Eclipse

Sometimes you don't have to go very far from home to see something magical.

Today, outside my workplace in Bedford, I witnessed the biggest solar eclipse in the UK since 1999, with at least 83% totality in all parts of the country. 

It had been cloudy all morning and I didn't hold out much hope of seeing anything...but suddenly, about fifteen minutes before peak darkness was due, the light went strange. I dashed outside to join a small crowd of staff and students manouvering homemade pinhole cameras and trying to take photos through the cloud. The light grew dimmer, and the temperature began to drop; within a few minutes it felt bitter and icy. Then just at the right time, the clouds parted to reveal the Moon making its way across the Sun.

The clouds quickly recovered and continued to tease us with occasional glimpses of the spectacle, until the darkness began to lift. I only saw it briefly, but what I did see was fascinating, and the whole experience - the dimming of the light, the drop in temperature - was eerie and special.

If you missed it today but want to catch an eclipse sometime soon, check out in this article in The Guardian on where in the world you can see one in the near future.

Five top writing spots in Bedford

Bedford, a small town about 50 miles north of London, is the place I’ve been calling home for nearly two years now. I can’t claim it’s my favourite place in the world (or even up there in the top 40!), but it does have its pleasant spots, including for those of us who like to get out of the house to do our writing. Here are five I’d recommend.

Frescoes, Mill Street

I first discovered this café on a bitterly cold Good Friday during my first week in Bedford, when in search of free WiFi. I found not only that, but good coffee and amazing cake, with a warm welcome for this lone soul who knew no one in the town. I have been back many times since and this is probably my favourite place to write; the WiFi connection is always great, the food and drink on offer is good (although I can no longer eat the cakes, being dairy-free, they’ll make hot drinks with soya milk, and they offer gluten-free bread for those who need it too), and I’ve never felt hurried along whilst in there. 

The Ship, St Cuthbert’s Street

No WiFi (or at least not the last time I was there), but if you’re working with pen and paper on a sunny day, you can’t beat a glass of something cold out in the expansive beer garden here whilst you thrash out your words. I went one Sunday afternoon when I had a 500 word flash fiction to pull into shape, but it was too lovely outside to stay indoors. The lack of WiFi actually means fewer distractions!

Bedford Central Library, Harpur Street

Don’t forget your local public library! Join (for free!) if you haven’t already, and you can use the computers or the free WiFi. You can find a spot to work amongst the shelves, or go and grab a coffee in the cafe and people-watch over the market whilst you write.

Coffee With Art, High Street

It feels like a bit of a cliché to recommend a café with a whole wall made of books as a writing venue, but it really is a fabulous place! Great choice of tea and coffee, lunch foods are available, and the cakes look amazing. The WiFi works well and on Sundays they sometimes have live acoustic music to accompany your scribbling. Plus a wall made of books. And art. What more could you want?

It had to be done!

River Great Ouse, The Embankment

Alternatively, leave the coffee, booze and WiFi behind, and take a seat on one of the benches along the river in town. Watch the people strolling/jogging/cycling past, or the wildlife and boats gliding by on the water, while you wait for inspiration to strike. 

  

 What do you think – is there a great writing spot here that I haven’t discovered yet?

Culture 'n' stuff

So I tend to only write about foreign trips on this blog which, on reflection, is a bit daft really, as I have plenty of adventures here in the UK…so I’m going to make an effort to write about some of those too.

When I moved to Bedford last year I thought I’d be off to London every weekend as it’s only 40 minutes on the train, but I’ve not been anywhere near that often and I definitely have more exploring to do. I’ve been down there a couple of times recently to do some interesting stuff. My friend A has just bought membership to the British Museum which includes a guest pass, so we decided to go and see some exhibitions. 

