I’ve had my friend Cathie staying with me for the past month and we’ve done lots of exciting things. Here are a few of them…
We went to see The Crucible at The Globe on a very hot afternoon. The £5 ticket meant standing for the duration which wasn’t too bad when the shade finally reached the spot where we were perched against a wall. It was one of several great plays we’ve seen this summer – others were The Great Gatsby and The Stereophonics.
Read the rest of this entry »It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I have a penchant for visiting cemeteries. When I spent the summer of 2021 in Cambridge, I regularly walked through Mill Road cemetery as a short cut to joining parkrun on Coldham’s Common. David’s favourite spot for foraging elderflowers and elderberries (to make wine) is at Surbiton Cemetery. So on a lovely day at the end of May, I decided to make for Brompton Cemetery.
Many cemeteries are more like wildlife sanctuaries and offer pleasant green spaces in which to wander. (I agree with the Victorians who saw them as a venue for a pleasant outing.) Seven large cemeteries were established in London during the 19th century to alleviate overcrowding in the existing parish graveyards. These were Kensal Green Cemetery, West Norwood Cemetery, Highgate Cemetery, Abney Park Cemetery, Nunhead Cemetery, Tower Hamlets Cemetery and Brompton Cemetery As I’ve been to Highgate cemetery many times, I decided to visit Brompton because I knew it from the days when I lived in Earls Court but never went inside. In 1981, the architectural historian Hugh Meller began calling this group of cemeteries ‘The Magnificent Seven’ after the 1960 western film of the same name.
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As a former teacher, I’ve discovered I’m entitled to join Boundless an experiences club that helps those who work or have worked in the public sector to make the most of their free time. It does this by offering savings on events and a variety of free benefits. The club was established in 1923 by Frank Edwards who set about bringing people together to share adventures. Nowadays, the £40 membership offers free entry into Kew Gardens and (for an additional fee) several royal palaces including the Tower of London and Hampton Court. To make the most of our membership, David and I visited Kew Gardens last week which is a train ride away from our flat in South West London. We explored a section of the grounds and enjoyed the temperate house. We also took a stroll along the treetop walkway which offered fantastic views over the London skyline.
Read the rest of this entry »I’ve spent the last couple of weeks deep cleaning our house. It’s not that I like cleaning (although I do find a spotless oven weirdly satisfying) but we’ve been getting ready for our annual migration. We generally spend the spring and summer at our tiny flat in New Malden (South West London) while the Dorset house is let as a holiday home. If you want a peek, Glyde House is listed on Sykes Holiday Cottages. For anyone who’s interested in visiting Dorchester, please drop me a note through the contact page as mates rates are available.
I have loads of things planned over the next few months including theatre trips, museum visits, London walks and days out around Sussex and Kent (I want to go to an exhibition at Tracey Emin’s studio in Margate). I also plan to catch up with old friends I worked and studied with years ago. We’ll still make regular trips back to Dorchester as we like to keep an eye on the house and garden. I’m also planning to attend The Script’s the Thing 2 in Dorchester in May as I’m working collaboratively on a short play to submit. Long distance working is possible thanks to the joys of online platforms such as WriterDuet. In terms of other writing, I’ve finished the latest edit of The Upgrade, a bookclub titled based on a remote tropical island where tensions exist between rich holidaymakers and the local population. The next stage is to begin submitting again.
In the meantime, my daughter and grandson are visiting for a couple days so I’m looking forward to singing lots of nursery rhymes. Fortunately, my online singing classes with the CityLit have paid off, and I’m now able to sing on tune. I plan to join a community choir during the summer term which will be an ambition realised as I was refused entry to my primary school choir!
Would anyone else like to share their one of their ambitions? I’d love to hear – just drop a note in the comments.
David and I spent a superb week in the French Alps where I learnt to ski. He’d been skiing in his twenties, but I’d never thought it would be something I might enjoy. How wrong could I be? There was so much to like about the experience starting with the joy of being surrounded by snow-covered mountains when the sun shone and the sky was blue. The setting was very uplifting and the weather remained consistently good throughout the week. We stayed half board in a hotel with a view of Mont Blanc and enjoyed excellent buffet meals in the restaurant.
In preparation for skiing, I had completed training to strengthen my legs and was quite confident when I approached the nursery slopes. The taster session provided guidance which I put into practice for stopping and turning. A conveyor belt called a magic carpet took me back to the top of the slope and after several goes I felt prepared for ski lessons. David and I shared an instructor who took us onto a green slope (for beginners) where we learnt to take wide curves and control the movement of the skis. A big priority was to return home injury free, so we weren’t terribly adventurous but I certainly found it exhilarating to get from the top of the slope to the bottom with a little speed.
I am a member of the Women’s Institute (WI) and was delighted to join the Kingston branch to talk about my journey to becoming a published author. Here I am with the audience waiting for my session to be introduced.
Although I planned the talk carefully and rehearsed it twice, I was still nervous. Thankfully, the audience were very kind and receptive… and it turned out to be a lot of fun. There were many questions at the end of my thirty-five minutes of delivery and I was pleased to share my inspiration and approaches to writing with such an interested and responsive group.
