Sofas...and an exhibition

We had a fun day out in London last weekend. There were a couple of things that we wanted to do there--order a new sofa and see an exhibition at the V&A--so we decided to kill two birds with one stone.

We'd already decided that we would order our new sofa from sofa.com. We'd seen their adverts in various publications, gone online to look at their website, and decided that this was the supplier for us. Designs and fabrics that we liked, an unfailingly good customer service ethic (even down to being prepared to take your sofa back if you decide that you don't like it once it arrives, for whatever reason), and five star reviews all round. But we didn't feel comfortable buying without seeing in the flesh, so we needed to make the trip to the sofa.com warehouse in Chelsea.

Chelsea sounds (and of course is!) posh, but the warehouse turned out to be in a rather dilapidated quarter--it was housed in one of the units at Chelsea Wharf. The area was fascinating, in fact. The old wharf buildings have been refurbished and are gradually being populated by young, trendy companies like sofa.com. But the exterior remains as it always was, I guess--raised platforms running over the mudflats of the Thames which would have been used in the past for loading goods onto the ships docked there. I love this about London -- if you're on foot and exploring, you come across the most interesting of places, just slightly off the beaten track, away from the crowds.

The warehouse was pretty good inside, too. Lofty ceilings, white painted walls, very helpful staff and lots of sofas. Just what the website boasted, in fact, and such a refreshing change from the soulless prefab units of mediocre companies like DFS.

We made our sofa choice pretty quickly, considering, and then headed off for the second leg of the day. We had tickets for 'The Glamour of Italian Fashion' exhibition at the V&A. We had a really good time there--lots of fabulous clothing to look at and videos about the history and growth of the fashion industry in Italy.

I haven't been to the V&A for a long time, and I'd forgotten how beautiful the building itself is. Exotic Victoriana at its best. Even the old loos are alluring--ornate tiles on the walls, huge ceramic basins, brass taps...

And just a final word about food. We found a lovely Italian restaurant for lunch -- Mozzarella and More on King's Road, Chelsea. Truly Italian staff and delicious Italian food. And we rounded off with tea and cake in the V&A's very own cafe, which was delicious as well.

Rather a productive day!

Love of Greece

We spent our half term in Greece. In the Peloponnese, to be precise. This is one of my husband's and my favourite places in the world. We first visited more than 20 years ago (backpacking on the buses, and moving on to a new place each day), then 10 years ago (still itinerant, but this time with suitcases and a hire car), and now with our children (staying in the same apartment for a week and with a car).

There is something simply wonderful about Greece, in my opinion. For a start, I love the ancient history. I love tramping around archaeological sites, trying to work out what was what, imagining the people alive at the time going about their business in those buildings, walking along those paths. Some of the sites are magnificent and stunningly intact, considering their vintage (the Parthenon, the theatre at Epidaurus...) but my real favourites are the tumbledown sites that are so untouristed that you often have the place entirely to yourself. And these sites are invariably in the most stunning locations.

I also love Greek food. Greek salad, souvlaki, spanakopita, tiropita.... Can't be beaten.

And there's something about the atmosphere of the place. Outside the urban bustle of Athens, the people are lovely -- very friendly, helpful and welcoming to tourists. The overwhelming feeling I have when in Greece is one of relaxation and contentment. I love it!

Luckily, the children seem to share our love of Greece. They had been wanting to visit for a while, knowing that we really liked it, and they weren't disappointed. In fact, on our return, they declared it to be one of our best ever holidays. So, I think we'll be back in another 10 years, if not before!

Snowshill Manor

We recently had a day out at Snowshill Manor, which is a National Trust property in the Cotswolds. This proved great fun for both us and the kids.

Snowshill is not your run-of-the-mill NT property displaying the usual array of fine furniture and artworks. Rather, Snowshill was the home of Charles Wade, a tireless collector of artefacts from around the world. The house is stuffed full of eclectic objects ranging from Samurai armour, to children's toys, to sea chests with complex locks... Everywhere you look, there is something unusual and fascinating to discover.

During Wade's lifetime, the manor house became so full that he had to move into the adjacent priest's house. You can see the living room/kitchen, bedroom and bathroom in the priest's house as Wade lived in them --and even here there are yet more objects from his collection.

The manor has beautiful terraced gardens (including a model village!) that are also fun to explore, and you can picnic in the orchard.

We rounded our day off with tea in Huffkins tea room in nearby Stow-on-the-Wold. If you haven't yet, you should try the Huffkins lardy cake -- a real treat!

Baggage

As I noted in my blog post of a couple of weeks ago, we had a lovely weekend away in Suffolk over the May half term.