On our first trip we went to Vikings: life and legend (running until 22^nd June so get in quick if you want to see it). Before we went into the exhibition we went to explore the Members’ Lounge, where there’s a lovely little café – perfect place for a coffee before we went in – and a “study area” with some reading tables and books (obviously I geeked out over this bit!). Free Wifi too, another nice perk of membership; this would be great place to come and do some research or writing.

We both enjoyed the exhibition but would have liked to see more on the mythology; the exhibits were very much about everyday life, which is of course also fascinating. My favourite piece was the remains of a longboat which they have laid out towards the end of the exhibition, and I also enjoyed learning about the women who were sorceresses, offering herbal cures and potions; I think I would have been one of those had I lived then! A came away wanting a drinking horn; they had some in the gift shop but they were very expensive and we were unsure whether they’d actually be suitable for drinking out of!

Afterwards we headed to Sade, a Mediterranean restaurant on the corner of Exmouth Market, where I ate far too much food in the form of stuffed vine leaves and the “Sade Special”, a minced lamb kofte in a tortilla with yoghurt and tomato (getting ready for my trip to Greece next month!). Good wine, friendly service and a relaxed atmosphere; would recommend.

Our next trip took place a few weeks later, when we headed back to the British Museum, this time for the Ancient Lives exhibition – mummies! I’ve loved Ancient Egypt, but especially mummies, since I was a kid so I was really looking forward to this one, and it didn’t disappoint. The exhibition contains eight mummies and their stories, or what we think their stories are; some Ancient Egyptian, others not.  It was an amazing exhibition and brilliant to get so close; I liked the Egyptian ones of course, but in a way the other mummies, not wrapped up or encased, were more fascinating, as you can see the actual remains of the person. Maybe I’m just a grisly soul, but I couldn’t stop looking at them! This was my favourite of the two exhibitions and I’d definitely recommend going – it’s on until 30^th November. 

Oh, and being a cat lover, I couldn’t resist buying an Ancient Egyptian cat in the gift shop!

We were then off to the New London Theatre on Drury Lane that evening, to see War Horse, a show we’d both wanted to see for ages. A is great at finding bargains and had found a dinner and theatre deal through lovetheatre.com, where we got a two-course dinner at a participating restaurant and our show ticket for £47 each. There’s quite a big choice of restaurants and they offer a set menu for this deal, but they all have the menus online so you can have a look beforehand.

We had a bit of spare time between collecting our theatre tickets and going for dinner, so we popped into The Angel on St Giles High St for a drink, which is a lovely pub. I enjoyed a raspberry beer in the pleasant beer garden with a view:

We’d chosen The Noodle House on Shaftesbury Avenue as it was close to the theatre and had a good variety of food we both fancied on the set menu. We went early – 5pm – and had the place almost to ourselves, with very good service again. I had calamari for my starter and Pad Thai for my main, both delicious, and A went for duck dumplings (I tried some and they were fab – took me back to Chinatown as written about in my previous blog on NYC!) and Singapore Noodles. We both agreed we’d like to go back and try something from the full menu sometime.

Onto the theatre, and we were pleased with our seats – back row of the rear stalls and we had a full view of the stage, so the £47 deal was great. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the show (other than weeping!), having not read the book or seen the film…but I was riveted from the opening scene. I can’t even fathom the amount of rehearsal that must go into operating the horses; the actors were perfectly in sync and the horses seemed real, in the way that they moved, breathed, mooched around in the background. The story was wonderful, and yes, I cried copiously, along with the rest of the theatre I think – there was definitely a near-universal breakdown at one point! I wrote in my previous blog post about seeing a show on Broadway and how appreciative and vocal the American audience was in comparison to the British audiences I’d experienced; during this show it felt much more like the American audience – people clapped and cheered at every appropriate point, no one was playing on their phone or chatting, everyone gasped in unison at one particular tense point right at the end (you may know what I mean if you’ve seen it!), and there was a standing ovation at the curtain call. Highly recommended!

I have more London plans coming up over the summer, but my next trip is not far away; a week by myself in Corfu next month…I can’t wait!