In Which we Party. With Music and Food.

I have written before about seeing Bitter Ruin - the first time when they supported Amanda Palmer at one of her London gigs, and several times since then, as support act and in their own right.

Georgia and Ben (AKA Bitter Ruin)

On Saturday, I was fortunate enough to be at a house-concert-party hosted by Mike and Sue (who also hosted the party with Mitch Benn, which I went to last month).

There were lots of lovely people there, and Sue had cooked up a storm, and there was lots of time for mingling and conversation before the music started.

Despite threatened rain, the weather remained good enough to allow them to play outside, under the bunting, which was lovely.


Ben and Georgia had asked in advance for requests, but rather than prepare a detailed set list, they instead let us chose the order in which they played, via a game of 'pin the tail on the set-list' which worked remarkably well!


As the evening wore on, and it got darker and cooler, the party moved indoors and acquired more hats, with regular hat-swaps between songs. It all made perfect sense at the time.

Bitter Ruin played us lots of old favourites, as well as songs from the new album (produced via Kickstarter funding).

It was a great show, and lovely to have the opportunity to chat with Ben and Georgia, too.

After the concert finished, the party continued - with ukulele music, and a game of twister, and more hats.

A good time was, as they say, had by all. (and thanks again to Mike and Sue for their hospitality!)

More Fun - With Museums and Romans and Squid

After lunching at the Savoy*, I decided to go to see London's Roman Amphitheatre, which is underneath the Guildhall in the City. As an added bonus, they are currently having a  exhibition of |Victorian Inspired modern Art - Victoriana.

The museum is in a newer part of the building - and when they were putting in the foundations, back in the 80s, they discovered the remains of a Roman Amphitheatre (as one does). And so they kept it there, in the basement, and built the rest of the new gallery over the top.

I have to admit that, as Roman Amphitheatres go, it's not hugely impressive, as the pieces which are left are only about 12 inches tall, (although there are some wooden drains, which is quite impressive) but i love the idea of it being there, under the Guildhall. and they have made an effort with the presentation, with lots of wireframe impressions of what the structure would likely have been like, to give you a sense of scale.

The Victoriana exhibition was a completely different kettle of fish. Sadly they would not allow photographs, so I can't show you - but there were pieces by Grayson Perry and Jake and Donos Chapman, there was a wedding cake made entirely from hair, a modified Victorian engraving of a woman with tentacles instead of legs) and  my favourite piece, one by Tessa Farmer, which features her trademark skeletal fairies, riding bees and butterflies, and armed with hedgehog spines, attacking a Victorian marble statue. It was beautifully disturbing.

Contrast: New and Old

Then there was the portrait of the lady with a squid instead of a face, a wonderful set of Alphabet prints and some original art from Alan Moore's 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'.

Great stuff.
The following morning I decided to go back into the City, to visit the Museum of London, and in particular their exhibition of the Cheapside Hoard.

Before going to the museum I wandered around a little, enjoying the contrast of modern and not-so-modern London. And just near to the Museum I found a little garden called Postman's Park, which is the site of "G.F.Watts' Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice".

Apparently, Watts was a successful Victorian artist, who painted portraits of many of the great and the good (or at least the successful) and came to believe that ordinary people who behaved in heroic ways should also be remembered, and set up the memorial to do so. The memorials are all tiled plaques - the earliest ones designed by de Morgan, the later ones by Royal Doulton - and although the project stopped after Watts' wife dies in the 1930s, there is one much more recent memorial, to a gentleman who died in 2007, saving a child from drowning.  Despite the sometimes florid wording of some of the plaques, it's a moving place. I had it almost to myself.

The museum visit was interesting - the Hoard itself was discovered by workmen in 1912, and is believed to have been buried in the late 17th Century - it consists of hundreds of uncut jewels and pieces of jewellery from the 16th and 17th Cs, and may have been the stock in trade of a local goldsmith. There are some amazing pieces - long, intricate gold and enamel necklaces, carved jewels, a tiny pocket watch set in a single emerald, numerous brooches and pins - there was high security and one could not take photographs, but the museum has some here.


I also made a whistle-stop tour of the rest of the museum, which has exhibits ranging from the remains of prehistoric beasts, to remnants of Roman Londinium, Viking artefacts, through to medieval pilgrim badges, medieval tiles still stained with soot from the Great Fire of London, right through to  some of the costumes from the Olympic opening ceremony.

