The White House, the cyclist and the backpacking dog!
Two days was nowhere near long enough to do Washington justice. The Smithsonian alone would take a week and we were just passing through, so how could we make the most of it? We elected to walk the city centre and then take a trolley bus tour.
Washington’s Old Town Trolley service did everything we needed. It allowed us to swop between routes and hop on and hop off whenever we wanted. On top of that each driver gave a running commentary, some more idiosyncratic than others. There were no set speeches, nothing formal. We learned quirky things alongside the basic stuff. For example, did you know that the saying ‘mind your Ps and Qs’ is a leftover from the days when ships’ captains exhorted their crew to ‘mind your pints and quarts’ when they went ashore? In other words it was a warning not to get drunk. That tidbit came from a driver whose father was in the US Navy.
Another driver slowed the trolley outside the White House and sang an ironic Star Spangled Banner to general applause.
We started our tour by visiting Arlington Cemetery. The rows and rows of snowy white headstones reaching out of sight in every direction make far more of an impact than a war memorial ever could. While we were there we also stood in silence at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for the changing of the guard. Later we visited John F Kennedy’s grave and saw too where Robert and Edward Kennedy are buried. We drove past the Pentagon as well. It is a vast grey structure that looked as impenetrable as it is meant to be and as I am sure it is.
Then came the history. The Potomac River (the native word for market place). The Lincoln memorial, the Ford Theatre where Lincoln was shot, the house opposite where he died the following day. The Jefferson memorial. The Smithsonian Museum which stretched block after block. The National Geographic. The Crime Museum. The Post Office Tower, which Donald Trump is about to turn into a hotel. The infamous Watergate Hotel. The Financial District. The Treasury. The IRS building. The Embassies. All of them grandiose, all of them beautifully maintained. Indeed the whole city was impressive from its parks and gardens to its wide, litter-free boulevards.
We saw the Vietnam War Memorial too, as well as memorials of earlier conflicts, and we were as touched by the cards and mementoes left behind by visitors as we were impressed by the number of school parties that were there to learn about America’s history.
Nothing was comparable to the White House though. While this was smaller than I had expected, it was also more beautiful. A graceful, elegant building set in acres of parkland, it looks as lovely from the back as it does from the iconic front view that is so familiar in every photograph. And directly opposite it, and just as beautiful in its own way, the Washington Monument, a colossal obelisk erected in honor of George Washington as a national memorial.
So what am I going to remember about Washington? As well as its elegant architecture and design I will remember its friendly citizens. I don’t know if Washingtonians are actually as happy as they appear but we were favored with a lot of smiles and friendly conversations, something that made us feel that we were valued visitors.
It is a rainbow city too. A place where people from every nation and of every color and creed live and work together. A place where the magnificent National Cathedral prides itself of welcoming worshippers of any and every denomination.
But more than all of this, one simple thing will forever remain in my memory: a cyclist wearing 
lycra and a helmet speeding down a path towards the White House with his dog strapped into a rucksack on his back. It was a very relaxed and happy looking dog too. With its tongue lolling it had a real grin on its face. It was a dog who was so familiar with its ride that it had its arms (surely they weren’t front legs, not in that position) wrapped around its owner’s neck.
That unexpected and amusing human/canine partnership will forever be what first comes to my mind when I think of Washington. Why? Well because it is the people who make a city, not the history, important as that is. It is the day-to-day lives of its citizen that carry it forward. It is their hopes and dreams that keep it dynamic. It is their labor that makes it work. I’ll never know why that cyclist decided to train his dog to backpack, all I do know is that the pair of them brought a smile to the face of everyone who saw them, and left everyone feeling just that little bit better about themselves and about the world we live in.
The experience of a lifetime
Tomorrow is the day I start my American journey. I am so looking forward to it. The packing is finished. The travel documents checked. The last minute washing is, at this very moment, swirling around in the machine. Even the house is clean. Sadly this is a necessity because friends are coming to house and dog sit. I don’t know what we would do without them but the very fact that they are taking over means that I have had to clear out cupboards, clean the oven, organize refrigerator and larder space for their supplies, and wash the dog bed and the dog!!! Actually the dog went to a pet grooming parlor where someone with a furminator (yes…that really is its name) removed enough loose hair to stuff a cushion, so he now looks a little less scruffy and smells a lot sweeter.
