Hay on Wye

[Richard S.]

I'm off to the original 'book town' on Saturday - been a few times before and always end up with a rucksack full of goodies so I'm looking forward to it - anyone else been and amazing / some / no luck?

My favourite was probably my 2nd (in 1995ish) - I collect Doonesbury (US comic newspaper comics strip) so am used to asking for the humour section in bookshops. Was amazed to be pointed towards an entire building (ok, a large shed) which was the humour books were kept - filed alphabetically I was able to scoop up a whole stack of Doonesbury books I'd never seen before. Very happy with that.

[Phoenix]

I'm off to the original 'book town' on Saturday - been a few times before and always end up with a rucksack full of goodies so I'm looking forward to it - anyone else been and amazing / some / no luck?

My son, Andrew, has periodically asked me to have a day out in Hay on Wye, Richard, to scour the secondhand bookshops there. We have never managed even a single one. Now it is even less likely, not so much because he lives and works in London, as you well know, but because last week I bought a two-bedroom house in Hayle, 'bought' in the sense that the vendor has accepted my offer. I went down to Cornwall by train to stay with my son, Russell, Rachel, and the children, and I've spent at least half of the last ten days house, and car, hunting. My current house is Sold Subject To Contract. I drove home from Hayle this morning in my new Jaguar, used, but new to me, setting off at 11.20 precisely. The A30 was a comfortable run but the M5 was a nightmare. It comes to something when the M6 is better than the M5. I took two twenty-minute breaks on the M5, nothing after those, and I still didn't get home until about 9.15. The traffic going in the opposite direction had no problems to face. Even going into, and leaving, the Bodmin section is a friendly area these days. I'm home now to pack my goods and chattels, and then to book their transport. If I don't post a great deal in the next few weeks, you now know the reason why.

It wasn't all work and no play. We took Alex and a young friend of his to a skate park in Helston, and they had a great time with their scooters, and on a different day I took him into Penzance, where he bought a pellet gun. Well, I paid for it but before I stumped up for the gun and two bags of pellets I did extract a promise from him that he wouldn't fire at any neighbours, or their cats. Also, on several evenings after Lois had done her homework she and I played chess. She must be getting lots of practice at school because of the five games we played Lois won four of them, and I was trying! I am rusty of course but I should have won more than one. I went into Truro and from Waterstones I bought two illustrated books on chess, different from each other, gave her one and kept the other. I let her look carefully through both of them, and then told her she could have whichever one she thought would be most useful to her, and I would have the other. I'll be down there permanently soon so in the meantime I had better get my thinking cap on!! The children have already decided which of the two beds they want in the second bedroom of my new house. Russ and Rach are over the moon because they think the children will be spending more time in my house than in theirs! And they'll save on breakfast cereals!! I'll have to be watchful as they might expect me to take Lois to St. Ives secondary school every morning, and then pick her up after school. And what could be worse would be having to put BUNTY AND HER SISTERS on the back burner. Furthermore, Kashgar would be rather troubled if I didn't get busy on THIS WAS ADVENTURE. Time will tell.

[Richard S.]

Very exciting news Derek

As I mentioned I've been to Hay before so I have a good idea of what are the best shops to go to, but of course there's nothing like finding a bargain in an out of the way corner of a shop.

Full report coming soon - I'll highlight best shops etc.

[Kashgar]

Hi Derek,
Please get yourself settled in before you feel the need to turn your thoughts again to 'This was Adventure'. I can happily potter away with the work I can do on my own until you're ready to reapply your thoughts to all things story paper related.
Regards, as always,
Ray.

[Phoenix]

It is looking more and more possible that I will be going to London on Saturday to look after Andrew's two girls for a couple of days. He is up to his eyes in work, which will probably occupy him over most of the Easter period, and Maria, the girls' mother, has gone off for a few days with her current partner. If Jane Austen was still alive, I'm sure she would be able to come up with a novel, or a short story at the very least, with the plot elements outlined above.

[Hawkeye]

Derek, could I suggest a chess book entitled 'Amateur to IM', written by my son Jonathan.

Since he wrote the book he has become a Grandmaster, and won the British chess championship twice. The book has very good reviews, although I haven't read it myself. I taught him to play when he was about 8 years old, and he was beating me within a few months. I haven't played him since then.

[Phoenix]

Derek, could I suggest a chess book entitled 'Amateur to IM', written by my son Jonathan.

You certainly can, Neil. I've just read his Wikipedia entry, and it's very impressive. I'll buy a copy on eBay if possible. Thanks a lot for alerting me to it.

[Phoenix]

Derek, could I suggest a chess book entitled 'Amateur to IM', written by my son Jonathan.

