The new Friday feeling

And thus the habit of nearly 30 years is ended by the whims of the record industry…

Ever since I was old enough to understand the concept of album release dates and been able to find them out, Monday has been THE day.  It must have been somewhere around 14-15 when I started actually buying music magazines and perusing every page rather than just glancing through them in the library or newsagent if someone I knew was on the cover.  Up to then I would have just bought new music when I happened to see it (Or make a note of it for Christmas and birthday lists).  But getting an album or single the day it came out and thus being among the first to hear it was a thrill to make starting a new week of school/college/work somewhat more bearable.

After school walks or bike rides in to town (Welwyn Garden City) to visit Our Price or Woolworths or an outing to Stevenage or Hatfield for variety or school clothes giving an opportunity to visit the independent shops there.  Or their branches of OP and WW.  Heck, Hatfield even had an enormous Woolco store where I distinctly remember obtaining the Belle Stars album on cassette.

College bus journeys back to halls/shared houses taken via the town centre (Derby) to stake out Way Ahead, Woollies or HMV.

Mid-morning wandering in to town (Felixstowe) to pop into Ian’s Records or yet another branch of F.W.’s empire during the summer after I graduated when I was unemployed (and handy that I had to sign-on on a Monday so was forced into town once a fortnight).  And then dropped back to lunch time when I got a job in town.

Promotion to Ipswich bringing with it the variety of another Our Price, HMV, Virgin, John Menzies, Woollies and most importantly Compact Music.  They were a wonderful independent that gave a voucher with every disc purchased.  Collected enough of them for several free albums over the years.

A couple of years in Newmarket with yet another Woollies and another indie I can no longer remember the name of (last time I looked it was a branch of Costa).  Woollies again in Stowmarket with a back-up ASDA, and then back to Ipswich where I have been ever since and the options have whittled themselves down to just HMV.

But always, that Monday journey to obtain the eagerly anticipated or the unexpected surprises.  The scrutiny of sleeves and booklets and reading of lyrics and credits while eating lunch or in stolen moments during the afternoon.  The building anticipation on the journey home.  The first crackling kiss of stylus touching vinyl, the clunk of the cassette player or the whirr of the CD player and then the sounds themselves.  Something to discuss at school/college/work the next day.  A joy to be repeated daily or a disappointment to try and find the good in until the next batch of newness arrived.  The re-arranging of shelves to fit the new arrivals in.  Even the addition of entries to a database - all elements of the start of the week.

And now we have to transfer that feeling onto a Friday, with the weekend beckoning - full of its own entertainments and putting off the Monday drabness that new music helps to dispel.

I'll enjoy today's purchases over the weekend I'm sure but it just doesn't seem right.  (And before anyone wants to get pedantic yes, I know the Motorhead came out last week but I was off work and enjoying a day in the garden with MrsB).

Building therapy

After a minor joke around my birthday time I am currently revisiting a childhood obsession with Lego.  I’ll be the first to admit that I never stopped being interested in the wee plastic blocks (as the presence of a couple of newspaper freebies and numerous individual minifigs around the house will prove) but not to the extent that it has been filling my spare time of late.  I can’t recall a first set, it was just something that was always there when I was growing up – the toy of choice in most circumstances.  Having Danish ancestry must have been a plus point in the accumulation of the stuff, and I do recall that some of our sets were inherited from cousins (and the uncle in that case worked for Shell which must explain why we have so many petrol station pieces!) but for many years it was top of the Christmas and Birthday lists.  Being the older of two brothers meant I must have had a bit longer on the pure play level than might be normal but I can’t be sure on when either of us bought our last childhood kit either (although there are some great web sites out there giving dates sets were released where I could work it out if I could be bothered).  We definitely visited Legoland on Danish holidays in 1980 and 1984 and I know I bought some on that second trip, but after that things get a bit hazy.  The last I recall is sorting it all out into categories in separate ice cream tubs for storage in the loft sometime before we moved to Felixstowe in 1989.

Although not building anything in the years following that, I kept pace with what was available through the simple expedient of working for Argos.  All those deliveries and sales passing through my hands meant I was up to date with everything new until I finally escaped from retail in 1998, and even then stayed in touch through the catalogue as Joan didn’t leave there until 2006 and we still picked one up every six months after that.  When the bagged single minifigures started appearing in the shops I resisted but finally succumbed around series 3, and there I was back in the collecting game again.  OK, only the people and the freebies mentioned above but still it began to nag at me.  And as it was the 21^st century starting looking at the odd fan site on the web and sought out photos on flickr (and started taking some pics myself).  Then last year while we were in America I gave in to temptation in a larger way in the Lego store at Disneyland with the purchase of the Back To The Future set.  Which was great fun to build, and introduced me to a whole load of techniques not officially employed back in the good old days.  I blame watching the Lego movie on the flight over!

So, when I couldn’t think of anything I fancied for my birthday (see depression post below) I suggested my brother should go up in the Parent’s loft and find me a technic set to build.  He ended up getting the whole lot down and all the tubs are now sat in my study, calling out to me every time I pass the door.  When I brought them home there was some discussion  about passing them on to the offspring of a cousin (said cousin having split from his wife and now needing a set of toys at each home) but I’m not sure I’m ready to give it away just yet.  If nothing else I wanted to know exactly what was in those tubs and reminisce unashamedly for a while.  Which has nicely coincided with a couple of tv shows about Lego and adult fans and the launch of a magazine or two.  Not that I have bought any of those, but they are interesting to flick through.

Up to now I have built a couple of ancient (and presumably inherited) sets from the days before the minifig was invented (a bus, naturally, and a Shell station) all the space sets I can find pieces for and tonight will see me finish off the technical stuff.  I suspect I will then work my way through the classic town sets and all the older bits I can work out from the bricks that remain.  30 years on from my last recalled construction binge I am having the time of my life and it seems to be providing me with the therapy others are getting from all the adult colouring books flooding the shops.  Disappointed that we have managed to lose a few bits along the way but there you go.  Nothing I can’t improvise around.

And we are having a day trip to Legoland Windsor next week as well.  Must not let it take over my life, but it will keep me amused for a few more months yet.

Coming up again

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a couple of weeks now, but have been a bit scared to do so in case the act of writing it destroyed the mood.  But it is something I want to get out in the open so here we go. 

I think I am now safe to declare that I am coming out of the worst six or seven months of mental turmoil I have experienced in the last 15+ years.  It really has not been a fun ride in my head of late but things are pretty much back on an even keel now, and even if nobody else ever reads this I want to record a few thoughts so I can look back on this in future if I feel myself sliding again.