As well as reminding me why I don’t like housework, all this preparation has brought past journeys to mind. One of the most spectacular was a trip to India several years ago. We arrived between Christmas and the New Year and travelled for hours through the Punjab in a dense fog. If you have ever experienced Indian roads then you will know that this was a mixed blessing. While it slowed down our journey it did at least hide the worst excesses of Indian driving. Because we couldn’t see more than a car’s length in front of us we failed to be frightened by the cars travelling in the wrong direction, and the huge lorries without lights, until we were so far from Delhi that there was no going back.
It was worth it though because our journey took us to the Golden Temple in Amritsar. We visited it on New Year’s Day along with so many Indian Sikhs dressed in their best that the whole place was a swarming mass of exotic colour. It was a wonderful experience, something to cherish. We don’t follow the Sikh religion but that didn’t matter. Just being part of something that meant so much to so many people was enough. It made up for the crowds, which at times were so dense that we risked losing one another. It made up for not understanding the language, or what was happening in the temple itself. It made up for the inevitable tackiness outside, where market stalls were full of tourist tat.
We felt privileged to be part of something that is so important to the Sikhs in India. While we were there the weather was fine. Cool but sunny with blue skies. The picture here is more spectacular. It is also more fitting. It is what the Golden Temple at Amritsar is all about. A place of worship where pilgrims hope for miracles. A place where people go for answers. This picture hints at all of that, and more.
All I need to do now is to go in search of some more spectacular experiences as I journey across America. Grand Canyon, here I come!
A change of view
Over the past few months I’ve blogged about writing, about books, about food, and about a few other things that have either interested me or happened to me. It’s been fun and I’ve learned a lot. Now though, it’s time for a change.
Over the next couple of months I will be travelling around America and Canada. It’s a trip that will take me from The Smithsonian to Mickey Mouse as I journey from Washington to Las Vegas via San Diego, and then up to Vancouver where I will join a cruise ship and visit Alaska. Then it’s back to Orlando in Florida. My excuse is that it’s all about research. Not true of course. It’s just going to be one long, wonderful holiday with my husband where we will get to see and experience a lot of things including a helicopter flight down into the Grand Canyon, whale watching in Alaska and a trip to Butchart Gardens in Vancouver. The list is long and eclectic.
So my plan is to blog about it. Will I have time? I’m not sure but I am going to do my best because writing about each experience will be a wonderful way to capture each memory. Sharing them will be fun too. And when I return home I will have all those experiences to call on when I start to write another book. So if you are interested in the US and Canada then please keep visiting my blog. I will do my best to keep it interesting and I will try to share a few facts along the way.
Oh, and one more thing. I will carry on working on my present manuscript. After all there will be a lot of time to spare at all those airports and on all those flights. I won’t have to worry about the dusting either….as if!!!
Life’s a beach
Fellow writer Jayne Ormorod invited me for a beach chat on her ‘Life’s a beach’ blog. What a wonderful idea that was. It not only gave me a chance to talk to Jayne, it meant that I revisited old memories, thought about my life, and talked about my writing.
Please visit Jayne at www.jayneormerod.blogspot.com and listen in to our beach chat. Then, if you have the time, come back here and tell me your three favourite things. Tell me too which famous writer, alive or dead, you would most like to meet. All the questions are there on Jayne’s beach chat. You just have to think up the answers.
I have posted photos of some of my favourite things. They include Three Cliffs Bay in the Gower Peninsula in South Wales, a wood full of bluebells, preferably with a small child included, and a deserted beach at the end of a hot summer’s day. If you visit Jayne’s beach chat you will learn how often I am able to experience them and how lucky that makes me.
Which famous people would do it for you?
