Comic Relief

Hey everyone! So I just got back from a great trip to Ireland! We stayed at a hostel in Belfast, which ended up being a much quieter, smaller place than it was made out to be, but still nice. So on Friday we just walked around and saw some sights. Then on Saturday we went to Dublin. Where we did a really good free walking tour which told us all about the history of Dublin, plus we saw pretty much all the main sites! We then took a tour of the Guinness factory (where we tasted fresh Guinness, straight from the brewery...if you say you don't like Guinness you would if you tried it fresh), then headed back to Belfast. Then on Sunday we took a tour of Northern Ireland where our main destination was the Giant's Causeway. It was beautiful with the typical Irish cliffs and the roaring sea. On the drive there we saw wonderful landscape with sheep dotting the hills every where you looked. Beautiful...no other way to describe it.

Anyways, when I returned I was quite tired since I hadn't gotten much sleep all weekend with many early mornings, so I decided to watch a little television, and ended up watching all these shows on Comic Relief. Let me explain what this is very briefly, because I found it very intriguing. This is the brief description from the website (www.comicrelief.com)

"Since 1985, Comic Relief has inspired the nation to have a laugh while raising cash to help change lives. Our vision is a just world, free from poverty.

Our mission, thanks to our comedy heritage and the fantastic relationship we enjoy with the BBC, is 'positive change through the power of entertainment'.

And our biggest tool, in trying to achieve these two goals, is the ability to inspire people across the whole country especially those who don’t normally do charity - to do charity."

So while this is an organization, there is one day that is chosen to be "Red Nose Day", where everyone in the nation is encouraged to do something 'funny for money'. So for the past few weeks, but mainly this past weekend, there have been people doing funny things for money. For example, there was a show on TV called "Lets Dance for Comic Relief" where celebrities around the UK danced their versions of famous dances to help raise money. Another example (though not very funny at all), is 9 UK celebrities got together and decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in order to raise one million pounds for mosquito nets in Africa (they ended up raising close to 3 million). HOW COOL IS THAT?! Just this year they've almost raised 60 million pounds!! Anyways, I couldn't stop watching this event! I was amazed that a whole nation comes together (particularly on one day) to raise money, learn about the world and be entertained! See for yourself, here are a few videos I found.

http://www.rednoseday.com/about_rnd
(video on what red nose day is)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_huKc-z0BU
(a short skit done by English footballers and a tv show character for entertainment on RND)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VULq7oRugiU&NR=1
(a news clip on the celebrities who climbed Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief)