Evening folks!
I hope you've all had a great
weekend!
As I mentioned in my last post,
me and Matthew were going to Waddesdon Manor to check out their Christmas
lights and markets. We went to visit on Saturday and were full of expectation.
This is the story of our Waddesdon Manor visit, buckle up, grab the popcorn and
enjoy!
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| Waddesdon Manor by night |
Every year Waddesdon Manor puts
on some form of festive visual feast for visitors. Christmas markets teeming
with local produce and the Manor tour (if you're lucky enough to have a ticket) keep
visitors busy during the day, and the evening is usually finished by wandering around
the grounds looking at all that year's much anticipated festive installations.
This year however, the Christmas lights were far from the festive extravaganza
that we were hoping for.
Last year was a much more
immersive experience with lights filling up all the green spaces around the
grounds giving the look of a spectacular floor of flowing colour. The
illumination inspiration for last year was Bruce Munro's outdoor installation,
'Field of Light'; 9000 bulbs all carefully arranged to bathe the grounds in a
glowing festive light. It was very impressive to behold and to watch as you
could stand and look on admiring the installation as it gradually and
periodically changed colour in a ripple effect. The Christmas markets last year
however, weren't as good as this years and I have a sneaky suspicion why that
was: because the lights last year were so much better that they didn't feel the
need to go all out with markets to stave off boredom.
This year’s theme was called
'electric menagerie'. A very exciting concept on paper and a theme that made
sense. Baron Rothschild who built Waddesdon Manor, including the aviaries in
the grounds loved animals and took enormous pride in looking after them and
seeing them both prosper in equal measure, so the theme of 'electric menagerie'
understandably then feels quite fitting; celebrating the roots of the Manor
while adding a modern, electric twist. The reality however was less
enlightening and left both me and Matthew underwhelmed and in parts just plain
confused. So much more could've been done with this theme so it was also very
disappointing.
The cost for me and Matthew to
get into the grounds was £10 after the carer discount and we were disappointed
to learn at the point of buying our tickets, that the Manor tickets were all
sold out! Not only this, but the lady said that we would have had to start
looking in July for this time of year- ridiculous! With our tickets bought, we
boarded the bus that took us up to the Manor.
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| One side of the Christmas market |
When we arrived, we noticed
immediately that the market had changed both in location and in quantity than
in previous visits. Last year, the Christmas markets were tucked away down the
right side of the Manor meaning only a finite number of stalls could pitch up
for the day. This year however, the market lined both sides of the courtyard
leading up to the entrance of the Manor and paired with the sheer number of
crowds, it made for a nice cosy festive feel (although it was freezing- my feet
were already going numb) Soon we were in the thick of the market crowds
admiring each of the sellers' wares and of course keeping our eyes peeled for
those free samples!
We sure weren't left wanting for
any samples as most of the stalls were offering tasters of food and drink of
some sort. From beers, wines and liqueurs, to sausages, puddings and chutney’s,
everything was on offer- and everything was free to try. It was a bit of a pity
me and Matthew stopped for breakfast on the way as we could've filled up on
samples alone- or be humiliatingly pissed!
After exploring the first line
of the markets, having bought some tasty locally sourced sausages and ales, we
started over the other side with the second row. This row of the market was
where we found some more of the familiar stalls from the last year, and it's
also where we temporarily lost all feeling in our mouths for about 10 minutes
after daringly trying a particularly naughty chilli sample!
You'll have to forgive me as I
have forgotten the name of the seller now- great journalist I am! - but they
were offering a selection of chilli sauces that ranged from the mild to mouth
melting. At first, we went instinctively for the sweet chilli- everyone loves a
bit of sweet chilli, right? A lot of people were going for the sweet chilli sauce
and after I finished my sample, I looked a few bottles down to its right (the
hotter end) and saw the ghost chilli sauce. "I’m going to give this a
go" I said to myself as I got another tasting stick and dived straight
into the sauce. "How bad can this be?" were my famous last words as I
eagerly licked the stick with no fear at all.
"That's not too bad"
I said after the initial tasting. What I was thinking after another 10 seconds
however, I can better describe in two words: instant regret.
While the sauce didn't hurt on
initial impact or on swallowing, the overwhelming burning sensation was quite
literally hot on its heels. It was so intense and all-consuming that it left me
gasping for the cold air. As I breathed in to try and get some relief, I
noticed Matthew was still milling about the stall, but what I noticed more was
his care-free attitude. He was going about with no pain at all. He had not
carelessly dived in at the deep end like me and therefore I found myself
envious and bitter (and still gasping for the cold air).