I heard a fantastic piece yesterday. It was all about a new fresco that is being created in Pisa. It will cover 500 square metres and will tell the story of the Patron Saint of Pisa, Saint Ranierus, who is the patron saint of Pisa and of travellers.He started his adult life as a minstrel but met a holy man on his travels and eventually gave up all his worldly goods and entered the monatery of San Vito in Pisa, where he became renowned for his work with the poor. The original fresco denoting the story of his life was destroyed by fire.This is the first fresco that will have been painted in more than 700 years but the artist, Luca Bettini, will be using the same techniques that were used in renaissance times. He will mix his dyes, glues and resins on a slate bench in the time honoured way of the old masters. He will also be calling on the tradition which demands that local people model the characters who will appear in the fresco. He has invited 100 prominent citizens to take part and there will also be 150 extras. Saint Ranierus himself will be modelled by a well known Italian actor who has appeared in pasta advertisements!
All this is very interesting, of course. And from a marketing and tourist viewpoint it is a gift because now Pisa will have something else as well as its leaning tower to attract visitors. 
I am more interested in the concept, however. If I wanted to paint a fresco in my own home town, who would I invite to model the figures, and what would the fresco be about?
I live in a small coastal town whose few historical claims to fame include a late Neolithic/early Bronze Age settlement around 4,000 years ago, and a Viking invasion. Apart from that there are a couple of Grade II listed buildings and it is thought to be the location of the first lifeboat station in the UK, established in 1776. We don’t have anything close to a patron saint.
It is an area of varied vegetation and wildlife though, with pine forests, sand dunes, deciduous woodland, ponds and lakes as well as a beach that stretches for miles. It is also home to a population of red squirrels and to the rare natterjack toad. So maybe there is something there but would it be enough to fill a 500 square metre fresco? I don’t know, but it’s an interesting thought. Could we use the sea as a backdrop and paint in a story of the people who have lived here over thousands of years?
Who are the people you would chose to model your own local story, and what would your fresco be about? I would love to hear your ideas.
Free download on Amazon
My latest book Cabin Fever is available as a free download from Amazon on 10 March. Books We Love who published it make sure that its author’s books regularly enjoy a free day in the kindle store. It’s a great way to market books because it helps to introduce readers to authors, and it encourages readers to try books they might not otherwise consider.
So if you would like to read Cabin Fever and you have an electronic reader, or a reading app on your phone or your computer, then try it. It will take you on a journey from Auckland in New Zealand down to Sydney in Australia. En route you will visit the New Zealand Alps and the Sounds (fjords) that have 245 days of rain a year. Torrential rain and swirling clouds that turn the ships into gloomy ghosts as they thread their way between the islands but which is responsible for their spellbinding beauty on the sunny days. There is a trip to Napier as well. This is a town that was razed to the ground by an earthquake in the 1930s and then completely rebuilt in the Art Deco style.
The book also takes the reader behind the scenes to share in the life of the professional entertainers who perform in the ship’s theatre every night. The evening show is the highlight of the cruise for many of the passengers, so download Cabin Fever and find out all about the laughter and the jealousy, the love and the heartbreak of the young men and women who provide this entertainment. Then find out what they do when love falls apart.
Available at http://t.co/cj9ehTD7
Publication day has arrived!
Well publication day has arrived for my latest book. Cabin Fever is now available in electronic format from Books We Love as well as from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Although it’s exciting, it’s also a bit sad because now that the manuscript is published it is time for me to say goodbye to the characters who have lived in my imagination for so long.
While I was making the final revisions I could ‘see’ the heroine, Ellie, singing on stage or walking along the deck towards Drew. He is the hero I have been following for so long. I could see the scenery as well but that was less surprising because I have taken the trip that is the background to the story. I actually suffered the stormy trip through the New Zealand Sounds, and I also enjoyed the wonderful meal up in the Alps. Many of the other backdrops are authentic too, but sadly not Ellie and Drew. How I would have loved to have met them. In later posts I will talk about the cruise, the food we ate and the music we listened to.
Do you relate to the characters in your books, whether you are reading about them or writing about them? I can’t write about anyone until I can see them quite clearly in my mind’s eye – that’s why I am thrilled with the cover as well. It was designed by Michelle Lee at Books We Love, and she has ‘got’ them exactly.
If you would like to read an excerpt then go to my ‘Look Inside’ link, or click on Amazon where you will also be able to read it.
Please let me know what you like about the book and about the characters? And if there is something you don’t like, then tell me about that too. I write for my readers so I am always ready to listen, and to learn.
