Robin took pictures of me with two regimental flags from NC regiments at the Civil War camp. You can see a "North Carolinian" in the background there.

This one looks very similar to the state flag I think.

Here's a video of the cannons firing in the Civil War one, to give you an idea of how it worked. I think it sounded much louder than it does on the video.

In this picture, all of the different groups have lined up for a final parade. The closest group was the oldest, but I couldn't place what group they were supposed to be exactly. I thought maybe the Greeks or the Celts. You can also see the Romans and way in the distance, some of the World War groups.

A couple of the knights were practicing before their big tournament, so we watched them hack away at each other. The taller one kept beating the shorter one when they sparred.

The civil war battle was by far the largest and most popular of the battles. You can see the union on the close side in this picture. In the far distance on the hill is the confederate artillery, which kept firing a lot. They even had little explosions happen in the grass sometimes. The union artillery was to my left when taking this picture, and they were incredibly loud. Despite their superior numbers, the union lost this battle. There is another day of the fayre today, and I think the union will win this time.


The union had a cavalry unit, but they still lost the battle. They had to rent special horses that didn't mind the constant explosions (which were really loud). The only problem with the cavalry is that they could not die. Because they would need to fall off their horse and then the horse would run around free, possibly hurting someone. So they never seemed hurt, even when shot at point blank range. Surprisingly, the cavalry did not attack the unguarded confederate artillery either. Oh well.




Here's the civil war camp. They eat and sleep here for the two days of the festival. The close side is the union, with the confederates in the rear.

Here are some giant cabbages from the vegetable contest. There were long parsnips and leeks too.


Here's a close-up of the city center.

This is one view of the fayre. The park is on a hill, so you cannot see all of the fayre from here. You can see the city in the background though.

In what can only be described as really bizarre, I went to the Sheffield Fayre yesterday and watched a US civil war reenactment. The fayre had rides for kids, a few animals, and lots of vegetables, but the main attraction was the large group of historical reenactments. There were romans, knights, WWI and II soldiers, and many more. However, the largest group by far was the US civil war soldiers (all British from what I could tell). You can read more about it at http://www.eventplan.co.uk/Sheff07.htm but I've got pictures to add too.

It turned out it was the Gatecrasher One club, which was perhaps the most famous in Sheffield. I've never been there though, as generally techno/club music drives me insane. We have to listen to enough of it as it is since our upstairs neighbor likes to listen to it.

Read the full news story at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/6765331.stm

Sheffield is now covered in a thick layer of smoke. There's a large building not far from where I work which is gushing out smoke. I walked down the road to look at it, and the roof had caved in. The firetrucks were just dumping water on it, as I guess there was no one in it. I couldn't tell what building it was, but some people theorized it was a famous club, Gatecrasher One, which is in that area. I suppose I'll find out later what building it was. It was probably an abandoned building that someone couldn't rent.

I wish I had my camera with me, as it was a pretty impressive sight. Most of the smoke has been blown uphill into the downtown of the city, so Victoria said it was very smoky walking back from Starbucks where she was meeting her friends.

Sheffield is currently bustling with its largest annual event: the World Snooker Championship. It rates up there with the World Series in terms of how world-wide it actually is though. Almost all of the snooker players in the tournament are British, with a couple Irish, one Australian, and two Chinese players thrown in. Snooker is a bit like pool, but with a small table and different rules. The balls are different colors as well. They have set up lots of signs and made a small snooker village near where I work. The snooker championship slogan is strangely reminiscent of Highlander "There can be only one." I keep waiting for a player, upon winning, to smack off the other guy's head with a pool cue and absorb his snooker skill. Not sure that will actually happen though.

The building in the top of the picture is the Owen building, the largest building at Sheffield Hallam University where I work.

The day we left for Paris, it was a really sunny day in Sheffield, so I took some pictures by the station. This is the giant wall of water and a series of cascading waterfalls. The air conditioner-like building in the back is the Sheffield Hallam student union.