My gig at Freiburg

We are back from Freiburg – an excellent trip. First let me say how pleasant I found the Frieburg people. All absolutely charming and helpful and most people we spoke to able to help us with queries in English if we were lost. Can you imagine the majority of the English population turning to another language to help a visitor?

M & I travelled with Irene on Wednesday, and met her friends in the evening when we arrived from Basle (Basel) airport on the bus. We deposited our luggage and all went out for a pizza.

M & I were in a small hotel, The Minerva, catering probably for a dozen families – once again, very friendly. Only one problem. We awoke at 6 a.m. Would you believe the curtains were like ours at home with a very thin lining letting in the morning light? And we had left the masks back in England. So we rose with the lark, and during the morning in the town square outside the Rathous (Town Hall) watched and listened to a group of young Ukrainian dancers.

Frieburg, in case I didn’t say, is twinned with ten towns - Besancon, Innsbruck, Padua, Madison, Matsuyama, and Lviv in the

Ukraine – hence the dancers, Granada and Isfahan; it’s a historic town and you can find out all about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiburg_im_Breisgau. It is also known as an "eco-city". More of that later.

The dancers overran their slot, and as the day got hotter and hotter, finally Irene came to read from her two

books in the tent for the performers. Sometime during the afternoon we went to a lecture on the environment, a subject of great concern in Frieburg. M was very interested and went on to an estate fitted with solar heating. I bowed out in view of my evening talk, and went to the Cathedral with Irene’s friends. Alas, it was really too hot to be out in the street and I got more and more uncomfortable as the day wore on. By the time evening came, when I was to meet Nadine of the German-British Society http://www.debrige.de/), who had invited me to Frieburg, I was already feeling decidedly queasy. Nadine, who was much younger than I had expected, had invited M & me to dinner. M ate enthusiastically, while I picked at a salad. After the heat, and with my talk in front of me, food was the last thing I wanted. Poor Nadine must have thought I would faint away, possibly throw up, by the time we arrived at the venue the Schwanhaeuser Bookshop.

Fortunately, adrenaline got me through the talk, and it was very well received. I also answered questions and, to my surprise, there was a great deal of interest in my non-fiction book, The Fruit of the Tree, and in the topic of cot death. For the second time, at one of my talks, M was full of praise. Refreshments followed and then we went with Irene and her friends for more drinks.

Actually, the queasy stomach remained with me for almost the whole time we were away, which may have been the day in the sun, or the meal the day before, but was certainly not just a case of stage fright.

Friday morning was wet and cold and Irene’s reading was abandoned. We had hot chocolate, and after Irene had returned to the Twinning tent, to the Guildford/Frieburg stall, M & I took a trip by tram and bus and then on the cable car to the Black Forest. All transport, except the cable car, was free with a ticket from our hotel. It was freezing at the top, and we had another hot chocolate, and Black Forest Gateau – as you would – to compensate.

On Saturday, after a walk around the old town, which is lovely, we found there was another solar heating trip – to a factory. M said, his face all eager like a little boy’s, ‘Can I go?’ So off he went, and I joined the Guildford contingent in the tent. I didn’t have lunch, but was happy to have tea and cake, provided by the Anglo-German society. (Lots of societies, there.) I enjoyed being part of the team promoting Guildford – much more fun than a solar heating factory. We all had a meal out in the evening.

On Sunday, we went with Irene and another lady to the Black Forest by double decker train, and took a boat on the lake. We returned to Frieburg to collect our luggage and took the airport coach back to Basel. Back in the UK, Irene’s daughter picked us up – and now it’s back to the old routine.

Our friends, the animals

This video is not featured to show off my amazing photography skills, but to introduce you to the newest member of the extended family - the gorgeous Sorrel, a three month old chocolate labrador. My daughter tells me that she resisted suggestions to call her 'Cocoa' and Cadbury. It was GD2 that thought of this so much more sophisticated name.

Animal life has had me worrying about bees. I understand the government is funding some research into the decline in the bee population and other pollinating insects and the WI is also trying to support bees. When the weather was pleasant a week or so back, I had a wander around the garden to see if we were doing our bit. I was delighted to see that the cotoneaster at the back of the garden had attracted many buzzy insects; so too had an evergreen hedging plant with variegated leaves, whose name I don't know. Though I have made the decision what to plant over the years, I am not always happy with my choices. The cotoneaster, for example, I thought was an uninteresting addition. Now though I'm delighted to have it there. I also noticed some bees around the rhododendrons and also visiting my perennial geraniums. These are an anassuming little plant with nice foliage and produce many small pinky mauve flowers; they're not showy like the rhododendrons, but they do stay around for several weeks from May onwards. Try to have something flowering every day of the year, I've heard it said. I can't quite do that but on the whole, I do achieve a flowering season from the early bulbs in February through to late autumn. This year, I'll be keeping a closer eye on them.

