Friday 20 February 2009

The Best Laid Plans...

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Okay, let's have a writing-related post for a change (er, no, I'm not much further on - but I do know an awful lot about a strolling player's life in the early 19th Century now.) I had to arrange a library visit this morning so afterwards, in pursuance of period detail, I trotted over to the Theatre Royal at Bury St Edmunds which was built in 1819. It was shut.

Nothing daunted, I went to the New Subscription Rooms (now the Atheneum) on Angel Hill where Susanna in Fair Deception attends her first posh ball. It also looked a bit on the shut side, but I boldly walked in and WOW! Look at this - and this is only the ante-room! (Yes, sorry about the quality - I had to use my phone because I'd left the camera in the car at the other end of town)

There was no one else around at all - but just as I was having a Lost-In-Austen moment, an official-type chap emerged from somewhere unspecified and asked if he could help. And bless him, he showed me the ballroom.

Double wow.

I was so completely blown away that the photos are all over the place. It is just the prettiest ballroom ever. This is the far end.


This is the musicians alcove (they originally sat in a scooped out balcony alcove above this one until the H&S elves got their builders onto it).

And this is a really sweet staircase down which to Make An Entrance.

Well, no wonder Susanna was all of a dither.
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Tuesday 17 February 2009

Neither fish nor fowl

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I made a very odd soup this evening. It started when I found a couple of chunks of ancient frozen cod in the freezer (as you do). Mmm, I thought, I quite fancy fish. Then I spotted a tub of equally ancient frozen home-made turkey stock (from 2004, evidently a good year for losing things in the freezer). So I put everything in the saucepan with a sliced onion and a julienned carrot and chunks of potato and a handful of frozen peas... and then as it all defrosted I noticed dark lumps drifting up to the surface.

Yup, the turkey stock had had turkey pieces in.

Like I say, odd. But hopefully relatively calorie-free.

So, what's the weirdest thing you've made recently?
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Sunday 8 February 2009

A new travelling companion

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Off to London for a couple of days to do some research and meet up with masses of friends at the Romantic Novelists' Association Awards Lunch.

And look who's coming with me! Isn't she sweet?
(Her name's Nymph. Suits her, don't you think?)

Friday 6 February 2009

It's official - Richard Armitage really is hero material!

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The Romantic Novelists' Association, who on Tuesday 10th February will announce the winners of the Romantic Novel of the Year Award and the Romance Prize 2009, have just released the results of their 2009 Valentine Poll.

This year, the subject was...The Sexiest Thing on Two Legs and the winner (with a comprehensive 20% of the vote, more than double the count of any other male on the list) is...

Richard Armitage


According to the romantic novelists polled, the sexiest male celebrities of 2009 are:

1 Richard Armitage
2 Johnny Depp
3 Hugh Jackman
4 George Clooney
5 Daniel Craig
6 Sean Bean
7 Alan Rickman
8 David Tennant
9 Pierce Brosnan
10 Gerard Butler

Click here for the full article
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Monday 2 February 2009

February snow

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Now, I'm sure my friend Susie Vereker will have better pictures than this later, but this is what my garden looked like at seven o'clock this morning. (Yes, of course the photo was taken through glass - I'm not stupid!)


I knew I was right not to bother cleaning the car.