My main problem is anxiety and dwelling on the past rather than straight depression, but one leads to the other in my case and in this instance I know the exact trigger that set it off. As readers may know, I deal with bus stops, shelters etc. in my day job and over the last couple of years we have done a load of work in Ipswich. Both bus stations refurbished, new real time information system and other stuff. And I have also been getting new bus shelters and enhanced bus stops done across the rest of the County as well. All during a time when I have basically had no help – my team member was seconded to another role and it was over a year before we were allowed to replace him. And that has taken three attempts with the first person refusing the job in the end and the second failing his probationary period (basically wasting six months trying to bring him up to speed). So to say I was under a bit of pressure would be an understatement.

Then when we got to the Christmas works break imposed on us by the town centre people there was a big fuss in the media about how the project was running late, important bits weren't working and so forth. A lot of that concentrated on the real time system to the point of the local radio station interviewing people at one of the bus stations and pointing out the one screen that wasn't working and ignoring the rest that all were doing fine. Being the kind of chap who takes things to heart, this sent me spiralling off the deep end and by the time Christmas itself came around I was in a real black place.

I'm not really sure how I got through Christmas as I just wanted to run and hide most of time. This will sound terrible, but I guess it helped that Joan had a bad tooth over the festive period. Being able to focus on taking her to the dentist a couple of times and having her to worry about managed to draw my focus away from me. When I went back to work in the New Year I knew I had to do something about it.

So, I went to see my doctor and got my anti-depressants upped, and took the step of seeking out some more help through our occupational health service. I had had some counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy back in 2000 last time I had a real flare up, so I knew it would help, but admitting to myself that I needed it was one of the toughest things I have ever done. But my word it helped, six sessions over a couple of months with a really great bloke and I'm close to feeling normal again. Some of the hardest conversations I've ever had – the sessions left me physically as well as mentally drained at first while I poured things out. I'm still reviewing bits of them a month or so later and trying to look for the positives.

One thing that has become clear to me is that I function best with plans and targets – and not just in the work environment. When we have a week off I like to think about things we could do, places to visit and so forth and am terrible at just taking each day as it comes. For example when we hit the states last year I had spent hours on the web looking for things to see near our hotels, places to check out when we had free time and so forth. And it didn't matter to me at the end that we had done hardly any of them as the holiday was well structured anyway, but going into it without a plan to fall back on gave me the creeps. I'm the same every weekend – I need to think about when we will go shopping, if we can take a day trip or whatever. Just waking up on Saturday morning with nothing on the agenda scares me! I feel like I flounder around and waste the day without something to aim for. So telling myself that I want to sit in the sun and read a couple of days in advance is much easier than just deciding to relax and do just that on the day.

We have also stopped paying attention to the local press, as they seem to delight in pouncing on the smallest mistake or problem whilst ignoring many of the great things that are being done.

I had planned to write more than that when I started this draft a couple of days ago, but can't now recall what so instead I shall drop in something I wrote after the fourth session which sums up a lot of how I felt.

I am sitting at a desk, in an office, in an average building in an ordinary town and I wonder why I am still here. I am not the oldest person in my team, but I often feel I ought to be as I have been here longer than anyone else. They make a joke of it when new people join us: “oh, he's part of the furniture” they say. And I wonder which part.

I have been trodden on by the ambitious as they make their way into jobs I have better skills for, so maybe I am the carpet. But does that count? Is a carpet really furniture? So maybe I am a chair – certainly I feel the weight of days sitting on me sometimes. And I have saved many an overeager manager from hitting the floor when their plans have gone awry.

Or perhaps I am a desk – holding paper and pens and computers. The tools we all need to meet our objectives. But no, most days I am a filing cabinet – or in these modern times a data server. Overflowing with images and information. Most of it forgotten, but there to be dragged out when needed. Yes, that must be me, Been here so long that I have seen it all before and stored it away, ready to share and help when the others meet a problem for the first time.

And now someone else has a question for me, and of course I know the answer. But maybe this time the file will be encrypted. Let them find the password to unlock my potential and then, perhaps, I can be me again.

Make of that what you will!

Reading for reasons

Reading this blog post (and the original article mentioned) about diversity in reading material recently got me thinking about how my choices away from the straight/white/cis/male author arena stack up.  And as I have the last few years-worth of reading handily listed in posts here it is clear I’m not doing very well!  It does get a bit better when you throw in the Selected Shorts podcasts as I have been downloading and listening to them for a couple of years, and they do cover a good spectrum of gender, ethnicity and (presumably) sexuality of authors in the stories they present.  But then, this is not something I have ever really thought about before and has certainly never been a factor in choosing what to buy and read for me.

I’m not sure why though.  When it comes to non-fiction I guess there aren’t that many women writing about the history of bus services or fighter planes or some of the other subjects that fascinate me but that doesn’t mean I won’t be looking out for them from now on.  Of course in some areas it is going to be decidedly tricky to be more diverse -  the fact that nobody other than straight white men went to the moon makes it hard to read an autobiography outside that category and I’ve not seen any books about them from the female perspective either.  But there have been female and coloured astronauts since then so one of those must have a book out there.  And I have got Lilly Koppel’s “The Astronaut’s Wives Club” sat on the shelf waiting for me to pick it up.  Indeed I have actually done two ladies in my non-fiction this year already (Amanda Palmer – The Art Of Asking and Harriet Tuckey – Everest) and have a couple more in the waiting pile.

However, one thing I don’t often do in non-fiction reading is seek out other books by the same author unless they are on similar subjects or again look interesting.  For a (s/w/c/m) example – Charlie Connolly has written about the shipping forecast, Elvis and walking in three books I really enjoyed, but also about football in which I have no interest so will never delve into.  But I am going to be more pro-active here in future, especially when I find a non-fiction writer of the gay/coloured/female/trans (not necessarily all at once!) persuasion I enjoy the works of.