Oh, and the Lord Mayor's Coach.

And a Dalek.

I would have liked to stay longer, but I had a party to get to.Which is pretty good, as reasons to leave go!


(*Please note the oh-so-casual name drop)

In Which I Have Lunch with Neil (and a Lot of Fun)

It's been a busy weekend.

It started on Thursday evening, when my friend Cheryl came round for supper, and arrived bearing Croatian wine and chocolate.She's blogged about it here - The wine and chocolate were both delicious, and the evening made a lovely start to a weekend of fun things!

On Friday I got the train to London, to go to a 'Literary Lunch' with Neil Gaiman, at Kaspars at the Savoy. I had dithered a bit before booking it, as I've been fortunate enough to go to several of Neil's events already this year, and it did seem rather extravagant,  but I decided that I wanted to go despite the extravagance, and that the fact I am about to have a birthday with 0 on the end of it was as good an excuse as any...

I have never been to the Savoy before. It's dead posh. And Kaspars is a rather lovely Art Deco styled restaurant. Beautiful tiles and chandeliers.  I was a bit worried that they might throw me out for not being posh enough, but either they're too polite,or the fact that I wore a dress was enough to put them off the scent!

Neil with Nick Vince

The restaurant has a central shellfish bar and I was seated there, and quickly got into a conversation with the gentleman seated next to me,who turned out to be a writer and actor (he played the Chatterer in 'Hellraiser') and was an excellent dining companion. I was expecting good company - after all, everyone at the lunch was a fan of Neil's, but it is always nice to have one's expectations met or exceeded, isn't it?

Once we were all seated, Neil explained the format - introduction, starters, reading, main course, Q and A, pudding.. And explained that in the Q and A, we had to do the Q's and he would do the A's.It occurs to me that this has been the format of all of Neil's events which I've been to. I wanted to suggest we try it the other way round, just for variety. We could provide answers and let Neil guess the questions, perhaps..

Starter

Oh, the food. It was delicious. And so pretty. The starter was a selection of smoked and cured fish - I know there was smoked salmon, and beetroot cured halibut, and gravlax, and some smoked eel. I'm not sure what the other bits were but it was all delicious.

Then Neil read to us from 'Fortunately the Milk'. I think it is just as well that this was while we were between courses, as I expect that snorting with laughter into your meal would be frowned upon at the Savoy. Or possibly a special snorting-with-laughter waiter would appear bearing handkerchiefs and smelling salts to help you calm down.

Neil read from the start of the book, as far as the Walking the Plank. I have been very restrained and not read on, as I am going to the full reading on Tuesday. But it has been a struggle. And I already feel the urge to find suitable children to give copies of the book to!

Neil

Then came the main course (which I was too busy eating, to photograph) before Neil's Q and A.

In response to questions he discussed his alternative career choice (Bespoke religions designed - "How do you feel about guilt? Would you like a large pantheon?), His attitude to magic ("As a kid, I was disappointed by the failure of most wardrobes to contain Narnia. But I didn't stop looking") Which raises the question - if it's only most wardrobes that don't contain Narnia, does that mean Neil found one which did? It could explain a lot. That Lamp Post in his garden, for a start...

There was also the question about whether he is nervous, writing new Sandman stories  - Yes, there are millions of people standing, metaphorically  looking over his shoulder as he writes,  The possibility of a sequel to 'Good Omens' - He and PTerry had an idea for a sequal, to be called '668, The Neighbour of the Beast', but  they are both too busy to write it.

Apple Crème Brûlée

Neil also talked about 'Fortunately The Milk' being an pro-Dad book, having inadvertently written a Dad-ist book in 'The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish'. 

The we got dessert - oh, that Apple Crème Brûlée. The Savoy doesn't have Neil Gaiman on the menu every day (at last, I don't think so. Unless they have cloning vats in the basement) but I am fairly sure that the apple crème brûlée is available any day.

The lunch ended slightly abruptly, as the hotel needed to start setting the room up for a later event, but Neil still made an effort to sign things for everyone who wanted things signing, we all drank our tea or coffee and  ate our delicious salted caramel lollipops (and, of course paid our bills) and luncheon came to an end.

