On Bank Holiday Monday, the plan was that Cousin David and his brother Ben would meet his cousins and some of Stephanie’s friends at the Polurrian Bay Hotel, and then scatter her ashes on the beach below. The hotel is in a beautiful clifftop spot, just outside the village of Mullion which is about 20 […]
I had a free day in Penzance last Sunday, before meeting Christopher’s family on the Bank Holiday Monday. I hadn’t realised quite how close St Michael’s Mount is to Penzance – a walk along the coast of only about three miles. The first mile or so is a bit industrial, as the coastal path is […]
Yes, I know that I’ve only recently been on holiday to Cornwall, but after I’d booked the trip to St Austell over Easter, it became clear that I’d be going back just a few weeks later. This wasn’t such a happy occasion – it was for a family funeral. Cousin Stephanie was Christopher’s mother’s cousin, […]
The play on at Malvern Theatres last week was a new production of Abigail’s Party, the Mike Leigh classic. I’ve heard a lot about it, but had never seen it. It is famous for being largely improvised, with the original cast making it up in a series of workshops with the director. So I booked […]
After the end-of-year mayhem at work, I really needed a break over Easter – somewhere where I could just relax and do very little whilst recharging my batteries. So I booked a long weekend’s break in Cornwall, in a self-catering apartment just outside St Austell. I don’t know Cornwall at all well, but I rather […]
I went back to Eastnor Pottery again last Sunday to do some more throwing. While I was there, I picked up the lidded pots that I threw and decorated during my last two sessions there. The pots are all quite small – no more than 3″ tall – and therefore were very fiddly to throw. […]
The local stately home, Madresfield Court, has once again opened its gardens to the Great Unwashed on Daffodil Sunday. They didn’t hold it for a few years, which must have put quite a hole in the budgets of the local school and church, who together benefit from the admission fees. But tradition has been restored, […]
Many years ago, when I was in the sixth form at school, one of the other girls was studying for some sort of drama exam. I forget exactly what – my school certainly wasn’t relaxed enough to offer drama or theatre studies as an A-level, even if such a thing had existed back then. But […]
Panto season is finally over at the Malvern Theatre’s, and they’re back to showing things I might actually want to watch. This week’s performance was Not Dead Enough, a murder mystery adapted for the stage from a book by Peter James. This is apparently the third in a series of “Detective Roy Grace” novels to […]
I’ve been back on my travels again recently, visiting more university departments. Last week I had a meeting with one of the professors at Imperial College, London. The meeting was scheduled for 14:30, which meant I could get a very civilised mid-morning train down to London, and still be in plenty of time for my […]