Fiction-wise I guess I have done better over the years, as I do enjoy female writers.  Anne McCaffrey, Jean M. Auel, Julian May and Katherine Kerr are particular favourites in the fantasy/sci-fi field, and as the basic unit of book there is the fat trilogy (often with many more than three books) there have been years they have dominated.  But when it comes to different ethnicities etc. I again admit to falling flat.  Mind you, I’d read two or three of his books before I discovered Mike Gayle was black, so there may be other surprises on my shelves.  But, despite listening to the short stories from Selected Shorts, I have not dashed out to buy anything from any of the authors featured other than those I was already a fan of.  Some of this must be from wanting the written equivalent of comfort food from my fiction.  I have heard tales of growing up black in the south, or as an oriental woman transformed into a mutant silkworm or whatever, but haven’t always found them enjoyable.  I think this is partly linked to my depression in that I see racial or religious strife on the news, and don’t want that when I’m trying to escape for a few pages.  In the same way that I know enough of the history of domestic service in the UK to never want to watch Downton Abbey, I am OK with a chapter or undercurrent about it in a history of country houses but wouldn’t want a story set amongst the occupants of such a home.  (Heck, I struggle with servants being abused in fantasyland castles, but then I’m already accepting dragons and wizards so I know it is not real people suffering).

So the question is, am I going to challenge myself to only read books by non-white/straight/cis males for a year?  Answer, no.  But I am going to attempt to mix things up more.  The main reason for this being that I have already set myself the challenge of not buying any more books until I’ve got through a significant percentage of my unread collection.  And I know most of that will not pass.  But then I don’t have the same issues with books by w/s/c/m authors that others do so avoiding them is not a way of improving my life or avoiding uncomfortable things.  But who knows, when I do let myself start buying books again, perhaps things will be over a much wider spectrum…

Sound system

Oops. February already.  Still, finally written the 2014 music post...

No list of all the records enjoyed in the year (and I will still call them records even if they were nearly all CDs or MP3s) but the cloud does cover all the artists I heard a whole album by and represents their frequency of earhole assault. Much of the explanation for this can be found in last year’s post on music so I’m not going to repeat it now. Suffice it to say that the “single CD” quest is about to reach S and I have finally got more CDs by King’s X courtesy of the wonderful “original album series” box set of their first five which I received for Christmas. So expect them to appear at a reasonable size in next year’s cloud!

Other than regular trawls through Amazon, HMV and various charity shops for discs to plug holes in my collection – especially the MIND shop in Ipswich (I still cannot fathom out why people would choose to get rid of some of the CDs that end up in there, and then come home with me) – I have actually gained a bunch of genuinely new tunes this year rather than ones that are merely new to me. So we will start off with yer actual albums of the year, then newly discovered enjoyment before a round-up of old favourites that I just had to listen to.

And to immediately contradict myself, we will start off with not an album at all, but a series of digital singles. Rather than a new album through a Pledge campaign, Ginger Wildheart went for it with his GASS project, releasing three new songs (and a couple of older demos) on to the world every month. We still have a couple of months to go but so far every track has been a winner. They offered three tiers of membership - £30 got all the music in electronic formats plus access to the web site with podcasts, videos, Q&A pages, diaries and other writings and loads of other stuff. £60 added a t-shirt and some other goodies, while £90 enabled meet and greets before shows. I have only gone for the music and definitely feel I have had value for my money. They are planning to keep it all live online after the year is up so anyone interested can still fork out the £30 and get all the music on one go.

Some of the tracks are going to get a CD release as part of his new Pledge offering. This is for a sort of autobiography told through the stories of the songs since the dawn of the Wildhearts along with an acoustic DVD which will do much the same. This could well be a highlight of 2015 for me, but we'll address that later in the year!

Wildhearts sidekick CJ also put out a solo album (Mable) in 2014 and is my favourite release of the year. Some real killer guitarwork, catchy choruses and magical melodies drew me in and won't let me go. If you want to pick it up from his Bandcamp page I can also highly recommend previous album “13” and his work with The Jellys.

Sticking with the extended Wildhearts family, sometime bassist Random Jon Poole (also a feature of Ginger's solo band) and occasional keyboard player Willie Dowling also produced an album as “The Dowling Poole” via Pledge music. Bleak Strategies is fascinating, although I will be the first to admit that I haven't listened to it enough yet to fully appreciate it. As part of the pledge package they also made available Jon Poole's solo and God Damn Whores albums and Willie's Jackdaw 4 discography. Having considered those before but been short of cash I was glad to get them at a good price and have enjoyed them as much as anything else I've heard this year.

Having had two great new albums this way was fab (not to mention the others obtained off the back of them) but part of me wishes CJ and Willie had teamed up for a new Honeycrack opus instead...

Other Pledge campaigns I backed were from Ricky Warwick (two albums – one electric and one acoustic, both enjoyable), Tony Wright (superb acoustic solo debut) and Pop Will Eat Itself (an e.p. rather than a whole album, but hopefully a good taste of what is to come this year when they do release a new full-length platter).

Going down the normal route through shops, I also really rated Mark Chadwick's second solo album Moment. Distinct enough from his day job with the Levellers to make it worth doing. The new Mark Lanegan, Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs and Linkin Park albums entertained in the ways I expected them to, and then there was U2. I've listened to it once so far and am still undecided. Never mind the delivery method, I've liked them for years so was just happy to hear something new. But am not sure if it is any real change over what has come before.

New out in 2014 from bands I adore, but not yet purchased, we have the new AC/DC and Gong albums. Hopefully more to say on those soon!

Not new in 2014 but getting their first listens from me I particularly enjoyed Anthrax's Worship Music, Public Service Broadcasting (thanks to Rigid Digit for the introduction to them) and some stuff I took a punt on from charity shops – Ben And Jason, Detritus and Three Corners.

So this year I am eagerly awaiting the new Thunder, Paul Miro and Prodigy and we will see what other surprises fate brings my way.

Here we go again! Books of 2014.

Another year done and the inevitable round up posts and hopes to post more often and more interestingly during 2015.  So, let us start with books.

The full list of what I consumed this year follows, and as is traditional audio books are italicised.  Not quite as many as last year, but I’m still quite pleased with the total and can even remember most of them!  There are a reasons for the dip in numbers – a couple of the books were pretty darn long (for example I finally caved in after years of wanting to and re-read the Lord Of The Rings.  This has been counted as just one book despite the option to divide into three (or even four if you take the appendices to their extremes)).  I also took two breaks from audio books, once when we were away (as I did not know if I would get the chance for regular enough listening to not lose track of my place – this extended for a month or so after we got back too as I had filled my phone up with music and had to listen through all of that before resuming) and also before Christmas as again I didn’t want to be in the middle of something with irregular availability.

I can also blame the acquisition of an iPad for distracting me from general book-based reading.  OK, I have used it for the Asterix books but where in previous years I might have turned a few pages while Joan was watching TV I am now more likely to be browsing blogs or other web-based distractions or playing Candy Crush.  The Kindle app on the phone has been useful in keeping the decline from being steeper though, as books like the QI ones are best digested in bite-sized chunks on the bus or between appointments rather than being for general bulk reading.

