Happy Mail - Not Yarn!

 I treated myself! 

I was introduced to Rituals via a You Tube channel about eight months ago. Before that I'd never heard of them, but it wasn't long afterwards that I saw they had opened a shop in the Stirling Shopping Centre, so I went in for a browse. I didn't buy anything then, but a while later when I needed some new shampoo I went  and had a look and bought a (very expensive!) bottle of the stuff.

Well I say very expensive but it's lasted ages and it's very kind to my hair so perhaps it's not in the grand scheme of things. As seems to be normal nowadays I was encouraged to sign up for their e-mails which I did and I generally give them a quick look when they come and then discard them. 

Last week though they had a special offer on a box of three full size shower gels, on-line only and I thought, Why Not? Obviously I did my usual thing of thinking um, and ah, and should I really do it,  for several days first, but I did eventually persuade myself that buying three bottles of shower gel on special offer didn't make me a selfish horrible person and I ordered them. They came today, so very quickly and in a nice box ( see above) 

And now they're out of the box, as below

If I remember I'll report back on which is my favourite in due course. 

Yorkshire Part 2 - The Conference

I don't think I have ever not enjoyed a Gaskell Society Conference and this one was well up to standard. For a long time it seemed to be the case that either you got great food, but the accommodation wasn't so brilliant, or vice versa but on the past few occasions both have been acceptable or better , and to be honest you're not there for the beds or the food but the friends and the papers. Although I'm aware that not everyone takes quite such a sanguine view. 

The hotel wasn't perfect, mainly due to being short staffed,  and I did end up having basically the same dinner two nights out of three, but that wouldn't have been the case if I ate fish so it's not fair to hold that against the catering. The sandwich lunches wouldn't have set the world alight but then when did a sandwich lunch ever do that? And it was certainly far too hot to add soup. 

The current chair of the society had taken it upon herself to try and up the academic content a bit, so there was actually a call for papers this year and we ended up with a very wide spread of subjects being talked about; some more interesting than others. but that's always the way. I particularly enjoyed a Ph D student from Edinburgh talking about dress in Gaskell's novels with particular reference to North and South and, my surprise of the weekend, was enjoying an analysis of Gaskell's novels which sought to prove whether or not she understood the industrial changes she was living through and whether she was more positive then negative in her attitude towards them in her writing. Oddly, to me,  this seemed to show that she was fairly neutral about it in all her books which I found very surprising since industrialists complained bitterly of her negative attitudes towards factories and factory owners in Mary Barton and she wrote North and South in part to even up the score. So an analysis which showed that she was equally positive about industrial change in both these books made me wonder if there was something wrong with the basic analytic method...but what do I know? It was an entertaining talk. 

There were outings. The first was to the Brotherton Library in Leeds. I spent a lot of time there as an undergraduate so there was nothing new for me in the actual building and they had a very dull exhibition on in the special collections gallery. They did however get out some of their Gaskell treasures and they were well worth looking at. We were all fascinated by a recent discovery - here's a photo 

Each piece of paper has a page number at the top, referring to a page in a biography of Gaskell and then an excerpt written out in blue. Underneath in red,  and occasionally very cross, writing are corrective comments, written it is believed by Gaskell's second daughter Meta. I think it's fair to say she had a lot to find fault with. 

The other outing was to Thornton near Bradford where many of the Bronte children were born, as their father was the curate there before he moved to Haworth. The birthplace has recently been restored and opened to the public by no less a personage than Kween Kamilla. We had a guided tour led by someone who had been involved in all the hard work of raising money, and getting the thing done so he had lots to tell us. They have made  a very good job of it. Of course they can't get hold of authentic Bronte artefacts, unlike the Parsonage at Haworth, but they have managed to furnish it with contemporary furniture. 

This is the writing desk in the parlour

Someone made a beautiful scale model of the house and it's on display in the scullery/kitchen

There are three bedrooms you can sleep over in (via Air BnB if you're interested!) They'd had a Chinese Bronte scholar staying and she had donated a copy of Jane Eyre in mandarin

After the birthplace which very sadly wasn't serving refreshments that afternoon, we went to the local church where there is a small Bronte exhibition. I was more interested in a couple of wall hangings they had 

 

this was one of them. It looks like a quilt but in fact it's a printed textile. It was lovely. Sadly the lady at the Church Information Point had no information on it.  

They also have a window designed by William Morris, 

not the best picture ever but it gives the general idea

After the Church, and despite the heat, we were dragged across the road to the ruins of the church where  Patrick Bronte had been the curate; the one we had visited was built much later. There's not much left of it , bar the cupola

which, thanks to the ivy, has an appropriate gothic aspect. 

I did miss that normal Gaskell Society staple; the cream tea which was sadly not in evidence this time around. But not the end of the world. As is usual I came home re-fired with enthusiasm for C19 writers and writing, and as a result I am currently working my way through Juliet Barker's The Brontes: A Life in Letters again. I am a trifle concerned that I am not as irritated with Charlotte and Emily as I normally am, but I tell myself that will be rectified once I tackle Barker's huge Biography once again. 

