Harry Potter tour

I am being really lax about keeping this blog going.  So I will take more effort for a bit.

We went to the Warner Brothers studio near Watford to see the Harry Potter studio tour at the weekend.    We met up with family so there were 10 of us and we had a really good day. The tour is excellent and well worth the money.  There are the original sets for the Great Hall, the common room, bedroom, Dumbldore's office and many more.

The most impressive thing is the attention to detail, and the information about all the technical wizardry which goes into making a wizard world.  It was a great day.

I love the Harry Potter books and they are ones I will reread on a regular basis, as are the books of Terry Pratchett.  Both are fantasy worlds though they don't have much else in common except that they all tell wonderful stories.  They are complete worlds which are internally consistent, so that the characters are real and the situations in which they find themselves are real too.  It doesn't matter that there is magic, dragons etc because what happens to them is as real to them as me sitting here.  It has taken a long time for Pratchett to gain the respect he deserves and he is now recognised by the main literary fraternity as well as the SF world which has been devoted to him for decades.  The literary world hasn't given Rowling the credit she deserves for Harry Potter, and the jury is decidedly split on her new book.  I haven't read it yet, though I will at some point out of curiosity.  It will be interesting to see if she can make the transfer to a different genre.

It's been a while......

Oh dear - how remiss of me.

I have been on holiday - 2 weeks walking in Northumberland, walking the middle bit of Hadrian's wall which was just great.

I was concerned - being the least fit of the 4 of us - that I would be huffing and puffing in the rear while everyone else hung around waiting but actually there was only one day when I struggled, and that was the longest, steepest and wettest walk, so all in all I feel proud of myself.

Other great pluses

- 2 weeks off work
- spending a leisurely time with  my sister and brother in law
- lots of cake
- lots of excellent meals with lovely wine and (mostly) good cheese
- beautiful countryside
- not too much rain
- sense of achievement
- unexpected concert with one of B's ex students performing
- learning lots about the Wall and the Romans in the truly excellent museums

Had a great time.

Thoughts of Hadrian's Wall

There was a missing of birdsong
only rooks, pheasants, kestrel and a solitary silent coal tit
inhabit Grindon and the Wall.
Marching with shadows of lost legionaries as our steps
lock on gravel
in time
out of time
past and present blurring
in a place where time blurs.

At Whinspear we marvel
and think of the Syrian archer shivering on the Wall,
his short sleeves, short skirt and thin leather boots
while we snug in Goretex complain
about wind and rain.
Only September, only rain,
winter still to come and the snow,
imagine the snow.
We think kindly of our softer Southern homes.

Views stretch and stretch
beyond eyesight
beyond binoculars
beyond words to express the sublimity.
It is visceral, not rational.
Living in memory as well as photographs.