Not included in the list are books read by Mark Oshiro over at his Mark Reads project.  I have been in two minds about whether to include them or not, after all if I am happy to list audio books, why not videos of someone reading them out loud, with interjections?  I have been reading his reviews for a while, but drifted away from the site not long after he started doing the video reviews – mainly because he was covering books I wasn’t interested in and I prefer to read/listen to them myself before going for the Mark Reads experience.  But now he has started the Discworld books so I am glued to those posts.  If you go back through the older versions of this post it is clear from the word clouds, never mind the lists, that Terry Pratchett is probably my most-read author over the last ten years or so, so I felt no need to add to his size in the cloud by listing each one as Mark finishes them as well.

As is usually the case, I didn't meet a book I didn't enjoy this year.  This is partly through careful selection and knowing the sort of thing I like, partly through continuing series I have enjoyed and partly through having an open mind to seek out entertainment or information wherever I go looking.  So I feel confident in recommending anything on the list.  Some particular faves though:

The Writer’s Tale – an exquisite account of the last series and specials of the Russell T. Davies era of Doctor Who, basically reproducing emails between RTD and journalist Benjamin Cook.  A real insight into one way of writing and making  a hit TV series but making no claims to be the only way to do it.  It is also one of those books that makes me want to write more, and then get disheartened when I read my efforts back.  I really would like to study the art of writing more, and to get more practise so that words, images, metaphors and so forth flow more easily from me, but life does seem to get in the way.

The ongoing Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire saga – I am now at the same point in the books as the TV adaptation has reached and cannot decide whether to read on and get ahead of the visuals or not.  Following familiar paths but spotting the differences has been fun this way round, and I am not sure if I want to reverse that!

The Shadow Of The Seer – I remember devouring the first three of Michael Scott-Rohan’s “Winter Of The World” books at college and being thrilled a few years after graduating when he put a few more out.  I guess the last one must have appeared around when I first moved in with Joan, when we got married or when we bought the house as for one of those reasons time and cash was tight and I never got round to buying it.  As is the way of these things, some books just disappear from print rapidly and never seem to arrive in second hand bookshops either.  This one came back into my head when I first discovered Amazon and other online sources, but second hand copies were going for £30+ which I decided was way too steep.  Then finally this year it appeared on Kindle and I was bale at last to complete the saga.  It turns out this last book was not a direct follow-on to the rest of them tales so worked well in isolation, but has whetted my appetite for a complete re-read when time permits.

And of course it goes without saying that this is not a book of the year list – with the exception of the second QI entry I don’t think any of these are 2014 originals, just the books I happened to enjoy during those twelve months.  There were times when I couldn’t walk past Amberstones in Ipswich (or before that Clulows in Derby) without the latest work by an author I adored appearing in the window and having to be bought there and then for immediate enjoyment but these days I am happy to wait until time permits (and I have the entire set if appropriate) before diving in…  (Oh, and if anyone was wondering, the plan to do a photo of the day on a book or reading related subject was derailed by illness and never restarted.)

Robert	Macfarlane	The Wild Places
Neil	Gaiman	Fortunately, The Milk...
Michael	Palin	Himalaya
Terrance	Dicks	Doctor Who And The Brain Of Morbius
Joe	Bennett	Mustn't Grumble
David	Long	Tunnels, Towers and Temples: London's 100 Strangest Places
John	Lloyd & Jon Canter	Afterliff
Naomi	Novik	Empire Of Ivory
Rene	Goscinny & Albert Uderzo	Asterix And The Soothsayer
John	Lloyd, John Mitchinson & James Harkin	1339 QI Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop
Simon	Singh	The Simpsons And Their Mathematical Secrets
Bill	Bryson	At Home
Rene	Goscinny & Albert Uderzo	Asterix In Corsica
John	Wyndham	The Day Of The Triffids
George R.R.	Martin	A Storm Of Swords: Steel And Snow
Danny	Dorling	The 32 Stops (The Central Line)
Hunter	Davies	Behind The Scenes At The Museum Of Baked Beans
Rene	Goscinny & Albert Uderzo	Asterix And Ceasar's Gift
David	Fisher	Doctor Who And The Creature From The Pit
Mark	Forsyth	The Elements Of Eloquence: How To Turn The Perfect English Phrase
Michael Scott	Rohan	The Shadow Of The Seer
Terry	Pratchett	I Shall Wear Midnight
Rory	McGrath	Bearded Tit
Simon	Garfield	On The Map
Rene	Goscinny & Albert Uderzo	Asterix And The Great Crossing
Michael A.	Johnson	A 1980s Childhood
Terry	Pratchett	Raising Steam
Alistair	Maclean	Puppet On A Chain
Alain	De Botton	The Art Of Travel
Richard	Dawkins	The Selfish Gene
Julian	Barnes	The Pedant In The Kitchen
Mark	Billingham	Lazybones
Marcus	Hearn	Doctor Who – The Vault
Jon	Ronson	Them: Adventures With Extremists
Terry	Pratchett & Neil Gaiman	Good Omens
J.R.R.	Tolkien	The Lord Of The Rings
Travis	Elborough	Wish You Were Here
Rene	Goscinny & Albert Uderzo	Obelix And Co.
Patrick	Bishop	Wings
Jen	Campbell	More Weird Things Customers Say In Bookshops
George R.R.	Martin	A Storm Of Swords: Blood And Gold
Richard	Mabey	A Good Parcel Of English Soil (The Metropolitan Line)
Alistair	Maclean	Bear Island
J. B.	Morrison	The Extra Ordinary Life Of Frank Derrick, Age 81
Neil & Sue	Perryman	Adventures With The Wife In Space: Living With Doctor Who
Neil	Gaiman	The Ocean At The End Of The Lane
Travis	Elborough	The Long-Player Goodbye
Tim	Cahill	Hold The Enlightenment
John	Lloyd, John Mitchinson & James Harkin	1411 QI Facts To Knock You Sideways
Arthur	Conan-Doyle	The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes
Russell T.	Davies & Benjamin Cook	Doctor Who: The Writers Tale (The Final Chapter)

Adventures in La La land

I confess, I’d just about given up on me finishing this so if anyone is still interested here’s the last few days condensed.

Day 14 – Downtown LA and Burbank

A spot of sightseeing to see fill the morning taking in:

The Colliseum – main venue for the ’84 Olympics and also right next door to and aerospace museum that happened to have a 2-seater Lockheed Blackbird on a stick outside, so naturally I forced myself to jog over and take a look at that too. 