I hope you will enjoy Cabin Fever and maybe you will fall just a little in love with the hero or the heroine yourself.
Take the ‘Grown-up’ test to discover your real age
I’ve spent all week proofing my latest book so I am fed up with looking at dialogue, adverbs, commas, semi-colons and repeat words. There is also a formatting problem that needs sorting out, not something that I need to know on a Friday afternoon. Even worse, I am not entirely sure that I have managed to avoid all the mistakes that I have been writing about over the past few weeks. So guess what? I am not going to write about them any more. Instead, next week I am just going to add some more links and leave you to choose which ones best suit your needs. That, of course, leaves me with a problem. What am I going to write about?
Well today I am going to write about my birthday. It was yesterday, and it was great. A leisurely breakfast, a long walk along a deserted beach in T-shirt weather under a blue, blue sky (March in the UK is not always like this!!), flowers, cards, a visit from family, and then another slow meal but this time with wine and my husband. What’s not to like?
Being one year older would normally be the downside to such a day, but not for me yesterday. You see I have spent an entire year thinking that I was already this old. So when I checked my dates and realized that I was going to enjoy another year being the same age, well it felt like a bonus. The fact that it was also proof that I had spent the entire year having a ‘senior moment’ doesn’t bother me at all. After all what could be better than forgetting things like how old I actually am. So, feeling confident, I have just taken the Saga ‘Grown Up Test.’ I come out at least 20 years younger than my real self…although I’m not about to share either of those ages on this blog!
Why don’t you take the test too. It’s fun, you don’t have to share the answers, and you mark it yourself. All that you have to prove is that you are a long way from the stereotypical age image that the media often portrays. On the other hand, if you’d like to share, I’d like to read about it.
If your teenage self could see you now she/he’d say….
Two things you do to conceal your age?
What music gets you on the dance floor?
Do you remember people’s names?
What’s in your handbag (or pockets)?
iPad or laptop?
Three things you can’t live without?
Exercise in the past ten years?
Something about you we’d never guess?
Good in a crisis?
Fortnum’s or Farmer’s Market?
Town or country?
Your epitaph?
Everyone is writing a book!
I saw this quote on a writer’s website and I love it.
Cicero was a Roman philosopher, a statesman and a lawyer. He was Roman Consul and a constitutionalist. He is widely considered to be one of Rome’s greatest orators, and yet he still had trouble with his kids!
Look at his face too. He could be someone we pass in the street. He could be a politician or an actor, or maybe even a relative. He looks contemporary. He also looks just a little bit stressed. Like people nowadays, he was a busy man, so maybe when he was writing his speeches and histories, or preparing his court cases, he was also shouting at his children to make less noise. And as for all those books…!
It all goes to show that there is nothing new under the sun. Times move on, fashions change, technology takes over, and we are so busy living our day to day lives that we forget that we are shadowed by the past. And yet the past is something that we should never forget because it carries a powerful message. It has lessons for everyone…they just need an up-to-date translation.
So the next time someone you know decries the changes that are happening all around us, or complains that the younger generation spend too much time on facebook, and twitter, or are wasting their time texting, remember Cicero. And when you are surrounded by people who pronounce that the world is going to hell in a handcart, remember Cicero. And when you meet someone who says that electronic readers and electronic books will close down publishing houses and kill literature, remember Cicero.
He thought times were bad too. His kids kept going off piste, and he was depressed by the fact that far too many of his fellow countrymen were writing books. So what did he do? Well after Julius Caesar’s death he championed a return to a traditional republican government. His reward? He was proscribed as an enemy of the state after his passionate speeches made him Mark Antony’s enemy, and he was killed in 43BC.
Of course he left behind a very influential body of work, and he has had a profound effect on history. His writings influenced the culture of the Renaissance and inspired the Founding Fathers of the United States, as well as the revolutionaries of the French Revolution. But there was another side to Cicero. At times he was overreactive in the face of political and private change, and he was known for his inconsistencies and his tendency to shift his position. Indeed one of his colleages said: Would that he had been able to endure prosperity with greater self control, and adversity with more fortitude.
So perhaps he should have shouted just a little less and embraced change just a little more…well that’s what I’m going to try to do anyway!