Holiday Blues?

January is traditionally the time for heavy advertising for holidays. I can remember when I was a kid the adverts on the TV on Boxing Day were always holidays, and there were pages of adverts in the Christmas TV papers too. In those days it was more likely to be Butlins and Blackpool rather than trips abroad. Yes, I am that old. With a new year, a few brave brochures trickling through the letterbox, intense fedupness with the same four walls and the prospect of vaccinations as a tiny speck of hope on the horizon, I've been thinking about my bucket list. It won't be for a while, but I am sort of making plans. Or maybe thinking about making plans? 2022 Maybe?

I have to say, I am a little worried about the big world, not having been much further than ASDA for nearly a year, not even into Cardiff! I expect I shall get used to it. So - what's on the list?

Cardiff first - baby steps!

Then in no particular order - 

Bristol - for my favourite fish and chip shop and the Egyptian galleries at the Museum - research for the book after this one. 

Bath - my second favourite fish and chip shop, the theatre and shopping

Oxford - I have my eye on the Pre-raphaelite exhibition at the Ashmolean and made a tentative date with a friend for viewing and afternoon tea, but really not sure if that will happen. Probably a bit too soon for jabs and relaxation of rules.

London - for theatre, bookshops, museums galleries, concerts - you name it - and events for the Romantic Novelists' and Crime Writers Associations. My London trips have been one of my greatest lockdown losses - I usually make at least half a dozen a year. The last time I was there
was 29th February 2020, at the National Archive in Kew, doing a last minute sweep for references for the PhD. I had a  lovely day - archives being one of my catnips. And then the world turned upside down. I miss it.

I also want to go to Scotland - I've never been and I have a family pilgrimage I want to make, I'll tell you about that another time. And Cornwall, ditto - but no pilgrimage. 

The trips abroad would fill a page - but the Riviera, of course, is top of the list and I do have a holiday paid for and 'banked' as it were, so I do hope I can make it. The other place I have a hankering for is Paris. When I lived in London I sometimes used to hop on the Eurostar and go for the day, but that was a long time ago now. I have a whole list of things to see from the Pere Lachaise Cemetery to the Cire Trudon shop selling specialist scented candles. I could get them here, but somehow the idea of buying them in Paris has taken hold. I also want to go to some of the places mentioned in Eloisa James's memoir of her year spent living in the city, Paris in Love. That would be following in the footsteps of my heroine Nadine, who did the same thing in A Wedding on the Riviera. 

Will I make it? Who knows? Maybe not this year. But soon? 

I'm also interested, if anyone would like to comment - what's on your bucket list? 

A trip to Oxford

I made a flying visit to Oxford last week - and the AIEP conference of international crime writers. A fascinating two days, with delegates from all over the world and a packed programme that included a few treats - like a guided trip around the city with author Martin Edwards, who knows pretty much everything you would ever want to know about who wrote what, and where. Oxford, between the covers of a book, appears to be a hotbed of crime. I wouldn't know about any other kind! Excellent hospitality at St Hilda's College, perfect weather, good company and a great deal of enjoyment. I also snatched a morning for a short ramble round the city, before travelling home. And took pictures.

Wherever you are in Oxford, you're being watched - no, not by CCTV, but by faces and statues on doors, walls and roofs - old stone and carving everywhere. Quirky alleyways, glimpses of gardens through doorways and gateways, the doors themselves - all things that I find fascinating, with the suggestion of thing hidden, secret, maybe even forbidden.  I also chanced on a fabulous exhibition in the Bodleian Library  - small but full of treasures - medieval manuscripts and a first folio of Macbeth amongst them, illustrating aspects of fantasy and magic used by authors such as Tolkien. There were several exhibits that fitted into a long term project that is currently in research. I now know what a volvelle is, and there will definitely be one of those in the book. I briefly checked out the Ashmolean - I shall need to look at some pictures there in due course - and I took a quick look at the Randolph hotel. I was staying there for the weekend when I picked up an entry form for a writing contest - which I won! My first validation that I could write and that maybe one day I would publish a book.

I had a really good time, and the picture gallery is below.

Watchers - I think this is Pan, holding up the porch, with the Green man on the door itself?

I liked the combination of old looking door and shiny new keyhole. 

Watchers on the roof this time. 

I loved the name of this little alleyway. 

The famous literary pub.

Poster for the Magical Books exhibition.

This caught my eye in the Ashmolean Museum. Lovely drapes - wonder what it would have looked like with the missing head and arms?

I had lunch in what is reputed to be the first central university building - 1320.

I'm watching you!

So am I!

Flower border at Balliol

Fond memories of the Randolph- and afternoon tea!