Savoy foyer

I'd been in a rush when I arrived at the Savoy, and hadn't had much time to look around. On the way out, I paused to admire the foyer, which has lots of Wedgewood-style friezes, and and photographs and portraits and Chaises Long.

I wandered off into the rain (via the little bit of road outside the Savoy, which,  is, I understand,  the only place in the country where you have to drive on the right. there was a big limo outside, driving (very slowly) on the right, so it must be true!.

Which still left the rest of the afternoon for other adventures...

Bath Kids Lit Fest 2013 - Part 1

This year's Bath Festival of Children's Literature started last weekend - sadly 2 of the events I booked for were cancelled at the last minute.

Restoration of  King Charles II

 Judith Kerr, author of 'When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit', as well as the 'Mog' books and 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' sadly had to cancel her event due to ill health (given that she is now 90, this is perhaps not surprising, but it is disappointing, despite that), and then last Saturday I arrived at the Holburne Museum for Dave McKean's event, and was met with the news that he had been caught up in huge delays n the M25 so couldn't make it. 

And then I missed the event with Meg Rosoff as I got stuck at work and couldn't get to Bath in time. So I've only been to 2 out of 5 booked events so far.

On Saturday, as I was already at the museum when I learned about the cancellation, and as  I have never been round it (despite driving past on a regular basis) I decided to use the unexpected free hour to look round the museum.

Its primarily an art museum, so lots of painting, but also has some interesting textiles - I loved this embroidery/applique which depicts the Restoration of Charles II (and the background- you can see him hiding in the oak tree, behind the picture of his in all his majesty!) and dates from around 1665. 

Holburne Museum

There's also a lovely collection of spoons, and some dodgy antiquities picked up by Holburne during his Grand Tour.

It's not a big museum, but I enjoyed browsing the exhibits. And it's a beautiful building!

I also took the opportunity to have a wander around Sydney Gardens - they were laid out in around 1795 (this bridge over the canal was erected in 1800) and were, apparently, very popular with the residents of Regency Bath - Jane Austen included.

It's divided by the railway, as well as the canal, now, but there is a lovely, sweeping bath stone bridge over it, and it is down in a cutting, so it doesn't impinge too much on the park.

I don't think the tennis courts were there in Jane Austen's day, but I dare say the grass, trees, and squirrels were pretty similar (although presumably the squirrels would have been red, not grey.

I was back in Bath on Sunday, to go to David Levithan's event. 

David Levithan

He was reading from his book Every Day, which explores what happens when you (quite literally) wake up in a different body (someone else's ) every day, and when you decide that you want to keep in contact with a person you meet one of those days. 

It's an interesting concept. He mentioned that he definitely  sees, and intended the book to be (among other things) a transgender book, but that he finds it interesting that people talking about the book focus on the gender issues and less on other issues which are equally part of the  concept. (I haven't read the book yet, so I can't comment specifically).

I was also really interested to hear him talk about collaborating with other writers (it's fun!) and to say that he is not a visual writer - he doesn't 'see' how his characters and their rooms and familes look (so found it much less traumatic then his co-writer Rachel Cohn when their book was adapted, when looking at which actors were cast!

It was an interesting event, and I'm looking forward to reading Every Day - the only book of David's which I've read before is Boy Meets Boy.

Friday evening saw me back in Bath for Malorie Blackman's event. 

Malorie Blackman

I've read her 'Noughts and Crosses' series, which are excellent, and of course she is currently serving as Children's Laureate.She is currently promoting her new novel, Noble Conflict, which is a dystopian novel, set in a future society, and explored (so far as I can tell for the reviews and the conversation at this event) what happens when you find out that the Good Guys you've aligned yourself are maybe not-so-good.

In talking about the book, Malorie explained that she is fascinated by questions, and mentioned issues such as the security for the Olympics (guns on the roofs of blocks of flats), CCTV in public spaces (do you believe that if you have nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear) the actions of whistle-blowers such as Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, and also the issue of who owns, and writes history (history is written by the conquerors, not the conquered, and the written history of a literary society ends to survive longer, and to oust, the verbal history of oral cultures.