And of course I'm wondering where the next G S Conference will be; there were no hints to be had at this one! 

Well that was a fun day

 The OH returned from his trip to his island paradise (Orkney) on Monday, by which time I was totally frazzled after 3 days of total responsibility for a cat that, despite what they said at the shelter when we adopted him, does indeed love exploring away from  home and displays an uncanny ability to find spots to lie down where his tracker is shielded from anything that might pick up its signal. I hardly dared let him out of my sight so I was extremely glad when the Master of the House returned by mid-afternoon, after which I took myself off to bed and slept for about six hours. 

I had arranged to go to Edinburgh for lunch with friends on Tuesday and by Monday evening was regretting that I had ever contemplated such a thing, as I still felt totally wiped out and unwilling to engage with anyone beyond faintly requesting yet another cup of proper coffee, but on Tuesday morning I got up, pulled up my big girl pants, bought the ticket and got on the train.  

I'm so glad I did. I was early so I pottered around a couple of shops, had a coffee and a brief look around in the National Gallery and then made my way to Meze Meze on Rose Street  where my friend G had booked a table for lunch. We were joined by S, an academic at Edinburgh University who I know via Facebook and who I had long wanted to meet in person and R, a friend of G's who she was keen S and I should meet. 

The table was booked for one o'clock and we left at four which I think says a lot  about how much we were enjoying ourselves. Lots of academic discussion and lots of academic gossip(!) plus various discussions on travel, cats and coping with bereavement all played their part in our conversation. The company was wonderful and so was the food ( Meze meze is a Lebanese Restaurant and I can't wait to go back) 

Firsts ...

... and seconds . Uncharacteristically I did not order a creme brulee which I normally do if it's on the menu; two of the others did and I'm told they were very good, but I was happy with my alternative choice. 

The service was friendly and unpushy and altogether it was delightful place to eat. I'd told the OH that I would come straight home 'after lunch' and I suspect he was therefore expecting me somewhat earlier than 18.03! which was the time my return train pulled in to Alloa station. 

A Nice Thing to do on a Wednesday (reprise)

 So last year we went to a Strawberry tea fundraiser in the local village of Dollar (see  here if interested)  and this year, we did the exact same thing. I see that last year it was 'sunny' but this year it was what I described several times as 'too bloomin' hot'.

Anyway, Dollar, the strawberries and the flower arrangements were all as lovely as last year, although the scrumpled table cloth scraped my ever so slight OCD-ness - especially as, despite several tries, I could NOT get it to lie flat.  

Having learned from last year we had gone early which made finding a parking place slightly easier, and we also managed to snaffle a jar of marmalade before the stall was sold out. 

After we'd finished our scones we strolled down to the bookshop but managed to come out without buying any books. This was partly because, faced with a shop fill of books, most of the titles I'm interested in browsing and perhaps buying instantly fly out of my head and I think I may need to take to compiling lists and carrying them around with me. 

Yorkshire Part the First

 I was very lax about taking photographs during the first part of my visit - most unusual for me - but I kept thinking, there's s no point as no-one will be interested in photos of random people they will never meet. This does not excuse my laxness in other areas; no photo of my hotel, which was a beautiful C19 building, none of its grounds, or indeed of any of the interesting buildings in Ilkley itself. What can I say? I was obviously not thinking straight.  

So  a brief, picture-less account of my first few days. I arrived on Monday after a smooth train journey and a very hot and bothersome walk up the steep hill to my hotel. A recurring theme was established very early on, in that they were having problems with the key card machine and for my first three days mine only ever worked once after being activated, after which it had to be activated again. This was irritating, but not a huge problem as I tended to go out after breakfast, come back about 4 and not leave my room again until breakfast the next day. My room was lovely, with a great view out over the hills behind Ilkley, but extremely hot, not helped by the fact that the en-suite bathroom had a heated towel rail which would not turn off. However I made good use of the provided floor standing fan. 

There was  a positive whirl of catch up activity. Tuesday with my group of Dorothy Dunnett readers, Wednesday with a friend from the last job I had in Leeds over twenty years ago, Thursday was lunch with two colleagues from my Leeds M.A. days ( both looking remarkably well considering they are both at least 10 years older than me - a very heartening thought!) and on Friday a pleasant morning in the shady Leeds back garden of a friend from the Russian department where I did my undergraduate degree. 

Thursday night brought an unpleasant experience, which I confided to a few friends in a private fakebook group as follows (just to save me typing it all out again!

  I have just had a really scary experience. I'm staying in a hotel on my own which hasn't been a problem, but about 40 minutes ago the couple in the room next door started a really aggressive argument: shouts, tears, bad language, threats of violence etc. It calmed down after a while but then it started up again and I was really scared that they were actually going to start a physical fight. It took ages to raise anyone on Reception ( the place is very short staffed) but eventually I got through to someone and they came up. The shouting and screaming was still going on. Long story short they said everything was fine, closed the door, and presumably thinking he'd gone started up again. Possibly they then heard him talking to me as they both came out and the bloke announced they were leaving and they walked off in the direction of the stairs. I was really surprised when I saw them, they were quite young, late 20s? I'd thought they were middle aged! Anyway it seems they have gone, I certainly hope so, but I'm still shaking and shaken.

