Boa Vista

Lawrence was a little perplexed at the size of the seat and its proximity to the one in front.  On the way back the person in front complained that his knees were in her back - but there isn't a lot you can do about the length of your legs.

It was all worth it though because the resort was lovely, the sky was blue and we didn't see a cloud until we got to the (open air) departure area (couldn't call it a lounge) for the return journey.

Everyone knows what a keen reader Lawrence is.

Temple of Doom steps down from the jacuzzi area down into the pool. The steps come out in the archway (see picture below).

Slightly odd stone sunbeds.  Unsurprisingly there was no scramble to get a towel on these.

Abby and Lawrence on the bridge over the pool.  Suddenly it makes sense why university students would go on holiday with their mums. 

One of these Santa's is wearing an inflatable suit - can you guess which one? 

Christmas dinner, bangers and mash - Pity they couldn't even stump up a glass of fizz for the xmas day flight, especially as they don't permit consuption of your own alcohol on board.  No frills air travel is to be endured as a means to an end. 

Hanagan's Heroes

The Hillside North End (or is that Heritage Hillside) book club celebrates its first anniversary.  The seven members, who span two adjacent postcodes, braved a 42 mile journey for a Christmas bash at the George and Vulture in Cornhill, London.

What started as a remark at the No 11 Chilli and Champagne get together last Christmas has turned into a fully fledged reading group, now with outings (last month we braved the 700m walk to the library). Thanks to Cheryl for knowing where to have fun in London and for organising the event and providing a pass the parcel, chocolate Santas and crackers.  A minor confusion about the date added a slight frisson to the occasion.

 

We met on schedule beside the Monument to start our afternoon in the city. After a quick one in The Fine Line, Cheryl led us to the George and Vulture, a historic chop house rebuilt after the great fire where Charles Dickens is said to have written parts of the Pickwick Papers.  By the time we got settled in with our crackers pulled and our hats on things were looking quite festive.  

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The menue was quite Dickensian and unsurprisingly there was not much to satisfy any special dietary needs.  This meant that Shaun ended up with pretty much his own bodyweight in mushrooms with stilton.

Clive warms up to the idea of wearing a hat later in the afternoon (see picture further on) but at this stage he looks a little skeptical about the idea.

Notice the wine bottles with loosly fitted corks behind Clive - there is not an extensive choice of wine at the George and Vulture, its red or white, with no mucking about tasting it or sniffing the cork.  I think George might have been up all the previous night making it.

We managed to get through enough of the aforementioned wine to have a rather loud game of American style pass the parcel. The present at the centre was a posable figurine of Charles Dickens with a 'removable (but not replaceable) hat' seen here paddling in a communal stilton.  I hope the previous nibblers at this cheese treated it with more decorum.

When we'd finished our lunch the waiter took us upstairs to the private dining rooms (the availability of which caused the confusion over the date) where Dickens allegedly penned some parts of the PP.
The smaller of the rooms had been vacated by its diners but emboldened by Chilean and South African courage we gatecrashed the tail end of a lunch a group of posh city types with a Hong Kong connection were having.  Fortunately they were very welcoming and offered us a glass of their port and took our picture.

After leaving the G&V we still had some life in us so we went to Leadenhall Market for a post lunch drink.  Unfortunately it was so crowded we couldn't get near a bar for a drink but Clive managed to charm the hat off of the bouncer at the Lamb Tavern whilst he was evicting us and we went back to The Fine Line.  Things went a bit awry then for a while, Cheryl dashed off to get lost in Balcome, Clive and Barry lost the rest of party on London Bridge and we got separated for a couple of hours.  All was not lost though.  Cheryl made it to a fun jazz evening and we met up at the Bear back in Horsham for a quick one before dashing to the Co-op for a pint of milk on the way home.
I think a great time was had by all - we just need someone to book that trip to Berlin now, any volunteers?

21 Today!

At last the sun shone on Lawrence's birthday so we went to the site of his first disastrous (raining and cold) birthday in the UK 15 years ago for a photo shoot.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

I read this World Book Night 2012 gift along with the other members of the Hillside North End Reading Group.

Much Madness is divinest Sense -

To a discerning eye -

Much Sense - the starkest Madness -

'Tis the Majority

In this, as All, prevail -

Assent - and you are sane -

Demur - and you're straight away dangerous -

And handled with a chain - 

                                  Emily Dickinson

Maggie O'Farrell uses this epigraph at the beginning of this novel, first published in 2006.  I either skipped over or ignored it before but now I see how apposite it is.  

Euphemia (Esme) spends 61 years, five months and four days in a mental institution.  She was diagnosed with dementia praecox but her real condition was that she was an inconvenience to her family.  She is released to her great niece, who was unaware of her existence even though she has a photograph of her in her flat, because keeping her has become inconveniently costly to the local authority.  

The story of misunderstanding and revenge is told from three points of view, Esme's and her great niece Iris' in the third person, and the first person ramblings of Kitty, Esme's sister who has Alzheimer's and lives in a nursing home.

I loved this book and got so much more from the second reading.  Its short and written in a very accessible style.  Look out for a copy there are doing the rounds as a World Book Night release.

What's not to like about Cricket?

Pimms? - don't mind if I do.  

At last the sun shone for the first day of the first test - England v S Africa at the Oval.  

Not only did we have a great day's cricket but look at this queue, right out the door, for the men's.

And this blue door behind the man in the blue shirt is the door to the Ladies'.  No queue there through the door or inside.  I thought it was worth a picture.

What did I read on holiday?