Malorie also spoke about her role as Children's laureate, and her concern at recent studies showing that many children and teens are embarrassed to be seen reading, and stressed that reading is great - whether you read paper books or e-books, novels or graphic novels or comics or picture books.

As with David's event, I'm looking forward to reading the book, and am glad I made it to the event!

This weekend I shall (all being well) be seeing David Almond and Patrick Ness, although sadly missing Philip Reeve.

In Which There are Plantagenets and Severed Heads

When I got my brouchre for this season at Bath Theatre Royal, I saw that one week they would be playing host to the Globe Theatre's 'Globe on Tour' productions of all the Henry VI plays - 'Henry VI', 'The Houses of York and Lancaster' and 'The True Tragedy of the Duke of York' I haven't seen any of them before, and I enjoyed the previous Globe of Tour productions which I've seen, so I booked to see all three plays, and last week was at the theatre on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday evenings (The did do 2 matinees on Saturday so it was possible to see all three plays, in order, on the Saturday, but I felt that might be a little too much of a good thing!)

The plays are a bit of a mixed bag, and, I would say, *not* Shakespeare's best, but still worth seeing.

The first play covers battles with the French, and Joan of Arc (who was portrayed with a strong Yorkshire accent, presumably to try to emphasis her rural/working class antecedents, although it made a odd contrast with the French accents of the other 'French' characters. Henry VI (who is of course a child during this period) doesn't speak for most of the early part of the play, but in this production is present on stage, reacting with fear, surprise and so on, to the action. There weren't any severed heads in this production, although a number of characters, including Joan or Arc, wind up dead.

The second to plays flow much more readily into each other - , 'The Houses of York and Lancaster', starts with Henry's politically embarrassing marriage, to Margaret of Anjou, the strong-minded but dowerless daughter of the King of Naples, and goes downhill from there, with internal strife at court (leading to the first of the severed heads.. the Duke of Suffolk - and as the same actor played Jack Cade, he later got to admire his *own* severed head, which must be interesting!

The play also saw Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) - who was played as having practically no redeeming features whatsoever (admittedly, difficult to avoid given the text) but also with an exaggerated limp, crookback and unusable arm - which is no doubt authentic in terms of the Shakespearian production, but did strike me as being a bit over the top - quite apart from anything else, it made it difficult to believe in his military exploits!

The body count rises throughout the plays. Which I suppose is fair enough for a civil war.

Over all, I enjoyed the plays but I can see why the aren't among the more frequently performed of the plays, even the history plays.

The tour included several battlefield performances, in the open air at various civil war locations, which I imagine must have been interesting!

Limbo!

After leaving the Southwark playhouse, I headed to the Southbank, to see Limbo, which is part of the London Wonderground there. Fortunately for me, there was also a food festival with a huge choice of different street food of many different kinds. I dined off the best harissa chicken I've ever tasted!

I then wandered around a little - the Wonderground has various fairground attractions, including a carousel, traditional stalls, and rides.Or rather one ride - the Starflyer.

The Starflyer is apparently the tallest vertical ride in the country, and spins you round, and up, over 60 metres.

I'm not, in general, a fan of fairground rides. I never met a roller coaster I liked, and most rides just fill me with a deep desire to be somewhere else (Except Ferris Wheels. I Like Ferris Wheels). But this one appealed to me. It was so tall. And it seemed not to be too violent.

Of course, at about the point that the safety bar came down and they locked me into the little perspex box with a total stranger (as each car has 2 seats) I did have a few qualms, but it was Too Late.

Despite my moment of panic, I enjoyed the ride. They start by winching you up a bit, then it starts to spin as it climbs higher, and as it climbs higher it spins faster, which of course means all the cars tilt ..

There are, of course, amazing views, of the Thames, the London Eye, The Houses of Parliament, and of course, straight down to the lights and glitter of the fairground.

And all too soon,  it starts to come down, and spin more slowly again. And they let you out, and you stagger off into the fairground.

I have to say, as precursor to Limbo it had a lot going for it! 

After getting off the ride I made my way to the Spiegaltent (which is pretty spectacular in its own right, all wood panels and mirrors and shiny goodness, the designer of the Hackney empire would have felt right at home.

And the show itself? 

It was breathtakingly, stunningly good.

The performers are all amazing, and all seem to have multitudinous talents, and the entire show is dark, funny, sexy, and very, very entertaining.

