Up north
I'm back from Up North, after a journey that "only" took 10 hours. However, since I started further north in England than some bits of Scotland, and finished on a little island that has fallen right off the south coast, I don't suppose ten hours is too bad. Pellinor is hitting people with rubber swords in Barnsley right now, but drove me to Sheffield, from where I then had to stand on a incredibly crowded, slow and hot train all the way to Reading, after which I got a seat. I'd tried to book a seat a few days ago, but was told that there were no reservations possible on this train. They lied.
Family and friends
We met 60% of Pellinor's sisters, and 75% of his nephews and nieces. We fed 100% of the cats belonging to another 20% of his sisters, and looked after 95% of the daughter of the remaining 20% of his sisters (the missing 5% being accounted for by the scraped knee that was sustained on our watch.)
We also met chainmailmaiden and Bacchus, and stayed for a night with kargicq, Neuromancer and K. - for which much thanks! We watched jousting in the rain, and drank English Heritage out of beer, cider, mead and moth-ball flavoured wine. We spent an entire day in Beamish, but still didn't visit half the places there. The many different tea rooms we visited, and the large number of fairground rides, probably had something to do with this. We then stayed up far too late, but had a very nice time. I love being in the sort of company where talk ranges from the deeply intellectual to the supremely silly, and back again. I don't know anyone on the island who do conversations like that.
Books
Pellinor and I went to Barter Books, but were admirably restrained, only staying there for 90 minutes, and only buying 9 paperbacks. I read one of them - "Man and the natural world" by Keith Thomas - on the train today, and found it very interesting. Next time I hear someone saying things like, "oh, but of course in the olden days, everyone was in tune with nature", I will now be able to squash them with real facts, not just on general principles.
At Pellinor's parents', we were sleeping in the room belonging to his almost-13-year-old sister, who loves reading. This allowed me to catch up on lots of children's books that I shamefully had failed to read before, or had read long ago and forgotten. All her books were in alphabetical order. I approved.
Being a grown-up isn't fair!
Wherever we went, we weren't allowed to do fun things. At Alnwick Castle, children were allowed to try archery, but adults weren't. Children were allowed to dress up as a knight, play with swords, play with pretend jousting, and in general do everything imaginable. Adults were supposed to stroll around the state rooms peering at wallpaper.
Grown-ups are never allowed to have fun!
I have been saying for years now that when I win the lottery (which isn't likely to happen since I never buy a ticket, but, hey...) I will buy a castle, and fill the grounds with pirate ships, pretend play castles, caves and things, and it will be adults only. But I bet most of them would be too embarrassed to come. I get very cross by this perception that role-playing, re-enactment, board games etc. are "childish". "When are you going to grow up?" people say, and mean it. Because, of course, going along with the masses and standing on a football stand and watching other people kick a ball around is so grown-up, isn't it? And... No, I'll stop here, since this is another of my oft-recurring rants, but.... GRR!!!!
Food
I am now stuck on the island with no car until Monday. Normally when Pellinor's away, I buy lots of decadent and morally evil ready meals. However, the best decadent ready meals come from Tesco, which is a two hour journey on three buses, so I decided to stop off at Waitrose and/or M&S in Southampton just now. I found both of them depressingly lacking in decadent ready meals. M&S even had less food than our island branch, which is shocking, since everyone knows that The Mainland always has more of everything that our little provincial backwater. I came home with some mournfully undecadent ready meals, and even some - gasp! - ingredients.
Anyway, I am now off to eat one of them, pet the cats, read Empire, and snarl intermittently about the fact that I've not been able to collect by email yet.