One thing that struck me when packing for the weekend was the amount of baggage that we managed to accumulate. We were only going for three nights, but we collected a suitcase, a hefty tote bag, a bag of food (we were self catering), a day rucksack for each of the four of us, a pile of coats and shoes (suitable for all possible permutations of the English weather), games and books, water bottles for all of us for the journey...

We had intended taking our smaller car for this trip, but in the end we had to take the car with the bigger boot due to sheer volume. I thought that as kids approached teenager-hood you were meant to have less stuff to pack, but in fact we seem to have the same amount -- just a different type of stuff!

Flash fiction piece published

I'm feeling rather proud of myself as I've had my first piece of flash fiction accepted for publication. It appears in flashfictionmagazine.com today and you can read it here.

Flash fiction, for those of you who don't already know, is a form of very short fiction. A piece of flash fiction tells a story in no more than 1,000 words--and often far fewer. It has become very popular over recent years, particularly with the growth in on-line literature. People also seem to enjoy being able to read something very short on a regular basis. flasfictionmagazine.com, in common with other flash fiction sites, publishes a new story each day.

Because there are so few words involved, good flash fiction is considered hard to write. But, in fact, it rather suits my style. Although I write books, these tend to be on the short side--around 40,000 words--and so fall in the hinterland between novella and full-blown novel. Not a popular length in the world of traditional publishing!

I am someone who prefers to be economic with words--both in writing and in speech. I don't like repeating myself. And for this reason I enjoy writing flash fiction. You just come up with an idea and write about it, as clearly and succinctly as you can. I'll be writing more of it, I think!

Lovely Easter weekend away

We had a great Easter weekend away last week in Suffolk, where we rented a barn conversion for three nights. The barn, called Middleton Granary, was really stunning—beautifully appointed, very clean and furnished to an extremely high standard. The owners even left us a homemade coffee and walnut cake, which we particularly enjoyed with our afternoon tea! You can check out photos of the barn on the owners’ website.

Suffolk is a very beautiful part of the UK—largely rural and very unspoilt in parts—and we thoroughly enjoyed the peace, quiet and resident wildlife. We also managed to fit in visits to several local attractions. Things that we particularly enjoyed were: Thelnetham Windmill—a windmill dating from 1891 which has been restored, is now working again, and can sometimes be visited. We were given a guided tour by a couple of very knowledgeable local volunteers. Ickworth—a beautiful Italianate mansion run by the National Trust. We particularly enjoyed the extensive 'below stairs' exhibition which really gave you an insight into the workings of a grand stately home. We also enjoyed eating our lunch in the sunshine on the terrace overlooking the croquet lawn. And, one especially for the kids, Bressingham Steam and Gardens—where you can ride on narrow gauge steam engines, play on the adventure playground, ride on a carousel, and enjoy 17 acres of beautifully planted gardens.

At the same time as all of this, I was running a free promotion for my latest novel, "Travels on a Greyhound Bus", and so keeping an eagle eye on its chart position and sales figures. Happily, it did really well—visit the post on my News page for details!

Video cassettes and beyond

I recently had an interesting conversation with my daughter, which reinforced just how different the experience of people from different generations can be – and also indicated how much technology has changed over the last 30+ years.

She was telling me about her geography lesson. She was currently learning about plate tectonics, she said, and had watched a film on the subject. ‘It was from about 2000 BC,’ she quipped. ‘Is it called a...cassette?’ I burst out laughing. Yep, a video cassette. Unknown to my daughter’s generation.

The pace of change is amazing, if you think about it. Videos were new-fangled in my generation. Remember the hours spent finding a blank tape, checking the time of the programme, punching in the relevant times and programme duration... Even then the programme didn’t always record for some unfathomable reason, despite the fact that you were sure you had done everything right. And if the programme time was changed last minute due to, say, a sporting event overrunning, then you really were stuffed. The only hope of seeing the programme then was if the channel chose to repeat it at some point. The technology improved, of course, and became more reliable. It even became possible to programme the later model VCRs to record multiple programmes at different times.

And then the technology changed. In the 1990s, DVDs superseded video cassettes as the medium of choice for pre-recorded material. Now we have digital set-top boxes for recording. We can record what we like, when we like, multiple programmes at a time, all with an easy-to-use visual interface. And, of course, we also have catch-up services, meaning we no longer have to remember to record the programmes that we want to watch. Nor indeed remember to watch them at the time when they are first screened.

Turning the tables, my kids are completely au fait with video on demand and catch-up in a way that I’m just not. It’s no problem at all for them to use iPlayer – and it’s not as though my husband or I have even taught them. They just work it out. Whereas I frequently find myself helpless when the HUMAX has crashed yet again and I can’t even switch on live TV. At times like these I find myself pining for the simplicity of the 1970s and 80s when there were only four channels and when, if you pushed the relevant channel button, the TV just came on.

It’s called getting older, I guess.