It's extremely hard to pick a favourite part - Heather Holliday's sword-swallowing and fire-eating, Danik Abishev's amazing acrobatics and hand-balancing, Jonathan Nosan's contortions.. and of course Sxip Shirey's music - all of it is incredible.

An the atmosphere is wonderful, too - it feels as though at any moment the entire show could spill off the stage and turn in to the world's best party...

I only wish I'd gone earlier in the run, when there would have been time to go again (it ends next week)

Best night out I've had for ages!

And there was time to admire the South Bank by Night before I had to head back to my hotel for the night. (I was tempted to go on the Starflyer again, and see London by Night, but the combination of queue and cost put me off)

Limbo is only in London until next weekend, but it is then showing in Edinborough from 22nd November until 5th January, so there is still a chance to see it, if you can.

The Bunker: Morgana and Agamemnon

Today is the last day of my stay-at-home holiday, and I have just got back from another trip to the Big Smoke, to see 'Limbo' at London Wonderground.

I booked it ages ago, (and have to say the lovely people at the Southbank centre were very helpful, when I needed to change the date of my ticket)

As I expected to have the afternoon to spare in London, before seeing the show, I also booked a ticket to see 'The Bunker: Morgana and Agamemnon', at the Southwark Playhouse (I didn't realise until afterwards that it was the last but one performance) - I was very favourably impressed.

The plays are set in a WW1 trench, and inspired by legends - 'Morgana' by Arthurian legends, and 'Agamemnon' by the story of Clytemnestra and her lover's murder of Agamemnon.

The performance takes place in a very small space, in which the audience sits on wooden benches around the edges of the performance space, so it's both intimate and somewhat claustrophobic.

'Morgana' features 3 young soldiers - the only survivors of 13 school friends, who as boys at their Tintagel school adopted the names of King Arthur and his knights. Those remaining, Arthur,(Dan Wood) Lancelot (Sam Donnelly) and Gawain (James Marlowe) while away the time in the trenches with songs, jokes and reminiscence, and the enigmatic Morgana / Gwen (Serena Manteghi). There was a particularly strong performance from James Marlowe as the innocent Gawain, and despite the tragedy of the setting, and the multiple betrayals which unfolded, there was also a lot of bleak humour. (and some audience participation with the singing!)

I felt that the second play, Agamemnon, was weaker, although still gripping. It was left deliberately unclear how much of the action involving 'Clytemnestra' and 'Aegisthus' was flashback, how much was 'Agamemnon's' imagination, brought on by his wounds, shell shock and guilt.

Very well worth seeing.

New Look

Old Hair

So, I finally got around to getting my hair cut, mostly as it has reached the length where  I couldn't do much with it except have it in a plait or pony tail the whole time..

I did, of course, have my normal conversation with the salon when I booked the appointment:

Me: "Could you make it a double length appointment? My hair is *really* thick and always takes longer than normal to cut."
Salon Receptionist "Sure, that won't be a problem"

Later..

Stylist: "Wow, you have so much hair! It's really thick!"

New Hair

Me: "Yes, I know. I did mention it when I made the appointment, as it always takes a long time"
Receptionist in background, to next customer "I'm afraid [Stylist's name] is running late - it'll be another 20 minutes or so.."

To do them justice, I didn't get any sense that the stylist then tried to rush to finish off my cut, but I felt a little sorry for the customer waiting an extra half hour because they didn't believe me..

Of course, now I shall spend the next few days combing the back of my neck, and using 3 times as much shampoo as I need, but on the whole I'm happy with the new look.

Don't Panic (Keep your Towel with you)

When I heard that the always-wonderful Mitch Benn was going to be playing Zaphod Beeblebrox in the new touring production of The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy Live Radio show I naturally wanted to go, and started trying to work out which performance would be best for me to get to, as none of them was very convenient.

Then, while I was still being indecisive about where to go, I heard that Neil Gaiman would be appearing as the Voice of the Book, for one night only (the first night of the tour, in fact) at the Hackney Empire. And it was on a Saturday night. 

The thought of seeing both Neil AND Mitch was irresistible, so of course I booked a ticket.