Anyone who knows me will know that my idea of a perfect holiday is one with a lot of reading.  Here are the books I chose for Barbados.

A lovely complicated story with lots of humorous elements (sneaking the dog into prohibited places in a backpack and off the cuff kidnapping).

Another appearance by Jackson Brodie that I'm certain we'll see dramatised like its forerunners including Case Histories.

I really enjoyed it and would recommend to anyone going on holiday or staying at home.

Two unrelated Korean babies are adopted by two unrelated and completely different American families.  On the same day they go to the airport to receive the children and they meet.  Without anything in common but the adoption they end up meeting annually for an 'Arrival Day' party.
Its a glimpse into the strange emotional world that the intensity and careful planning for children that childlessness can lead to.  A world that it is very difficult for people who have children without particular prior thought or planning, to completely understand.
Its a good catalyst to tell a story about a group of people with a variety of emotional and cultural baggage who are corralled together to celebrate a strangely surreal and tenuous bond.
Its the third of Anne Tyler's novels I have read and I enjoyed it enough to try another.

I finished this because I had started it but, like other more recent Grisham novels, it lacks the skill of his early books.  It feels like a contractual obligation work.
I wouldn't bother with it unless the only alternative is watching some sporting event on TV or reading mommy porn.

I chose this because it is another book written by my erstwhile neighbour Eva Hanagan who used to live at No 4.  The Heritage Hillside Reading Group read her novel Alice as our first choice and I enjoyed it so much I bought another.  Out of print sadly but there seem to be quite a lot of eBay opportunities to get hold of a copy.
I like her books - not much happens but you meet lovely eccentric characters doing slightly odd things.
... thought Flora, slamming a bowl of watercress in front of him.  A tiny creature like a minuscule lobster waved its legs in frantic protest before it and its supporting leaf disappeared below Fergus's moustache.  
 Her stories are uncomplicated and short but you feel as though you have got to know and understand the characters.  They make very good holiday reads.  

Not everyone's cup of tea but I really like Agatha Christie and it always surprises me that more people don't.
This one has been dramatised several times both for the small screen and radio but the book, as is usually the case, is a more satisfying journey.
An anachronistic comfortable London hotel is frequented by relics from a bygone era that seems so authentically stuck in time that it can't possibly be right.  Of course all is not what it seems and Miss Marple gets to the bottom of the matter.

This is hilarious.  I'm not keen on any activity that could lead to drowning but now that I've been on a short trip on the canal to Camden I think I would like to try a weekend trip a bit further afield on a narrow boat and I will take this with me to read it again.
Three of the least resourceful and smart friends go on a trip for which they are unsuited and ill prepared.

I didn't finish this one, and still haven't.
This is the sort of book you read once to get the bones in your head and then go back and read again at leisure to enjoy it properly.  I'm still at stage one.
Getting to grips with it is complicated by all the characters (and there are quite a lot) all seeming to have the same name.
I'll get back to you when I've read it properly.

The Cliff - dessert

It start off dark but the light comes on after a few seconds.

I ♥ Barbados

By offering this holiday at half price and restricting it to one week British Airways are doing the equivalent of offering free drugs to school children.  How will I be able to resist going back for more whatever the price?
A (very strong) rum punch welcomed us to the hotel and we sat drinking this while the charming  receptionist checked us in and arranged for our bags to be taken to the room.  We were shown around the resort on our way to the room.

We even had a rainbow to greet us.

Adrian does some of his famous rustling as we prepare to go to the gate at Gatwick.  Alison I put this picture in especially for you.  Nothing changes.

Complimentary afternoon tea.  Small sandwiches, cake and scones with cream and jam, just what you expect in the Caribbean.

We couldn't resist the chance to go in the submarine.  

Shipwreck

Gregory's cooler

Breadfruit tree 

This is me in front of one of the trees the island got its name from. 

Adrian is in this picture to prove it's a real sunset.

The Cliff - need I say more! 

The pool

Standing in the same position pointing the other way.

The Woman in the Fifth

This is the sort of story where you have to be careful not to give the end away as that would spoil it for many people.  I don't think I've read any of Douglas Kennedy's other novels but I think I'll give another one a go as I found myself taking this one with me to the shops - a good sign.
Not having read him before the twists in the plot came as a surprise to me and some of the places Kennedy takes you in this book feel quite real, then in retrospect rather surreal.  Lorraine L'Herbert's salon is a truly bizarre picture, I'm sure if I ever found myself in such a place I'd be out on the balcony having a fag planning an early escape.
I wouldn't want to meet any of the characters, they are a pretty grim lot without redeeming features that I could detect. There are some unexplained events - not sure what the chlamydia is all about and who gave it to him and why its in the story.  And why the lung damaging fire? At times I felt that this was a bit of a contractual obligation story but I enjoyed it notwithstanding this.

Jubilee

Sunday - We got a good view of individual boats through a gap in the buildings but had got up too late to get a really good viewpoint.  There was a long wait and it was cool and damp then the pageant got near us and it absolutely bucketed down with rain and we got soaked.  

  

The Committee - from an idea at a Christmas party to 200 plus people partying in the street in less than 6 months.   

Chair of the Committee rings the bell to start the party.

Monday 4 June

And then gets into trouble with the law.

Svidrigailov got into the Jubilee spirit with his personal bunting - although he spent most of the party asleep on a cushion.  He prefers his humans one at a time, not in big noisy groups.

It's true it was dull and the sun was not sunny but you can see we had lots of good fun that was funny (with apologies to Dr Seuss).