“Historic” Olvera Street – Hispanic market and site of (perhaps) the original settlement in town.  Joan was happy to find a church and have time to light a candle, and she also got a lovely bracelet at the market.

La Brea Tar Pits – I have heard of these as sources of prehistoric animal remains, but never expected them to be in the heart of LA!

Farmers Market – Great place for lunch!

Then the afternoon took us to Warner Brothers for a studio tour.  That was a real hit and miss affair for us.  The insights into film and tv making were limited but interesting, and some of the standing sets were good to see and recognise, but the parts concentrating on current US tv shows were somewhat irrelevant as we had never seen any of those featured.  There was also a display of Harry Potter props and costumes, which was a nice little reminder of our trip to the UK studio earlier in the year, and also a load of Batman stuff for the 75^th anniversary.  That was definitely my favourite.

Day 15 – Disneyland

As the hotel was only a stone’s throw from the house of mouse, and we had a free day, it just had to be done.  And I really enjoyed it.  I do like a thrill ride so managed a couple of those (Space Mountain, Indiana Jones) along with some more sedate experiences (It’s A Small World, Pirates Of The Caribbean, the Monorail) and those somewhere in between (Star Tours and a few others) as well as lots of wandering about and enjoying the place.  Plus the parade which was much more entertaining than I was expecting.  It was a little expensive but we didn’t see/ride half of it and I would definitely go again should we ever be in the area.

Day 16- Hollywood and home

And so our last day in America dawned.  A trip up to Hollywood to see some more famous bits (Chinese Theatre, that sign (from a distance), the Hollywood Bowl) and a drive to the airport via Beverley Hills and that was that.  OK, there were still a few diversions along the way – two of our group got pulled off to one side after testing positive for explosives on the hand swab at check-in (One had been handling her mother’s lighter, the other had perhaps picked something up off a cd thrust at him in Hollywood) and then I set the machine off too, but so did the people before me and we all retested negative on a second one so I didn’t have to get grilled and they presumably had to get the machine fixed.  I guess I managed to sleep through the night and woke up in time to see a bit of London from the plane before we touched down on what was technically Day 17.  Problem-free arrival back into the UK and then an untroubled drive home via Halstead to drop some of the group off.

Holiday score 10/10.

Onwards and southwards

Day Twelve: San Francisco to Cambria

And so the last part of the loop back to LA began as we left San Francisco and motored south to Monterey for a short walk along Cannery Row.  Lots of Steinbeck associations here, although as he is not an author I have read anything by these were largely lost on me!  The old factories that remain have of course been converted into shops, hotels and the like, but reasonably well done and I would have gladly spent a bit longer there.  If nothing else it would have been nice to visit the aquarium as I have heard good things about that.  Still we did catch a glimpse of a sea otter floating out in the bay, which was cute.

From there we headed south along the "seventeen mile drive" through Pacific Grove past some wonderful houses, stunning sea views (with a couple of photo stops) and several golf courses (well, you can't have everything.  I never did understand the point of golf). Lots of birds and a few deer were spotted, along with the inevitable squirrels - although seeing them on the beaches was a first.  That took us into Carmel, about which I knew nothing other that Clint Eastwood had been mayor for a while.  Another nice town - it reminded me a lot of Niagara-on-the-lake, which we have been to on every visit to Canada.

Heading South along Pacific Coast Highway 1 was the rest of the day in a nutshell.  There are restrictions on vehicle size down there, so we swapped over to a slightly smaller coach for the afternoon.  This was delivered to us in Carmel by a chap named Wolfgang, and he took our bus by other routes down to the hotel at Cambria.  The views were indeed fantastic all down the coast - and we even had an enforced swap around of seating on the bus half way so that those who had been inland got the sea views for part two.  The changeover was accomplished at Big Sur, where we had a brief break from cliffs, beaches and crashing waves in a grove of redwoods and other huge trees.  Not as dramatic as Yosemite, and we weren't there long enough to do more than wander from car park to lodge and back, emptied of bladder but filling up on ice creams instead.

The Pacific Coast Highway - looks much better than I can describe it!

It is at this point that I realise what an atrocious travel writer I am as I really can't describe the pacifc coast with any of the sense of drama we actually experienced.  I really wanted this blog to be more than a simple list of places we had been , but I guess I need to hone my craft a bit more.  So we will continue in this vein for the rest of the holiday and I shall try to improve my style before our next adventures...

The Cambria Pine Lodge was our stop that night.  When we were looking at the hotels before we left this one seemed to have the potential to be the best of the bunch. Located on the edge of town, in the woods, there was no easy walk to the town centre so we were basically a captive market for the night.  We didn't really mind this, and had planned to have dinner there anyway to celebrate the birthday of one of our group, but the food was a little disappointing. Rubbery scallops that close to the sea could have been so much better.  It was slightly made up for by there being music in the bar afterwards.  Also, the room was nothing special and the whole place was in need of a little sprucing up.

Day Thirteen: Cambria to Los Angeles

The pervading sense of disappointment hanging over us from the night before was not dispelled by a hearty breakfast.  Mainly because we didn't have one!  Just a slice of toast as neither of us felt like eating, and certainly not at the buffet prices they were charging.  That really was a case of captive market syndrome.  Still, we were both immensely cheered up by the morning stop at Solvang.

This was somewhere that had not been mentioned in the brochure or itintery and was an excellent surprise.  Originally founded by Danish immigrants it is a beautiful little town that quite took me back to my childhood holidays in Denmark and left a big grin on my face.  OK, so you have to factor in wider roads and larger buildings (and the odd palm tree) but the general architectural style of most of the town centre draws on Danish cottages or public buildings.  There are a couple of mock windmills, a littler than real mermaid and also a replica of the round tower in Copenhagen.  I really could have stayed there all day - or even longer.  As it was we had time to look around and also try some apple dumplings, which I don't think I ever managed in the real place.

Lunch and the early afternoon as at Santa Barbara where we got a group photo at the old Mission and enjoyed Clam Chowder which more than made up for the scallops of the previous night.  I was a liitle disturbed by the Tsunami Zone street signs but it was a nice place to kill a few hours.  And then we had the long drive into and through LA to reach our hotel at Anaheim.  That was the Sheraton, which overlooks Disneyland and was to be our final resting place for three nights before we headed home.  So that can wait for what will hopefully be the last of these entries (and I might then write about something else!).