"You've gotta try
this!" I said to him as he came towards me wondering what on earth I was
gasping for. The next thing I see is him launching the ghost chilli sauce clad
tasting stick into his mouth.
Five seconds later and we were
both suffering together. By the time Matthew was gasping in cold air, I was
already onto the next stage experiencing hiccups and indigestion. This was just
from a tasting stick’s worth! I remember when Rhett and Link did a ghost chilli
challenge and ate the whole damn thing and were denied relief for 10 minutes
and there we were, begging for mercy after just one minute before surrendering
to the water and Yazoo! After another 10 minutes, most of the pain had subsided
and for whatever reason I wanted to go up a chilli level. I wanted to challenge
myself again to see just how much I could take before I spontaneously burst
into flames. Luckily for me and my taste buds, Matthew stopped me and we moved
on. Take note guys, it's called the ghost chilli for a reason; it'll haunt your
taste buds for a long while after eating it.
With the markets fully
explored, we were left to wander the rest of the grounds before the darkness
set in. We thought we would at least try and find all the electric menagerie.
They were mostly all by the stables, so we headed there first. Not long after
getting down there, we were suckered in to the cafe where we tucked into a hot
chocolate each and shared a waffle to warm ourselves up.
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| One of the electric menagerie: Fly on the wall. Laugh it up. |
It was after this, when we were
following the map to find the menagerie, we came across quite a fundamental
flaw: the map was printed the wrong way around! This wasn't at all helpful as
the menagerie weren’t exactly obvious to see as it was.
Art comes in many different forms and can range from the literal
to quite ambiguous and abstract. However, the menagerie we saw was, well, a bit
too abstract for us. In fact, we were passing most of the menagerie without
realising! When we did realise however, our reaction was more “Oh….?” Than “Oooooh!”
I got the impression going around that most people thought the same as us and
in fact looked quite bored.
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| Another of the menagerie: Flea Circus |
Later in the evening as it got darker, things did pick up a bit. Naturally, lights become more prominent in the dark so it was nature in fact that saved the evening as much as anything else.
As well as the electric menagerie including such works as “strawberry
kisses”, “flea circus”, there was a whole lit-up trail from the stables all the
way back up to the Manor. This trail, apart from seeming very long and being
very treacherous, was lined with light art works made by local school children
inspired by the wildlife that wander the Waddesdon grounds. Some looked more
like their description than others but then again, these were early years
school children so it would be very mean to judge their work…well, unless you
were Matthew. He found it entertaining being deliberately facetious.
To keep ourselves amused along the trail we had our own art-making
competition. Who can take the most artistic looking picture? Have a look for
yourself below, which one is better?
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| Matthew's artistic entry: Flexilight |
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| My artistic shot: A Candle in the Rain. |
Now you’re all done choosing my picture as the winner, it’s time
to continue the story of our Waddesdon experience.
Before long, we found ourselves back in front of the Manor just as
the front of the Manor light display was about to start. Much like the rest of
the menagerie experience, the display proved a little disappointing too. As
there were so many other lights around the front of the Manor; from the
Christmas trees, to the wine bottle statues that the display projection
suffered a lot because of it.
The last of our evenings Waddesdon wanderings were spent around
the aviary. Around the bird cages stood lit up birds and a reindeer sleigh,
however the highlight was the huge lit up dragon installation. I think out of all
the light displays I’d seen that day, the dragon topped them all by far. It was
a shame he was hidden down by the aviary and not made more of an example of. He
deserved to be centre stage.
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| The star of the light show: Dragon Mcdragon-face |
After marvelling at the dragon, our attentions then turned to
getting the bus back down to the car park to go home. Last year, our exit from Waddesdon
was a very stressful experience; from the hour spent queuing for the bus, to
the frantic rush for the exit out of the car park, so understandably, we didn’t
want to go through this again. With these memories etched in our minds, we knew
we had to take our Waddesdon departure very seriously. To cut a long story
short, our exit wasn’t as stressful this time as before. Maybe lessons were
learnt from 2016’s fiasco? Who knows, but we were back out onto the A41 in no
time.
So, in conclusion, 2017’s Waddesdon ‘electric menagerie’
experience isn’t one to write home about. The menagerie is lacklustre and quite
frankly, it was just lost in translation. The only saving grace of our trip was
the great Christmas market and the hot chocolate and waffles from the café.
Hopes were set high for us both, but as we left the car park, we had come to the
same conclusion: it wasn’t as good as last year.
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