On Saturday, therefore, I got a train up to Waterloo, checked into the pub-with-rooms just down from the theatre (remember the pub-with-rooms, oh Best Beloveds. It will feature later on) and, a little later on, was sitting at the back of the Dress Circle waiting to renew my acquaintance with the Guide.

I've never been to the Hackney Empire before. It's rather nice. It was built as a Music Hall in 1901. On appearances, the designer  was unfamiliar with the concept of 'restraint', and had shares in a gilding business.

The HHGTTG, on the other hand, is something I am familiar with, having read the books, listened to the (repeats of) the radio show, and seen the film and TV series. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the 'live radio show' 

It turns out that you get the Book, sitting in a wing back chair sipping tea, the Band, and a chap with a table of props to do all the sound effects. Oh, and a bunch of stonking actors to do all the voices. 

A lot of them are the original cast members - Simon Jones (Arthur Dent) - still wearing the original dressing gown (although I suspect he's taken it off, in the mean time) Geoff McGivern (Ford Prefect) Susan Sheridan (Trillian) Stephen Moore (Marvin the Paranoid Android) - then there are some newer members -  Mitch Benn, (chosen because the Original Zaphod, Mark Wing-Davey, currently has a job as an Arts Professor in New York, and isn't allowed time off to do funny voices on old radio shows), and Polly J R Adams as the Dish of the Day. There was, of course, also one N. Gaiman as The Voice of the Book.

The show has  it's own band, and also a man at a table in the front left hand corner of the stage to do all the sound effects, so you can watch him banging things together to make the sound of Vogon steel-capped boots, pouring water into a bucket to make the sound of mixing drinks, and fighting an Angolian Suntiger to make the noise of someone fighting and Angolian Suntiger in order to serve a Pan-Galactic Gargle-Blaster.

It also has a bowl of petunias.

It's a stonkingly good and funny show. If you've listened to the radio show, or read the books, you'll like the show. If you haven't, what's been delaying you?
After the show finished, I pootled back to the pub-with-rooms, and as it wasn't massively late, decided to drop my programme and things in my room and pop back down for a nightcap.

When I got back down, the bar seemed to be a lot more crowded. Fair enough, I thought, it's one of the closest pubs to the theatre, and I guess lots of people fancied a drink. 

Then I thought "Hmm, that hair looks familiar. *shrug* I must just have Mr Gaiman on my mind having seen him in the show"

Then I thought "that guy next to the hair looks just like Mitch Benn"

At which point my working through the crowd to get to the bar brought me close the The Hair, and realised that the chap under it was in fact Mr Gaiman, and that the Mitch Benn lookalike was in fact Mitch Benn, and that many of the others filling the bar were the rest of the cast. . . Which was nice, if slightly surreal. 

I was able to tell Neil that he makes a very good Book, and congratulate the lovely Polly Adams on her appearance as the Dish of the Day, and Mitcch on making Zaphod his own. Which was nice. And did make for a lovely end to the evening. 

There is a clip of Simon Jones, and Neil, on the ITN News, talking about the show. And although Neil's appearance as the Book was one night only, there are lots of other interesting people taking on the role over the course of the tour - if it's near you, go see it! 

What I Did on My Holidays

I have just returned home after spending a few days at my parents home in Devon, which has been lovely and relaxing.

A La Ronde

On Sunday, my parents had  a prior commitment to ring a quarter peal near Exmouth, so, as I didn't wish to sit in a churchyard for an hour, they dropped me off at A La Ronde which is now owned by the National Trust. It's a fascinating house - it was originally built in around 1795 for two spinster cousins, and is 16-sided, built around a central octagonal hall.

The original design included sliding doors into all of the main rooms, little triangular cupboards in the gaps between the rooms, and diamond shaped windows. The ladies moved around the house following the sun each day, so their bedrooms faced East, and so forth, so that they always had the best of the light. 

They were very good at handicrafts and were responsible for much of the interior decor themselves - the frieze you can see around the top of the wall is made from feathers, for instance, and the piece de resistance is the 'shell gallery' which is in the top of the house, (and too delicate to be visited except via cctv) which was made by the cousins from the shells and other curios they collected (they travelled extensively on the Continent before they settled down in the house) 

When the ladies died, they left instructions that the house should always go to an unmarried female descendant, and this continued until 1866 when there were no more unmarried female descendants, and the house passed to a male relation, who added some impressively large, steam-powered Victorian radiators, knocked some of the rooms together to make larger ones (and moved the bedrooms upstairs)

It's a strange house, but must have been a nice place to live - there are lovely views out to sea.

