Immediately afterwards Marguerite and Jude have dandered down the street into Harvard Square in Brookline Village and stumbled across the Village Smokehouse. 'Sure let's try this wee spot Jude', said Marguerite.

'Aye, it looks a belter this place', replied Jude.

Marguerite again manages to look super cool, this time in her class new top as she samples one of the Village Smokehouse cocktails. This is the top Jude bought Marguerite at Christmas......do you remember? It was the only one he ever bought her that she never ever ever returned......nice init? Check out the rack of ribs on Jude's plate at the bottom of this pic. As soon as Jude saw them he said, 'here Marguerite, Marty and yer Da would love this place too' (he says that in every restaurant they visit which has huge portions), and kept repeating the same thing for the next hour, 'here Marguerite seriously, Marty and yer Da would think they'd died and gone to heaven in this place'.

In his attempts to eat the ribs Jude only succeeded in making a complete mess of himself. Eh......pass the wipes please....

'Any chance of a face cloth there love', Jude asks the waitress.

......or a bib please? 'Well ok, sure a kitchen roll will do the same job, thanks for that', says Jude as the waitress chucked down the kitchen roll.

Messy, messy, messy, Jude hates eating grub like this. He loves the food but he's weird in that he does not like getting his hands dirty. Sure he eats cake with a fork or a spoon.......he just hates getting his hands dirty. So he ordered a glass of water to dip his fingers into as he went along and then had to run to the bogs to wash his mits as soon as he'd finished.

The next day was the Chinese New Year. Here is Jude as he waits to catch the 'T' to head down to Chinatown to the take in the Chinese New year festivities.

Jude reckons he could easily be mistaken for his brother Brian in this pic........but it is definitely Jude folks, yep definitely Jude.

Talking of nice new Christmas tops here is Jude sporting his new County Down top. Santa brought him it! Cool, wha?

Up Down!!!!!

So they eventually they made it down to Chinatown to the spectacular New Year's Parade.

The scenes were pretty cool indeed with all the colours, excitement and music.

Here is Jude waving like a geek outside Shabu Zen (which just happens to be Marguerite and Jude's favourite restaurant in Chinatown).

So what's going on here then?

Well it's simple really.

The parade snakes it's way around all of Chinatown (lasting all day long) and stops at each individual business...............

......where the dragons are left food on the chair outside each establishment. They scoff the food and then get handed a nice little envelope which is stuffed with cash. Nice work if ye can get it!!!!

Spot yer man in the Down top again there......what a wally!!!

Marguerite enjoys the action........

.........as does Jude.

So Happy New Year (Chinese) to all from Jude and Marguerite.

On the dander home Marguerite spots this weird looking hat and insists on trying it on. It reminded her of her sister Emma because apparently Emma got a rag doll something like this when she was a child and never let it leave her side for years.

And then she trys on this......Moustache.

'Hey Marguerite, we've never had a KFC in Amercia, let's go get one', said Jude as they waited on the 'T'.

This may surprise some folk but fast-food places such as KFC and McDonalds are not as easy to find in America as some would believe, well not in Boston anyway. To find the KFC it was a bit of a trek indeed, but they eventually made it.......

.....and found it to be a complete letdown. It was nowhere near as good as KFC at home. 'Pure crap', as Jude would say. The chips (fries) were terrible, ye wouldn't give the chicken to your dog, the service was so bad you'd have been better being served by your dog, and amazingly......they insisted on handing you cornbread with everything you ordered.....(folks if ye want corn bread surely ye'll order corn bread).....not nice at all. Well I'm just saying folks.........just in case you're ever in America.....just don't bother yer behind going to KFC........I'm just saying folks...it's crap!

A couple of nights later and Marguerite and Jude are headed to see The Darkness in concert in the Paradise Rock Club on Commonwealth Avenue.

The Darkness hit the heights about 6 years ago and then lost their way a bit. Not that it's good and proper to chuck blame around like confetti but some say the band's slump was due in no small part to lead singer Justin Hawkins' fondness of the auld swally.

Back on the wagon and back rocking n' rolling.

Every time Marguerite and Jude go to a concert in the Paradise they hog this same great spot here in the balcony. It's a great view altogether.......and after you get a few swalls in you don't even notice thon silver pillar at all........it kind off magically disappears as the night progresses!

Jude knows good rock n roll when he hears it. Here he is clapping away goodo. Nice hair cut too.....wha?

'I believe in a thing called love, just listen to the rhythm...........'.

'Get your hands off my woman.......'.

All the old classics were played and a few new numbers too in what was a great concert. Check out the edjits down the front there........believe it or not that used to be Jude too when he were a lad. He was known to jump onto the stage, jump about the stage while acting the complete maggot with the band playing away, before jumping back into the crowd......however he's more a front row of the balcony punter these days.

All good concerts should end with a visit to a local pizza parlour for a few slices. The great thing about pizza after a concert is........no matter how bad the pizza is........it tastes great anyway.....cause yer half snozzled by that stage!! Here is Marguerite at Anthony's Pizza place on Commonwealth Avenue at the end of a fun weekend.