Back to the coast

OK, what happened to September?  Been a bit busy but I am determined to get the account of this holiday written up for my own sanity even if nobody is crying out for it...

Day 10 - Modesto to San Francisco.

A fairly early start saw us on the Embarcadero at San Francisco by about 0930, with a cruise round the harbour and up to the Golden Gate Bridge timed for 11.  So we had plenty of time to explore the delights of Pier 39 - tourist trap and regular meeting place for the local sea lions.  Who were of course nearly all off on their holidays as we only saw a handful over the next couple of days.  But not having been able to order anything less than the full breakfast buffet at the hotel in Modesto we had made do with a cereal bar and instead devoured an excellent spread from a Pier 39 cafe called Wahoo!  Bit of a surf theme, but superb sourdough toast, perfect poached eggs and splendid sausages.

The harbour cruise was just as good as the one we had in San Diego - although with a much lower level of naval activity.  Unfortunately the Golden Gate was smothered in fog (as is typical) so we never got a good view of the bridge at all.  Circling Alcatraz was enough of a visit for either of us.  Many of our fellow travellers went back the next day to do the full tour but it didn't really appeal to us at the time of booking.  Having heard their tales I think we might go if we are ever back in town, but I'm not weeping over lost opportunities just now.

After the cruise we picked up our second local guide of the tour for a look around the town proper.  Far too many highlights to get a good feel for most of them, but I loved the de Yonge art museum in Golden Gate Park (a fantastic building itself, never mind the contents) and it was great to get a feel for the hills and different areas of town.  After a quick pitstop at our hotel (the Hyatt Regency, which was just incredible - definitely the best of the trip) we were back out again for a group meal on Pier 39 - luckily not the same place as breakfast! - and a night tour of the city.  Here we got to see a bit more of the variety SF has to offer, including some of the seedier parts of town and also got to take a look from over the water at the night skyline.

Day 11 - San Francisco 2.

Luckily this was a day off with no included excursions as we were, quite frankly, knackered and slept until after 10.  We then had a near-disaster when Joan slipped in the shower and hurt her leg.  Luckily only really nasty bruising that she didn't let stop her, but I think it was a mere gnat's whisker from a break the way she fell.  We had planned to take it easy this day anyway (another reason for not going to Alcatraz) and this definitely ensured that was the case.

So rather than hopping on the cable cars for a thorough exploration of the city, we took a gentle stroll up Market Street for a look in some shops.  One of our potential objectives for SF had been to visit the flagship Old Navy store on Market, so that one got ticked off at least.  We have shopped in their outlets in Canada and the US on every previous visit so it seemed only fair to see the top of the tree, so to speak.  I am sure some would say that we are both too old for their clothes, but we do like some of their t-shirt designs and I have also got some excellent shirts there before.  Unfortunately they seem to have moved to skinny fit in the majority of the shirt lines (at least I couldn't find one I liked in regular or "western") which is no good for my wobbly belly.  Must try to lose some weight one of these days...  After a look in the Westfield centre we wandered back to the hotel for a break, then set off again along the Embarcadero, walking all the way form pier 1 to Fisherman's Wharf where we had a nice dinner before catching the tram/streetcar back again.  A very relaxed day all told, even if there was still a lot of walking done!

More holiday musings

Day Seven: Las Vegas    

A chance to have a lie-in and lazy day for some, but we were up early as usual for a trip out to the Hoover Dam.  Made sense to get up there before the day got too hot, and it was a sight that had to be seen, but a little bit of extra sleep would have been nice.

OK so I’m a sucker for a massive feat of engineering and this sure fits that bill, but everyone who took the trip came away impressed.  It is a mahoosive lump of concrete holding back water when you come down to it.  OK, lots of little lumps stuck together (fact gleaned from the museum bit – if it had been poured as one large block the core would still not have set).  That lump, though, is just wonderful.  Lots of totally unnecessary architectural details and flourishes (Art Deco ones at that because of when it was built) that add nothing to the functionality but make the thing gosh darn pretty to look at.  It was also interesting to see just how much the current drought is affecting Southern California – the water level in Lake Mead is visibly low and flow through the dam was obviously nowhere near what they are capable of.

The bridge across the river from the Hoover Dam, just to be a confusing picture of approximately the right place!

The busyness of the last week caught up with us after this though, and following a brief walk around the overbridges crossing the roads by our hotel (OK, I wanted to get some nice high level bus photos, so sue me!) we crashed out for the afternoon.  A lovely refreshing sleep but I am sure many would consider it a total waste of time in Vegas.  We wanted to be ready for the evening though.

Another optional excursion beckoned – this time for a show and a meal.  We hadn’t really thought about whether to see a show or not before we flew, knowing there was this option on the trip anyway but not wanting to commit until we had more of a feel for the place.  A couple of folks from the coach went off to see other things – some to Rock Of Ages, and one couple to see Celine Dion – but once more this was a trip that appealed to most of us.  And what we saw was the Ratpack tribute night over at the Rio.  Excellent sound-alikes (and not too bad on the looks either) recreating the feel of the heyday of the crooners, with some slightly odd updates.  That jarred a bit to me – just when you are getting the Sinatra vibe he cracks a joke about video poker or Viagra.  I felt it should have been left as a paean to the ‘50s.  Still good, just a bit odd.  This was followed by the Rio buffet which I believe is billed as the biggest in town and certainly had enough variety to keep us trying more dishes than was safe for the waistline.  Burp.

Day Eight: Las Vegas to Visalia.

Another day basically given over to travel, but with some interesting stops along the way; the first of these being the “ghost town” of Calico.  This had been “improved” with a paved main street which kind of killed the atmosphere for me, but accessibility has to be considered these days.  And it was possible to wander off down the old dirt tracks to really see the way it used to be.  Add in a couple of cowboys wandering around and some tasty pancakes in the saloon and it made for an enjoyable enough diversion.

There was another truck stop visit (where there was a chap selling fantastic fruit) but mostly the day was spent driving through the desert.  We passed some amazing solar power stations and also Edwards Airforce Base (but at an extreme distance so nothing to see) but nothing really sticks in the mind.

Our hotel that night was in Visalia and was once again very nice and comfortable.  We had dinner in the town at a sports bar (hilarious, given my total lack of interest in nearly all sport, but excellent steak).  And that was that really.  Probably the least thrilling day of the holiday.