Later in the week we went to the seaside - we picked the right day for it - it had started out rather grey and breezy, but there were lots of sunny intervals, and as the school holidays are now over, the beach was pretty empty.

We went home via Ilfracombe to see Damien Hirst's Verity which is very imposing. I suspect it may be seen to best advantage from out at sea.

We also had one much wetter day, and we decided, based on a conversation we had, to visit the Tiverton Museum. My Grannie lived in Tiverton, and when we were little children, we used to be taken to the museum when we visited. I haven't been there since I was about 9 or 10, and I was explaining to my parents that, as far as I recalled, the museum had only one exhibit - a Big Green Railway Engine!

They tried to convince me that there were, in fact, quite a few other exhibits, as well, so we went to see,

It turns out that they were right. The museum also has a number of other exhibits, including lots of farm carts, and lace-making machines, but the engine is still the beast bit!

 Apparently it was bought and given to the museum in 1963, when Dr  Beeching shut the local railway, and has been here ever since. My Dad was reminiscing about being allowed to ride with the driver when coming back from visiting relations, as a small boy (which I suspect must have been against the Railway Regulations, even in the 1950s)

It was a very enjoyable visit. And only slightly marred by the huge queue of traffic I got caught in on my drive home, which involved my sitting in near stationary traffic for around an hour.

A Grand Day Out

My weekend in London continued with a visit to the Museum of Childhood, mostly on the basis that it was close to m hotel, and looked as if it might be interesting, which it was, although I would have enjoyed it more had there been slightly more information about the exhibits (It's obviously designed to be very child friendly, which is fine, but I'm sure most children come with adults attached, who might appreciate a little more information!

I really liked this model theatre, which made me think of the (Other) Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, and also found the exhibition of children's clothes interesting.

Later in the day I found myself getting off the tube at Monument,  due to  closures on the Northern Line, and decided to go above ground just because I can't recall having ever visited the Monument before; it is right by Pudding Lane, and is a monument memorialising the Great Fire of London. It was designed by Wren,and it is possible to climb up inside and look out over London from the top, so I did.

The Monument is just over 200 feet tall, and there are 311 steps, and it is quite a trek up to the top! It is, however, worth the effort.



There are views out over central London in all directions, and one can play 'spot the landmark' looking for St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, the Shard, and many others.

When I walked back down again, I sat in Pudding Lane and read a little more about the monument, learning that it was completed in 1677, and that it stands 202 feet tall, and exactly 202 feet from the site, in Pudding Lane, where the fire started.

It made for an interesting early afternoon interlude, before heading out to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening with relations.

The weekend concluded with a lovely party at Mike & Sue's house, with lots of lovely people to chat with, music from the talented Mr Mitch Benn, and some fantastic food. Sadly, I had to leave before the end of the party, due to the need to get back to Paddington to get my train home, and by the time I got home I was absolutely exhausted (I'm not as young as I was, and all these busy days and fun nights out take it out of me:-) )

It was a highly satisfactory weekend.

The Impossible Girl

Last weekend I went to London. I'd pledged via Songkick for Kim Boekbinder's first UK show, and the gig was on Friday night. 

The show was at the Sebright Arms, which seems to be a pretty nice pub, quite apart from the cool musicians in the basement.

I met up with friends Mike and Sue, and some lovely friends of theirs.

She Makes War opened the gig - I hadn't heard of her, but I enjoyed her music. (and it turns out she is based in Bristol, so I may be able to see other gigs in the future.

And then ... The Impossible Girl herself!

Who played lots of songs from her new album, The Sky Is Calling, (which you should all buy, if you haven't already done so). I've been listening to the album a lot since it came out, and thoroughly enjoyed hearing it live.

What made it even more fun was that Kim was obviously enjoying herself so much. In addition to the music, she told us about bonding with Laura (SheMakesWar) over cheese, and about having a place on Mars names after her.

And at the end of the gig we all got to meet and chat with her, and get lovely posters. 

And it was a relatively early end to the gig, so we had time to had about and chat and drink after the gig, too. 

Lots of fun.