I just bought a copy on eBay, Neil. It was a bit pricey at 29.99 but if that's what it takes to close the ability gap on my 11 year old granddaughter then it will have been money well spent. By 'close the ability gap' I mean 'grind her into the ground'. I'm only kidding. There is a mutual respect between us. We FaceTime each other whenever we feel like a chat. One thing that is odd though is that it often feels as though there is no age gap. I can't explain it. I'll be down there again in May because The Liz Nolan Theatre Dance School, which meets once a week in the village hall in Lelant, will be presenting a programme to the general public in a theatre in Redruth. Lois will be dancing in the first half of the show but she will be the compere for the second half. And bear in mind that she won't be 12 till August so most of the dancers are older than her.

Update:- The book arrived this morning, Neil, from Amazon. At first glance it looks complicated, so I'll need to find some leisure time to immerse myself in it. Given my current commitments, it could well be a while before I get any.

[Hawkeye]

Derek, could I suggest a chess book entitled 'Amateur to IM', written by my son Jonathan.

I just bought a copy on eBay, Neil. It was a bit pricey at 29.99 but if that's what it takes to close the ability gap on my 11 year old granddaughter then it will have been money well spent. By 'close the ability gap' I mean 'grind her into the ground'. I'm only kidding. There is a mutual respect between us. We FaceTime each other whenever we feel like a chat. One thing that is odd though is that it often feels as though there is no age gap. I can't explain it. I'll be down there again in May because The Liz Nolan Theatre Dance School, which meets once a week in the village hall in Lelant, will be presenting a programme to the general public in a theatre in Redruth. Lois will be dancing in the first half of the show but she will be the compere for the second half. And bear in mind that she won't be 12 till August so most of the dancers are older than her.

I didn't realise the price was still quite high for the book, but I have read quite a few good reviews so I hope it does you some good, and
I know what you mean about the age gap, or lack of it.
I haven't any experience with the female side as far as kids are concerned, having had 3 boys. All I've done is watch football and cricket matches, don't know how I'd manage with dancing, although I'm sure I'd enjoy it if it was my own family. Hope Lois does herself proud, I think the compere side of it would be a lot more scary for me to watch than the dancing.

[big bad bri]

Good luck with the house move Derek.

[Phoenix]

I haven't any experience with the female side as far as kids are concerned, having had 3 boys. All I've done is watch football and cricket matches, don't know how I'd manage with dancing, although I'm sure I'd enjoy it if it was my own family. Hope Lois does herself proud, I think the compere side of it would be a lot more scary for me to watch than the dancing.

Coming from a family in which girls are very much in a minority, it doesn't surprise me that my ex-wife Lynne and I had two boys. Andrew's ex-partner, Maria, already had three daughters with her ex-husband before Andrew met her, so again it isn't all that unexpected that they would have daughters, Aurora (6) and Kelsey (3). Our younger son, Russell, has two boys, Jordan (21, I think) and Alex (8), and one daughter, Lois, or Lolo as I call her, (11). Alex is very much a boys' boy, so often a leader in all the activities he instigates or gets involved in, and in the fullness of time he will be a girls' boy. One evening last week, Sienna, a schoolfriend of Lolo's, came for a sleepover, but Alex's behaviour did not alter one jot. The three of them had a great time. When Sienna's dad came to collect her the following morning I got the impression that she was reluctant to go home.

[Phoenix]

Good luck with the house move Derek.

Thanks, Bri. I was talking yesterday to my local Estate Agent, and she told me that the process of selling my house to the couple whose offer I have accepted, and buying the house in Hayle, the seller of which has accepted my offer, will take three months minimum. So I'm not holding my breath. Despite the fact that the house I'm buying is only nine years old I am still having a full survey done on it because over the years quite a lot of properties in Cornwall have been built over tin mine workings. I am confident that this one isn't, but when Russ and Rach bought their house I insisted that they have a full survey done on it to cover their backs. They couldn't see the point of it, so as they were putting down a deposit and taking out a mortgage, and didn't have enough left over to fund the survey, I paid for it. It almost certainly wasn't necessary but if a few cracks ever appear in the brickwork they are insured. If I were to say that I won't bother having a survey done on the house I'm buying, given that it has only recently been built, I can assure you that a certain substance will hit a fan.

[Phoenix]

It is looking more and more possible that I will be going to London on Saturday to look after Andrew's two girls for a couple of days. He is up to his eyes in work, which will probably occupy him over most of the Easter period, and Maria, the girls' mother, has gone off for a few days with her current partner.

I'm still here because Andrew has taken time off work to look after the girls. Furthermore, he is bringing them up here either late Tuesday or early Wednesday, driving back to London a week tomorrow. We'll be taking them to some local Play Zones, the one they are most interested in going to again being Puddletown Pirates, which is in Chorley on the road to Blackburn. Even I think it's OK, and the food isn't too bad either. Another that they enjoyed on their last visit was one in Southport, fairly close to Splash World, if anybody knows that area, so we will certainly be going there too, on a different day obviously. There is another one, much closer to my house, so if they arrive around 2 o'clock, we'll go there so they can let off steam after the long car journey from Southfields near Putney.