Day Nine: Visalia to Modesto

Of course what that sub-header doesn’t mention is the via point…  In this case Yosemite National Park - another absolutely beautiful highlight of the trip for me.  A long and winding drive in and out again to reach the main scenic spots and visitor centre, so inevitably not as long at the heart of the valley as we might have wished for, but everywhere you looked something stunning caught the eye.  While we had a sandwich we were plagued by friendly squirrels and also blue Jays which was interesting, and then we had a wander up to the falls and through the woods.  Really peaceful (despite the crowds in places) and the redwoods are a joy to behold.  So big and yet fitting in to their surroundings perfectly.  Add this to the list of places I’d like to go back to.

Modesto was odd.  Most famous for being where George Lucas grew up and inspiration for American Graffiti (although it wasn’t filmed there as the town had changed too much in the intervening years).  I had a post-arrival wander down to the bus station as it was over the road from the hotel, but otherwise not much to see.  We ate in the hotel restaurant (perfectly OK) and that was about that.

A bus in Modesto!

Vegas!

I'm sure the writing up of a holiday isn't supposed to take longer than the holiday itself...

Day Six: Flagstaff to Las Vegas

From the relaxed to the frenetic, woodland charm to Sin City and other such clichés.  In some ways this was the part of the trip I was least looking forward to - I'm not a gambler and while I love a fantastic building and a bit of hustle and bustle I'd rather see the real thing than a fake in the desert.  But, it is an experience to see the place and I'm always happy to be proved wrong by such a visit.

To start the day off we called in at Williams, just down the road from Flagstaff and the start of the Grand Canyon Railway.  Not for us to board the train, but to see the short "wild west" show put on before departure.  And for a 20 minute bit of fun it did what it said on the tin, so to speak.  Back in 2006 we had a whole evening at a wild west theme village with a meal, shoot outs in the street and so forth which was several orders of magnitude better than this, but you can't really argue with a bit of free entertainment.  The cowboys then went off to hold up the train on its way to the Canyon while we headed west.

Next stop was Seligman, which unexpectedly turned out to be the most depressing part of the whole trip for me.  When you are in the area you have to do a bit of the Route 66 experience, and this was ours (if you don't count the night before in Flagstaff).  But this part of the route is slowly dying.  I know the whole route has been in decline since the opening of Interstate 40 alongside it, and much of it now survives on the tourist dollar rather than being alongside a major east-west link.  This was certainly the case in Seligman – a few empty buildings but a lot of gift shop junk to replace them.  And cars.  The whole lot centred on a single barber’s chair operated for the last 60 or so years by a guy named Angel Delgadillo.  But what was once a novelty place to get a trim when you were driving the route is now the sole reason for visiting the place, and it just struck me as a grim way of hanging on to the glory days and trying to sell a bit of branded tat to anyone who happens to stop.  And stop they do, I counted at least five coaches arriving and departing in the time we were there which must add up to a hundred or more, so maybe 500 people plus those who arrive under their own steam per day in the peak tourist times.  All buying t-shirts and fridge magnets and getting the occasional trim or burger.  And looking at the cars.

Anyone who has seen the eponymous Disney film and its surrounding details will know the idea came to Pixar head John Lasseter when he took his family on a route 66 road trip.  This was one of the places he stopped, and there is a cartoon he drew on the wall if the gift shop to prove it.  And in the way ideas go full circle, the Seligmanites have taken the Cars concept to heart and filled the place with American classics.  They may have been there before of course (a cursory look on-line has not answered this for me either way) but the majority of the ones parked around the various buildings now have eyes painted on the wind shields and smiles across the radiators to mimic the cartoon versions.  But not particularly well and a few years back and showing signs of decay and neglect already.  Add that to the also faded dummies on top of a road house and a general air of desperation about the place I was left feeling thoroughly downhearted by the time we left.

This was not helped by the lunchtime stop at some outlet malls where I didn't find anything I fancied in the right sizes.  I know, material concerns and all that!  But even though crossing into Nevada brought us up to 7/50 states visited by the time we got to Vegas I was definitely at my lowest point of the entire journey.  This was not helped by Alex having given us a spiel about pickpockets and vice while we were still on the road – not the best way to get people to look forward to seeing the place! 

We spent our two nights at the Tropicana, which is down the southern end of the strip on one side of a crossroads - also home to the MGM Grand, New York New York and Excalibur.  Quite dramatic views from the hotel and helped by us being up on the 11^th floor – our highest room of the stay.  Of course you have to walk through the Casino to get to the rooms, which was further off-putting as they still allow smoking while you fritter your money away on the slots.  But the room was very nice and a chance to relax before heading out again and a quick croissant helped to calm my nerves somewhat.

So that just left the evening tour to round off the day.  This (and indeed a similar evening tour of San Francisco, which we will get to in due course) proved to be another slight bone of contention for some of the company again as they were optional rather than included, meaning an extra charge for something done using the bus, driver and guide we already had with us.  We weren't too fussed as we wanted to see the place for the first time in company anyway…

And what a place!  The sheer over-the-top-ness won me over big time and while I’m not exactly chomping at the bit to go back there I’d not dismiss a return visit out of hand.  Starting right down at the south end of the strip by the famous “welcome” sign we headed up to Fremont Street at the far end and back again.  We only made two stops after the obligatory sign photo-shoot but they were both pretty spectacular.  First the Bellagio for the delightful floral conservatory and fountain show and then the Fremont Street experience.  Click on the links there for a few images that do more justice than I could with words.  Between these we saw most of the big casinos and shops, the wedding chapels, the neon and glitz and most of all the people.  Everywhere the people.  Dressed in all manner of costumes from full on to practically naked and trying to get you to part with a few bucks to have your photo taken with them.  Been a while since I saw so many buttocks in one place!  I would have liked to have seen inside the Venezian, and maybe Paris too but we were out over four hours on the tour as it was.

Holiday Part two

OK, proper holiday days from now on (although some of them will still be mainly getting from A to B).

Day Three - San Diego

A whole day of seeing the sights - and what a beautiful city to see them in.  Early starts (well, earlier than we might have chosen when being on holiday) were to be a feature of the trip, and we were on the bus by 0830 with a local guide in tow as well as Alex for a look around San Diego and over to Coronado where you can look back on the downtown area.  In my mind San Diego is most famous for the Comic Convention which now covers anything Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror not just inky pages, and we did see the Convention Centre but there is a lot more on offer.  For instance I hadn't realised how big a naval presence there was, parts of the historic Downtown are wonderfully Art Deco and the "Old Town" area was gorgeous.  A touch of the Old West (down to a genuine Stagecoach in the Wells Fargo museum and chaps with big fat cigars on the porch of a tobacconist).  We ended that part of the tour there and had lunch at a place called O'Hungry's - good food at excellent prices, and thousands of dollars (and other notes) signed and stuck on the walls.  Given that Alex and Art went straight in there when we reached the Old Town we reckoned it would be reasonable, and thoroughly enjoyed it, as did a few others from our bus.  And especially when an entire coach load of Chinese tourists arrived for their lunch and basically took the joint over.  Luckily we had been served by then...  One of our rules for eating away from home is to try and work out where the locals go, and failing that to at least see what the guide/driver do as they always know good spots.

