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.
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