Speculation, Fact and Fiction

Which seems a startlingly long time ago, even after only two to three days sorting out the work-related stuff that had accumulated while I was away.

It was all a rather ad-hoc summer, on account of my husband changing jobs at the start of July. Since this was on the cards from about April, we held off on making any firm plans until we knew what he'd be doing. As it turned out, he'd be spending alternate weeks abroad for the first six weeks and only able to take the last two weeks of August off. By the time we knew this, it was too late to book anything we actually wanted. Which isn't to say we didn't have a good time on our various travels.

So, as previously noted, I went to Ireland with my sons to visit my Dad and his wife. Where we visited Dublin Zoo and also had a day on a boat on Lough Derg, which was most enjoyable. Other than that, we mostly relaxed which in my case means reading.

Apart from the latest by Minette Walters, John Harvey and Tess Gerritsen, I read The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. This is a children's fantasy by an author I'd previously not heard of, which is rather odd, given the amount of crime and mystery fiction that I read. As it turned out, my Dad had several of John Connolly's books and I came home with those and they're sitting in the To Be Read for Relaxation pile.

I was actually reading The Book of Lost Things for SFRevu, one of several outlets, web and print, that have very kindly been in touch inviting me to review for them. You can read my thoughts on an excellent read over there, and I'll post updates on where else I'm reviewing as pieces are due to appear.

Then we came home and had a rapid turnaround before all four of us went to stay with my Mum and stepfather in Hampshire for a few days. While we were there, we visited the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth - twice as the full ticket lasts all year which is a good thing since in two full days, we didn't do everything. We did see HMS Warrior, HMS Victory and the Mary Rose plus relevant museum, and did the harbour boat tour around all the current warships which gave us an excellent overview of naval architecture and life through the ages. And answered the most burning question as far as my younger son was concerned. If D is for destroyer on the side of a ship, and F is for frigate, why do aircraft carrier designations start with R? Turns out it's for Runway. So now you know.

While in Hampshire we also visited the Royal Armouries artillery collection at Fort Nelson which ranges from the earliest cannon to bits of the Iraqi Super-Gun as confiscated by customs. This is a fascinating fortification in its own right, on the top of Portsdown Hill, built in case of French invasion in the 1860's. It's also free and gratis to park and get in, which is always a plus. Interesting fact learned there, a gun barrel is so named because the very earliest cannon were made with staves of iron held together with iron hoops in essentially the same way as a wooden barrel. Hence the name. Also, it's apparently very dangerous to pour molten bronze into a casting-sand mould, if the sand is in the least damp. One chap did this and the resulting explosion destroyed the foundry, killing him, his son and 19 others.

(Okay, I don't have firearms in the worlds I've invented thus far, but bells are cast in much the same way... Writerly notes were made for the next time I need some accidental catastrophe...)

There's an awful lot of military stuff one can do in Hampshire. We didn't get round to the D-Day Museum, the Submarine Museum, the Royal Marines Museum or the Gurkha Museum, just to name a few attractions that caught the eye of sons and husband. Next time, perhaps. Mmmmm. As long as we schedule some light relief from the warmongering as well.

We did visit Intech, a hands-on sciencey place near Winchester, much fun for sons and engineer husband and mildly interesting for me. Then we went to Fishbourne Roman Palace which is well worth visiting in its own right, if you're into mosaics and such, and by way of a bonus, was doing kids' summer activities. So we made a Roman lamp. And we did manage a few hours paddling along the beaches despite some less than stellar weather.

Finally, we came home via Kent and a day out at the Military Odyssey show on the Bank Holiday Saturday. There were umpteen re-enactors there, from a single Stone Age Man up to a Gulf War One contingent since I believe this is the biggest show of its kind in the country currently. There were endless stalls of stuff to buy, of limited interest to me and the other mothers who were getting weary of repeating to teenage sons, "No, you cannot have an airgun/paintball gun/deactivated M-16 or AK-47." "Because I says so." etc. On a more positive note, there were never any queues for the ladies' loos, as I have found is usually the case at such events.