Today, I was in Guildford to give a talk at the Writing Your Life Story Workshop at the Guildford Institute. Mine was a contribution of one hour, talking about my own autobiographical book, The Fruit of the Tree. I had spent much time revising it since my last talk, and I think it was improved this time. The Institute are holding a two-day workshop once each term, and I will be there again in October. Now that I've finished with that, I am going to work on another talk for the twinning celebrations at Freiburg, Germany, which I am attending next week. I shall also have to sort out my packing list - is it to be winter or summer clothes. That's the crucial question.

The duo in the velvet masks

I haven’t managed yet to get my recent novel extract down on paper, and my desk is still choc-a-bloc, despite getting rid of the end of month statements yesterday. The good news is that there have been more orders for A Bottle of Plonk and Tainted Tree, and royalties from Virtual Tales for the American e-book of A Bottle of Plonk – Have Wine will Travel. Coming up soon, my trip to Freiburg in the Black Forest, to give readings of those books, and a talk at the Guildford Institute on writing your life story, at which I will give readings from The Fruit of the Tree. To add to the fun, Irene is travelling with M and me, and will give readings of her own books at the Freiburg twinning festival. This is a coincidence – I have been invited the German/English society and she is being sent by the Guildford organisation.

A continuation in the curtains saga - since putting up the wretched things, we haven’t been able to get a good night’s sleep. M, particularly, wakes at dawn – about 5 a.m., so I understand, and can’t get back to sleep. I contemplated getting the curtains lined, yet again. All our other curtains have millium lining – a metallic lining, and have had no problems with any of them. It just didn’t seem to be on offer this time. The lady at the curtain shop suggested that I either put up a roller blind or had a piece of lining attached to Velcro and velcroed the lining against the window each day. Not an ideal solution. Today, at a gathering of my Surrey graduate friends, I told them of my problem, and they suggested flight masks. What a brilliant idea. Tonight we will try that. It may even prevent a murder or divorce! The other thing that happened today was that some friends from the Reading Circle came back to my house, and we had a Q & A session about Tainted Tree. I probably talked for two hours. I enjoyed it – and they kept coming up with questions. And Guildford Waterstone’s are down to one copy of TT in each of their two shops – so thank you Guildford readers. Much appreciated.

Another view of Hotel Bon Sol, our holiday destination. Whilst ploughing through my holiday writing, I’ve found a blog, written early on, while we were there. Although I’ve already described the holiday, this is more immediate than my other description, so I’ve included it.

'After two days of rather dismal weather, the sun came out and temperatures rose to around 22 to 25 degrees C. – perfect Majorcan weather. M & I didn’t – don’t attempt to do anything adventurous. We have the same daily ritual – M gets up an hour earlier than I do and finds a good position in the sun. We meet up for breakfast in the restaurant by the sea – either in or out of doors. M heaps his plate with fruit, sometimes an egg and then French bread and toast; I eat cornflakes and two slices of toast and marmalade – my concession to being on hols. We don’t, as some guests do, indulge in a fry-up, or cold meats or sausages. Some people on half board, no doubt, store up food, so they don’t have to bother about lunch, but we enjoy the buffet lunches, as much for their visual appeal as for the food. Salads of red and greens – peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, peaches, apricots; desserts – gateaux, creams and chocolate – ice-creams; and of course the meats, fish, roasts and veggie delights. I try to be modest when selecting, but the range is a pleasure to behold.

In between breakfast and lunch, I pay a half hour visit to the gym and cycle, walk and row away between 100 and 200 calories. The afternoon is spent under a perfect blue sky, the sun diffused by the shade of an umbrella, and in the evening, after dinner, there is chat with other guests. For me, this holiday is meant to be only a recharging of batteries and an injection of sunshine – a tonic if we are to have a miserable English summer. It’s also an opportunity to do things I don’t necessarily do at home, because something else is in need of my attention.

The paper reads – A late bounce in British bookings for Spain and the Balearics – a reminder how the recession spreads its tentacles into holiday places such as this. But hopes too that confidence is beginning to return. It’s 1 ½ years since Northern Rock – also since the Market hit its high point and started to descend. The Stock Market anticipates events as well as reacting to them. I hope the current rise is a genuine forecast of improvement in jobs and businesses for the wider community.'

Curtains for the bedrooms and curtains for democracy?

Before we left home, we had to prepare for the decorator who was coming in, in our absence. We moved all the books from the bookcase, the videos (yes, we are old-fashioned) and ornaments. At the same time, the kitchen was invaded by ants, and we had to leave ant traps down on the kitchen floor. That, I’m pleased to say was successful, though the high season for ants hasn’t yet arrived. For years we have ant invasions throughout the summer, so let's hope this brief incursion wasn't a forerunner of another bad ant year.