The KWI book group will be discussing The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell in August and asked me to devise a few questions. I thought followers of this blog might also be interested so I’ve pasted them below:
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It’s less than a week until I’ll be running a workshop at the Bournemouth Writing Festival. I’ll be sharing my experience of winning a publication contract with Bloodhound Books after entering a pitch competition for The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell. The workshop will include tips and hints for anyone wishing to develop skills in online pitching of a manuscript. The event is a new one on the Dorset writing scene and the programme has grown considerable since the inaugural year in 2023. I’m pleased to be delivering on Sunday 28 April 2024 alongside writing friends Paula Harmon and Alice Fowler. Do check out the full programme!
Much of August was taken up with a rather wonderful cruise around the Norwegian fjords. We went because I’d bought a lavish evening dress in 2022 and hadn’t had a chance to wear it. There was also the small matter of a 32nd wedding anniversary to celebrate. (Our 30th was a damp squib thanks to Covid.) I wasn’t entirely confident cruising was going to be our thing and I couldn’t imagine what it would be like on the ship – my nearest comparison was a shopping centre! I’m pleased to report P&O’s Aurora was a delightful place to spend time. Here are my top three highlights of the holiday:
Skjolden
After two days at sea looking out on nothing more than (thankfully) flat, grey water and the occasional cargo ship or off-shore wind farm, we woke up in Skjolden (otherwise known as the king of fjords). We went for a walk around a lake and admired the reflections in the water and strolled past a couple of dramatic waterfalls.
Visits to Norwegian towns
We docked at eight different places. Usually we could walk straight off the ship but on one occasion had to catch a tender. Most of the towns boasted churches, museums and riverside walks. I can’t say these brief visits really provided a sense of place but the beauty of the fjords in which they were nestled was undeniable.
Onboard activities
Each evening we were provided with a programme of events for the following day. During the cruise, I enjoyed lectures on art and Norwegian history, I joined line dancing and dance fit classes as well as regular sessions at the gym. I even attended a vocal workshop. We were allocated a dinner table in the restaurant at 8:30pm and found our travelling companions to be great fun. And, of course, there were two occasions when I got to wear the lavish green evening dress on formal nights. Thanks to plenty of exercise and portion control on restaurant servings, I avoided putting on any weight.
You may notice the lavish green dress matches the cover of The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell perfectly. From today for the whole month of September, you can buy a kindle copy for only 99p. Do check out the other suspense titles from Bloodhound Books, too.
https://geni.us/SecretCaroylnRussell
How did the month of August go for you? What plans do you have for autumn?
I was pleased to spend a few days in Prague with my family at the end of March. The trip was originally planned for 2020 but postponed due to Covid. We stayed in a central location and wandered the cobbled streets until my feet cried for mercy. It was good travelling as a group because we each had different things we wanted to see. All set for a bit of endurance sightseeing, we tackled the Prague castle complex on the first day. Other highlights included watching the astronomical clock strike the hour, the view over Prague from the Petřín lookout tower, the Jewish quarter and photos in front of the Lennon wall.
I’m recently back from a trip to Cambodia where I met my Australian friend and we visited the amazing temples at Angkor Wat. After much consideration, I decided to make the journey without my laptop. The timing was good. I’d sent off my latest manuscript to beta readers at the end of December with the expectation I’d hear back from them after a month. The deadline for submitting my third novel The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell is on 1 February, and I figured I’d have enough time for a final read-though on return from Cambodia. Yet it was with some trepidation that I set off without my trusty laptop.
There was lots to distract me during the fortnight I was away. We stopped in Phnom Penh for four nights and spent many hours walking around the city. It’s much less frenetic than Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and I could actually cross the road unaided. (I once had to cling to the backpack of a Vietnamese schoolboy to safely cross a busy junction.) Phnom Penh hardly feels like a capital although there is a large business area. We stuck to the streets lined with colonial buildings which were a short distance from our hotel situated near to the royal palace.
One day we went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Visiting the S-21 interrogation and detention centre was a sobering experience. Housed in a former school and it was incongruous enjoying shade in the playground offered by frangipani trees knowing the atrocities that went on in the classrooms. Upon confession, victims of torture where then transferred to be murdered at the nearby killing fields of the Khmer Rouge regime. It seemed disrespectful to take photos but you can learn more about the museum here.
I must admit to having itchy fingers for the first few days of my trip but used the notes on my mobile to jot down any important things that came to mind. The next stop on our journey was in Battambang where we stayed at a delightful resort hotel with a pool. Breakfast and dinner were served beside a lake and excursions included an outing on bicycles and a trip into the countryside on a bamboo railway. Getting off the railway line quickly became a necessity when the scheduled train from Phnom Penh thundered through.
By the time we reached Siem Reap, I wondered why I’d hesitated to travel without my laptop. There was far too much to absorb during visits to the temples to be bothered with writing anything down.
The vast scale of Angkor Wat means it could take days to see all the fine details. I just had a glimpse of its magic then moved on to other temples, completely different from the first.
I must admit during the ten-hour layover at Singapore, I could’ve done with my laptop for company. Instead, I spent time wandering the complex and enjoyed the butterfly garden that features as part of Changi airport’s attractions.
Now that I’m back at home and recovered from jet lag, the final check of the manuscript for submission is calling me.
Have you ever travelled without a laptop? How did you find the experience?
the writer is a lonely hunter 