Happily there were far more interesting camp-displays from the Romans, Napoleonic Wars, English Civil War, US Civil War, Vietnam and WWII and more besides. They all had a turn at staging battles. The Napoleonic folk had horse artillery, the Vietnam chaps had an actually flying Huey helicopter and the sizeable gathering of WWII groups had tanks and lorries and jeeps and half-tracks and motorbikes and a whole range of more esoteric vehicles like an amphibious volkswagen. So, lots of noise, lots of bangs, and chaps getting to play with their toys. All a bit like doing Live Role Play only with blank firing guns. No, I'm not poking fun. I enjoy a day out at something like this every other year or so.

And since we had grandparents to boy-sit, Steve and I had a meal out on our own in Winchester one evening. Which introduced me to the strangest Chinese restaurant ladies loo that I've yet encountered. Blue tiles and orange paint wouldn't be my choice of decor but that's not it. The loo seat was a pale pinkly-tinted perspex, with purple ivy leaves encapsulated within it, dusted with gold glitter. Novel, I think you'll agree. Then I realised the lid of the loo, in the same pink perspex with purple leaves, also had a black lacy thong-knicker encapsulated within it, with a peacock design. Bordello chic?

Overall the food was fine though we were baffled to be presented with sizzling beef in cream sauce. Not only because we'd ordered sizzling beef in black bean sauce. One of the reasons we eat a lot of oriental food is my need for a dairy free diet and habitually, the Chinese don't eat milk products.

Nor do the Japanese. Not that this concerned a Japanese restaurant in Norwich the following week. Both sons had prior engagements for the final week in August, so once we had done another rapid turnaround at home, they were shipped off to Scout Camp and Godparents respectively. So Steve and I had a few days on our own. We went to Norwich and had a resolutely non-military time. Well, non C20th warfare. In that we visited Norwich Cathedral and Norwich Castle museum, which had once been a prison. Fascinating fact from there; gibbets were made to measure.

We also went to see the Dragon Hall, a medieval merchant's hall that survived subsequent re-use and dividing up remarkably intact and has been restored as a very interesting visitor attraction. It's called the Dragon Hall because when the latter partition walls were taken down, dragon carvings were discovered in the spandrels of the crown post roof. At some point, I'll post some pictures. There's also a dragon in the Castle Museum; a snap dragon. This is a brilliant costume as worn by someone in the medieval guild pagents held in the city. Whoever was inside it had gunpowder squibs to thrown into the crowd and some mechanism to blow sparks from the mouth. Sounds marvellous fun to me.

Going a little further afield, we visited Orford Castle and Framlingham Castle. Both very interesting. I would have liked to get into Framlingham Church as Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Henry VIII - and lead-vampire in Tanya Huff's excellent books - is buried there. Only there was an actual funeral scheduled so the church was closed, understandably. Striking out with the English Heritage guidebook, we also found Baconsthorpe Castle, one of those 'open at any reasonable hour' ruins that can either be a gem tucked away up some farm track or a disappointing heap of rubble. This was the former, and may well make a modified appearance in the fantasy series I'm currently planning. Then we went to see the National Trust's Felbrigg Hall, where I gathered some incidental material, quite by chance, for the contemporary project I currently have in hand. As one does.

But back to the Japanese restaurant. We might have been better going there for lunch and sticking to sushi or noodles as the evening meals revealed a particularly Norfolk take on fusion food. Perhaps we should have been warned when we saw the starters included Chips with Wasabi Mayonnaise. Teryaki salmon for me and teryaki beef for Steve came with a none too generous bowl of rice - and half a plateful of new potatoes drenched in butter. Less than ideal. Mind you, the Lebanese restaurant we ate at the next night offered chips as an alternative to vegetable rice or couscous.

And then it was time to go home, collecting sons en route, to spend the weekend doing all the preparation for the new school year in double-quick time. Thus far the week's been taken up with dealing with the most immediately pressing work-related stuff and now I should actually get back to some actual writing!