In fact they came back later but stayed quiet; however I spent the rest of the night with a bedside light on and a chair firmly pushed against my locked door. The clearest case of 'coercive control' I've ever seen. Horrible. 

It was so good to see all these friends again; I am just about getting over the surprise that people actually want to spend time with me (lack of self esteem much?) but given that they give up their time and undertake quite lengthy journeys in some instances I suppose I can start to believe it. 

Friday afternoon saw the arrival of the coach with the majority of the Gaskell Society Conference attendees on it and I took care to register as soon as I could and prepared for the first talk. Report on the Conference to come. There will be photos. 

Yes, yes, yes and sorry

 

Did you not get back from your time away yesterday Anne? Have you not had an exciting week catching up with Yorkshire friends, then a weekend in an intellectually stimulating environment which you're dying to share with us? Should you not have done a blog post today? 

The answer to all those questions is yes, and I'm sorry that I haven't managed a proper blog post about at least some of it, but the fact is that an exciting week catching up with friends followed by a weekend in an intellectually stimulating environment, which was itself then followed by a stressful journey home ( thank you whichever railway company runs trains between Leeds and York) was all  very tiring and at the time I had planned to do a blog post today I had fallen asleep on the sofa. Soz. 

Normal service resuming at some stage and sooner rather than later I hope since I still have Wales to write up too. 

June Books

 Sadly no photo as I didn't think to take one of any of the physical books I read in June.

Only seven finished this month and only one of them wasn't crime, so I'll start with that. Unruly by David Mitchell , which  is described as a history of England's  Kings and Queens. I hadn't really taken on board the England bit, so I found myself surprised when it ended with Elizabeth I. I thought maybe he had got bored. Actually it doesn't end with Elizabeth I as the last section is a hymn of praise to Shakespeare, which seemed odd. Anyway as far as it went, I enjoyed it. Clear, instructive, no pretense of being impartial and often laugh out loud funny. The bad language got a bit tedious after a while, it's over used, but other than that a 5/5.

The Crime Fiction Book Group book was Unsolved by Heather Critchlow. This generally went down well although not with everyone and certainly not with me. If you don't like monetised podcasts, like I don't, (or the interminable BBC ones either) avoid this one, as that is how the protagonist makes his living. I will say that the bits of the book that were supposed to be from the podcast caught the tone of them really well, but given what I just said this was obviously not a recommendation for me. It's the first in a series and I can only hope that Critchlow got better at a) plotting b) characterisation and c) hiding her perpetrator. 

Then  there was Muse by Celina Grace. For some reason that escapes me, possibly they were cheap, I bought a lot of Celina Grace on Kindle a few years ago. She writes a series of police procedurals set in Devon. They're self published and rather better than that implies but I can sort of see why a publisher hasn't picked them up. Anyway I got an e-mail saying Muse was free so I downloaded it and read it and it was fine. I really can't put my finger on why I am so luke warm about these books as the plots are good, the police team is well drawn and the characters and crimes are credible - all the things I criticise in other books when these qualities are missing. But somehow they just miss the spot. 

Two J D Kirks - I must surely be running out of them by now; Where the Pieces Lie and A Death Most Monumental. It's the mixture as before and you either get Kirk and love him or you don't. ADMM had a great joke about The Only Way is Essex though, which I  loved even though I've never actually watched the program. 

It's Not What You Think by Clare Macintosh was disappointing. The 'big twist' at the end  was exactly what I thought it wold be from very early on. In fact so sure was I that I was right that I skipped most of the last third of the book which I found extremely slow, and listened to the last 20 minutes or so just to be sure. It's sad because I loved her trilogy of Welsh set police procedurals, but I suspect that this is just further proof that the domestic  psychological thriller is not for me. 

Last up was Karin Slaughter's We Are All Guilty Here, the first in a recent new series set in a small rural town in Georgia. I liked it so much I have reserved the follow up from the library. Other than that what can I say? relatable characters in a credible setting that Slaughter obviously knows inside out, and some other writers could take lessons from Slaughter in hiding the perpetrator in plain sight. Slight warning note; as  always with KS the details of the crime are grim; although she doesn't slaver over details as some others do, these aren't for the faint hearted. 

There's a reason I've got all the standard posts ( books, wool stats, stash enhancement) out of the way so early this month,  and it's because I'm about to go away again. I'm off to Yorkshire for a week; starting with a lot of old friend catch ups,  followed by The Gaskell Society Conference which this time around is in Ilkley. Happy me. I'm back on 13th after which I will have two trips to write up, and given how empty the calendar is looking after that I should have plenty of time to do it!