When we got back, we had to get everything back to normal. The decorator, who made a very good job, had not been able to reinstate all our pictures and ornaments, and had left all the furniture in the middle of the room, so that the paint could dry. It was not something we really wanted to tackle mid afternoon, having got up at 6.30 a.m to get to the airport, but we had to make our living room liveable in. The decorator popped in at 5.30 p.m. and helped us put back the heavy curtains, by which time, we’d managed to reinstate order. Just before we went away, we heard that the ProdicalD and family were going to visit, as it was half term. We arrived home on Friday, and she, spouse and GD2 – and another visitor, a three month old Labrador would be arriving on Sunday and staying till Tuesday. We had had new linings fitted to the curtains in our room, but had borrowed the curtains from the little girls’ bedroom. So this was another priority job, before our granddaughter arrived – to take down one set of curtains from our bedroom, put them in the girls’ room, make sure the newly relined curtains were the right length and put them up in our room. And there was the post to deal with (still dealing with it) and the unpacking and the washing (still dealing with it) and some food to prepare for the visitors. Now the ProdigalD’s come and gone, and there’s still a heap of paperwork on my desk – some of which is the four thousand words to add to my novel in progress, and also some comments on the second book I read on holiday.

We wondered quite how the dog would fit in, but she has her own cage – until she is house trained (Labradors tend to chew everything in site, when they’re puppies; that probably applies to many breeds.) She was actually perfectly behaved, very quiet, and only got excited when we went for walks. GD2 is a little nervous, as she snaps a bit – that’s due to teething. But I made a fuss of her, and GD2 gained a little confidence from seeing me stroke her. She is quite small at the moment – the puppy, that is, but I wanted to be sure she liked me before she got to full size. She has large feet already, and is apparently going to be huge. This is the time to make friends.

Even on holiday, we couldn’t avoid the political shenanigans, and the situation worries me. I am not alone in saying this, but the politicians can be divided into three groups – those who have done absolutely nothing to be ashamed of; those who took advantage of a bad system but stayed within the rules and those who did things that were frankly, criminal. Let’s get rid of the criminals; there’s no excuse for them. However, of the others, it seems they were given a nod and a wink, and told them to use their legitimate allowances instead of receiving a pay rise – and let’s face it – they’re not getting a huge salary for running the country. Now, they’ve had the rug pulled out from under them. There are many of us who’ve been told by accountants, or read in the papers, that we can use tax avoidance measures. Do we all rush to say, ‘No, we don’t want to avoid tax. We want to pay it.’? Do we heck! Members of parliament, like us, use the system. What worries me is that there are more important things than bath plugs? In fact, we are in danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. These are people, many of whom are very talented and who have skills that we need to run the country. Are we going to chuck out half of them, both the deserving and the undeserving and end up with a bunch of honest amateurs, or even worse? I don’t think the Daily Telegraph was thinking of democracy when it published its scoop. I think it was thinking of sales, and what it has done has been damaging to democracy.

R & R in Majorca

We have been on holiday – once again to the Hotel Bon Sol in Illetas, Majorca, where we have spent many holidays in past years. We had a suite of rooms – bathroom, bedroom, sitting room and a large veranda looking out onto the mini-golf course and beyond that, the sea.

Other times we’ve had a bedroom and sitting room combined. It’s quite arbitrary; all the rooms are nice in different ways. There were two sink bowls in the bathroom, so I said to M, ‘This is mine; don’t get my area wet and soapy.’ I also had a hairdryer and magnifying mirror on my side, but M had to sneak over to my patch to get the benefit of the mirror.

We arrived on a Tuesday when it was cloudy; the next day it was dull; we went shopping for fruit juice – I can’t wake up in the morning without liquid refreshment - and bought an umbrella. On Thursday, it was cold and wet – I didn’t go out, but M braved the weather for a while. On Friday, cloud turned to full sun, and from then on the temperature increased day by day. I hid my vulnerable skin one minute and lay out in it for a little while, the next minute. The Bon Sol has various levels of seating , some parts shaded by trees and other more open areas with beach umbrellas. Below is the patio where some people choose to lie, and also where drinks and icecreams are available, and below that the view from the edge of that patio, looking out over the sea. We always sit in shade, but make the occasional foray to the little beach below.

The glass roof above covers part of the restaurant area, where we had buffet lunches each day – for example smoked salmon, Spanish omelette, courgettes, potatoes, or a roast meat with sauté potatoes, or lightly fried or grilled fish; salads and fantastic desserts. All delicious and tempting. M gave way and arrived home half a stone heavier, after a mere ten days. I was very careful, and what’s more, visited the on site gym, every day for half an hour. I am only one pound heavier than when we left home – and smug.