San Diego as seen from Coronado

When we were looking at things to do on the holiday, we did consider spending the afternoon of this day at the Zoo.  But it would really have needed a full day to even begin to do justice to the amount of things on offer there (Pandas will just have to wait for another time, or a trip to Scotchland) so we took up the optional harbour cruise offer instead.  And were really glad that we did.  Two hours on the water which reinforced the naval presence (the tour guide for that was ex-navy himself and knew every vessel we passed from Aircraft Carriers down to the tiniest of Tugs and Submarines).  We also got to see pelicans in the wild as well as a bunch of sea lions just hanging around the wharves.

The rest of the afternoon we spent hanging about the Embarcadero area, looking in shops, eating ice creams and ship-watching.  I would have liked to visit the USS Midway (aircraft carrier turned museum complete with planes) or the other ships in the maritime museum collection, but there wasn't time and we were all beginning to flag a little from the time difference.  There was a bit of grumbling among the group about having too much time to wait for our transfer back to the hotel, but nobody went as far as to get a bus or taxi earlier.  And actually the enforced hanging around gave us a chance to properly meet folks and get to know each other - which I am sure helped with the overall enjoyment in later days.

For dinner that night Alex arranged to take us up to the Homestyle Buffet restaurant, which did exactly what it said on the door and had a hundred or so dishes to choose from.  All very tasty (Joan adored the coconut cream pie).

Day Four - San Diego to Scottsdale

Time to leave the coast for now and head inland and into the desert.  Our first stop was Palm Springs which, frankly, didn't live up to expectations and was generally regarded by all our fellow travellers as a wasted opportunity.  According to Art it added about an hour and a half of driving rather than taking a more direct line to Scottsdale which, when added to the time spent in Palm Springs would perhaps have been more enjoyable if we had blasted through to Scottsdale and got there three or four hours earlier.

One trouble with an organised tour such as this is not getting long enough in some places.  You are always on a fixed schedule with hotels expecting arrivals at certain times, restrictions on driver hours enforcing breaks and so forth.  So we only had an hour and a half to explore the city and that wasn't enough to give us a particularly good impression.  Certainly I failed to see what has attracted the stars out from LA for all these years.  OK, it is in the desert so nice and warm, but then so are many other places about the same distance away.  The main street was mainly places to eat and souvenir type shops which again didn't inspire us as a destination to linger in.  Again, this could be linked to the short time available as there were a couple of museums and galleries in sight, but no time to appreciate them properly.  If we'd had a full day, or even an afternoon in town we could have had a good look around some of the cultural bits and perhaps got a better impression.  As it was we had a short wander up and down the road, looked at a few t-shirts and then had an early lunch. 

We had hoped to perhaps get a sandwich or something to eat on the coach while the journey continued, giving us more time to look around, but after about 40 minutes we hadn't found a single vendor of takeaway food of any description so plumped for Ruby's Diner and a sit down meal (again Art and Alex had headed in there, so we knew the food would be OK).  And mine certainly was - I'm a sucker for an all-day breakfast anyway, but this one was particularly tasty!  Joan had a veggie sandwich which started out OK, but she wasn't sure on the second half - something tasting old/rotten and so it was left unfinished.  I'm not sure anything was really inedible or if it was just unusual flavours, but there you go.

The rest of the afternoon was spent trundling through the desert, with just a break at a truck stop to break up the monotony.  All of which meant we didn't arrive at Scottsdale until after five, which was a real pity.

We had a couple of nights there back in 2006 and were quite looking forward to revisiting the Old Town.  Especially as this time our hotel was literally across the road from it, rather than needing a bus journey.  However by the time we arrived exhaustion had set in, and by the time we were ready to go out the shops were all shutting.  As a result we just joined a couple of our new friends and ate in the hotel.  Nice food and excellent laughs, but a shame and not what we had wanted from the day.

Day Five – Scottsdale to Flagstaff             

Now that really doesn't do justice to the day as a description!  This was a day re-visiting old haunts for Joan and I and as such was a blast.  The morning stop was spent in Sedona.  We only had an hour and a half or so in town this time around, so no chance to reprise the jeep tour into the desert we took back in 2006, but it is such a lovely little community that being limited to the town centre hardly mattered.  A chance to see the red rocks again was tonic for the soul, and a bit of shopping went down well too.

We had expected a diversion next, as the road through Oak Creek Canyon had suffered a landslide earlier in the year and was closed for repairs.  But much to our joy it had been re-opened the day before our arrival, so we were able to head north that way after all.  It is a lovely drive which we had done southbound previously, so it was nice to see in the other direction.  Beautiful wooded hillsides and some great rock formations.  We then pressed on north, through Flagstaff and various bits of forest (spotting a couple of deer and an Elk as we did so) and on to the Grand Canyon.

Having done the helicopter flight experience last time, we decided to stay on the ground this time, but have more time at the rim to explore and eat ice cream.  It was a glorious afternoon and we had a great time wandering along a bit, looking over the edge and browsing the native artefacts in the Hopi House store.  It is a bit of a cliché, but the place really is staggeringly beautiful and just huge.  I have been to Niagara Falls four or five times now but it still catches the heart and takes the breath away on each visit, and I suspect the Canyon is the same.  I’d love to spend a night or two up there one day, just to see it in the dawn and dusk, and maybe catch a sunset over the edge.  Many photos were taken that day it has to be said (including the Grand Canyon Railway and several buses, but then it wouldn't be me without them).

Canyon, Grand variety

Our hotel in Flagstaff was also somewhere we had stayed before, which was nice.  We had a drink with a couple of ladies from Norwich (and they asked to see my ID, which I decided to take as a compliment at age 43) then went down to the Galaxy Diner for dinner.  OK, so we had done a diner the day before in Palm Springs, but we had enjoyed this one last time and it is ON route 66 so was a bit of an essential visit.  Lovely food to round off a great day (a burger in sourdough toast for me, with proper cherry coke featuring your actual cherries).