Busy weekend...

[bunn]

On Friday I and the dogs went over to a campsite near Salisbury to meet up with some friends from the animal-rescuers forum. What a nightmare. It took me about 5 hours to get there because there were horrific roadwork delays on the A30. When we got there it was pouring with rain and very windy, and the dogs were cold and poor Azure was terrified by the people and the wind and the flapping tents.

If it hadn't taken so long to get there I'd have turned straight round and gone home.

Anyway, I took the dogs out for a walk along the old Roman road towards Salisbury (dogs both well wrapped up in their fleecy waterproof coats) and after that they were persuaded that it wasn't so terrible, once I had the tent up (popup tent: excellent! Remove bag, pop in tentpegs, done!) and stuffed with blankets and dog beds. So I got a chance to have a few drinks and relax a bit (the relaxing much aided by the fact that I had providently brought my plastic over-trousers and the raincoat that is big enough to fit a giant fleece inside it).

I had one of those plastic-backed picnic blankets on the floor, and the self-inflating airbed has paid for itself in that one night, as I think I was the only one staying a tent that wasn't cold. Azure makes a lovely hot water bottle. Mollydog doesn't: she practically goes into a coma at night. She breathes about once a minute and goes quite cold to the touch: it's very odd.

She woke up once at 2am, and screamed at the top of her voice, having suddenly realised she was in a tent in the dark. But she cheered up when she realised Az and I were both in there with her.

Saturday was sunny, thankfully, and so we did get to have the barbecue and a nice walk in the sunshine. Mollydog and Az took off with another ex-racing greyhound and hurtled about at top speeds (well Az didn't go quite so fast, he isn't built that way).


Then Az went all silly, and had a little fun with a Staffy lad:



A good time was had by all in the end, but I decided not to risk another night, as the clouds were starting to look ominous again. So we trundled home via Old Sarum, which I wanted to visit as a tribute to Diana Wynne Jones' "The Merlin Conspiracy" and to the idea of Rotten Boroughs - but, as I had half-hoped from the book, also turned out to be a great dog-walking place.



It was a bit of a DWJ weekend, as I read her first novel, Changeover, for the first time. I think it is probably her least fantasy and most 'adult' novel. Her writing style is perhaps less crisp and funny than it used to be. I was going to say that perhaps her characterisation has improved, but thinking about it, I don't think it has. All those people in Eight Days of Luke, all precisely characterised and distinct, for example. Anyway, I loved Changeover, and it made me laugh.

Then on Sunday Polo and I went to see the Da Vinci Code film, which turned out to be an enjoyable enough romp, with no more logical and historical holes than one would expect, and offering many opportunities for arguing about exactly how wrong it all was in the car on the way back. And a sort of albino monk person in the Darth Maul role, so to speak. There weren't enough explosions to fit my usual taste in bad films though.

T&A are off to Canada on the 19th June, but only for a couple of months to try it out. Midsummer is usually fairly quiet and we have no big programming enquiries that are likely to come good very soon, so with a bit of luck we will get away with that.

Comments

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I finally decided it was time to track down "Changeover" a few weeks ago, and I ordered it from Amazon. It's not turned up yet, though. I didn't have high hopes of it, and was reading it only out of a desire for completeness, but I'm a lot more hopeful now.

I never really got into "The Merlin Conspiracy", for some reason. Maybe on a second read... I didn't get into "The power of three" or "The homeward bounders" on a first read, and didn't finish them, but really liked them when I tried again a few years later.

I've still never finished "A sudden wild magic", though.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The Merlin Conspiracy has grown on me: I wasn't that keen on my first read-through either.

I have no idea if Changeover will appeal to you or not. I think I would describe it as 'DWJ does Kafka, with laughs, in the sun'. I don't know if that helps at all, it sounds most unlikely, I know...

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip about the self inflating airbed- I was in two minds whether or not to get one.

I did have two single airbeds but the cats sprayed on them so much that I had to get rid of them. They never spray normally- I can only assuma that it had something to do with the rubbery smell. The next one will go in a cupboard well away from the little horrors.

Glad you had a nice weekend (eventually!)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

My 'self inflating' airbed does need about 3 puffs of breath at the end to get it really full - but that is still a lot less work than a normal airbed, and it's less wibbly-wobbly as well.

I believe they are supposed to be stored inflated. Mine is, anyway - underneath the spare bed!

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

That could be a problem if the cats spray again.I'll check what it says on the instructions.

Space is rather limited here- two adults, two children and three cats in a two bed terrace.....

[chainmailmaiden]

If I got woken up by a dog screaming loudly at 2am, I suspect I would join in. I'm not very good at coping with being woken up by strange noises in the middle of the night. My excuse is one time when I got woken up, there actually were intruders in my room, so I feel justified in being scared by things that go bump in the night...