In the time we’ve been going to the Bon Sol, we’ve seen the waiters change from young to middle aged; that applies to us, too, of course.

While I was there, I read the third fiction book of my Piatkus prize (for second place, first three pages of a novel, at the Winchester Conference) – Songs without Words by Anne Packer. Of the other two fiction books which I won, I left one at the hotel last year, and gave one away, but this was markedly better. I empathised with the characters, was amused by the dialogue and caught up by the plot. It had very good descriptions of how the main protagonist felt in the context of the situation, in which they found themselves. (I was inspired to get my own creative juices flowing and break the log-jam with my latest novel.) One thing I did find difficult was an American vocabulary – some words I literally didn’t understand – and to a greater extent – references; I can’t remember being quite so aware of this before, so maybe there’s a difference between Californian language or possible colloquialisms and New York/Boston lingo. Also, a few too many names dropped in, but if they weren’t important, I ignored them. Although it was a large book (in size, I mean) I brought it back home, which is praise indeed.

And speaking of books, all copies of Tainted Tree in Surrey Libraries were out on loan over the weekend, though one's now back on the shelves at Godalming. Hurry along there and collect it, if you're a local.

Lamb's testicles and other delicacies

I am trying very hard to sort out a number of things - washing, ironing, which have fallen behind and invoicing and statements - and as we are having our lounge - or should I say, sitting room (I don't know the posh word for it) decorated, removing books and ornaments to another room. So a busy couple of days ahead.

Somehow, despite not being able to throw off my cold, I managed to participate in two presentations this week - one on my own with a half hour talk at Staines Synagogue, on how much of my writing comes from inside me, with readings to illustrate. (I read part of a chapter from a Bottle of Plonk, with the mother from hell telling how daughter how she should have behaved instead of divorcing her husband - and I got a gratifying amount of laughter from the audience.) Even M, who chauffeured me, said the talk was really good, and he was proud of me.

The second one was at The Deli, Lynchford Road, Farnborough, where host and hostess, Claire and Matt provided smoked salmon bagels, as mentioned in Tainted Tree, wine, some spicy finger food, a la The Moon's Complexion and Darshan and an attempt at medieval food to represent The Gawain Quest and Luther's Ambassadors with, er, lamb's testicles. The bagels were lovely. I thoroughly recommend that if you're in the area, you visit The Deli. Even if you don't fancy that particular bit of lamb.

This time, my reading was from Tainted Tree - where American, Addie Russell, my heroine, gets invited for an English roast dinner, with Jonathan, lawyer, his sister, Sarah, and mother, Helen. Helen is about the age that Addie's mother would have been, had she lived, and Addie tries to get insight into the period when her mother was growing up - in the late fifties and sixties. So not much about food then, but quite a lot about morality of the time.

While I was suffering from my cold, I lost two pounds, through lack of appetite. Reassuringly, I have now put it back on again - though maybe that was partly due to the bagels with cream cheese and salmon. Even with the increased appetite, though, I wasn't tempted by the medieval treat.

The Walking Wounded and a couple of misfits

We've been out today - M with a torn calf muscle and me with a cold. Yesterday, I wasn't sure I should contemplate visiting, but with decongestants and cough syrups I got through the day. I just hope I didn't infect the cousins we were visiting. It was a good fun day - lots of hilarity at the lunch - and that's why I wanted to go. My very discriminating cousin pleased me by saying how much she enjoyed Tainted Tree. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a piece of paper out to record what she said, but something about good characterisation and plot and a page turner.

Now I'm back the cold is streaming once more and I feel cold. Hope I'm better soon, as I am involved in two talks in the coming week. One with the Goldenford Girls is at the Deli in Farnborough on Thursday. In theory, there should have been a feature in the local press, but I don't know whether it got there or not.

I have planted a lovely azalea which Irene gave to me, right in the centre of the bed in front of the lounge window. Only problem is, the straggly foliage left from the bulbs doesn't look right with it. I've had a couple of sessions of removing the bulbs and putting them in a different area, where it will be OK to have a spring garden, because nothing else will follow it. I think I might add some more low growing azaleas to that bed.

In the background is the shrub, whose name wouldn't come to mind, but which now has its red leaves, though fading a little. It has looked absolutely right, surrounded by forget me nots. The name I've now found out is pieris. It's ideal for our sandy soil, but the photo below doesn't quite do it justice.

We also bought at Wisley, last week, a pink rhododendron - Pink Bells. I really wanted Pink Pearl, but they didn't have one, and I've been trying for a pink one for some time. Once planted, this looks miniscule amongst my more mature ones, but hopefully, it will gain stature.