Liz Williams's Blog, page 51

CALIFORNIA SCREAMIN': Murder at Monterey Pop

I've just finished reading CALIFORNIA SCREAMIN', Patricia Morrison's second in her series of Rock and Roll murders, set in the 1960s music scene. I am greatly enjoying this series so far - these aren't cliched whodunnits, but an evocation of a time and a world which obviously had a massive impact on our lives now. I was 5 when the 60s ended, and flower power didn't impinge much on life in Gloucester, the west of England city where I grew up. But having been born in that decade, and having lived

Goddess mud wrestling competition

All I can say in the town's defence is that we have no television sets in Somerset and therefore must make our own fun. This brought to you by the local estate agents (the magnificent Mr Bending. Regular readers may recall the house that was advertised with its own flight of rooks).

The seated model with the corn crown is in one of our windows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzQhA_Q6EV4

Thursday

Life rolls onward, and is largely positive. We took Lily to dog training last night and as I have said on Facebook, I somehow assumed that our dog would be the problem dog. But no: Lily is basically so greedy that she will do anything for food and she follows me around at heel like a lamb, gazing upward, to cries of 'isn't she sweet,' and 'bless' from the dog trainers. I bought all the dogs a bone today: Lily's is the size of her head. There is a strange, unaccustomed silence from the hallway, i

I can haz wifelet now

The rumour mill launches into its summer action with the magnificent fiction that I am having an affair with Lord Bath. I would love this to be true, but alas, have never met this particular aristo, although Trevor knows him slightly. Maybe Trevor is having an affair with him instead?

Even I, long past the state of mere surprise, am impressed with the imaginative leap that takes me from driving to Bath every morning to teach at one of its universities, to being embroiled in a relationship with on

Go elsewhere, young woman

Following purplecthulhu's example, I have tried the UK citizenship test and failed, scoring under 50%. D, they will come for us together and we must barricade ourselves in a safe location to avoid immediate deportation. I suggest a pub.

Teaching, cats, books

Apart from a certain amount of Lammas chaos* (see witchcraft_shop), it's been a positive week, with some potentially very good news in the middle of it. My language teaching has gone well, with the Catalans and Russians returning home this weekend, and we will miss them: they've been great fun to teach and very motivated. All the magical practice course materials went out for August, and the students on this seem to be getting on well, too.

Sid came in last night with the feline equivalent of a

The witch of Wookey Hole

Our American TV presenter was pipped at the post by a local estate agent, who says, worryingly, that she regards cavern-dwelling witchcraft as one step up from being an estate agent.

Still, she was wearing one of our hats, so go that customer!

Also, kudos to the woman who brought her own raven.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/28/witch-recruitment-wookey-hole

I know it's cliched, but one might as well make the most of it.

Happy birthday!

...to fjm.

NBC

I am likely to be on the Today show on NBC at some point in the next 2 weeks - I think it's Friday, putting a spell on one Stephanie Gosk in order that she becomes the next witch of Wookey Hole.

Quite how she's going to break this to her employers if she gets the job, I don't know.

The film crew turned up unexpectedly this afternoon, so with the aid of some saltpetre and a lot of candles, the boys came up trumps and I did the in front of camera bit.

Weekend

A rather rare post, I'm afraid - teaching is obviously taking up a lot of time, but is going well.

We took a day off today and went down to the Blue Ball in the Quantocks for lunch, then a long walk along Kilve head in the rain, with Lily. It is the first time Lily has seen the sea. It is big and wet and rather scary if you are a little pup. But she coped! The cliff walk was lovely: lined with sea buckthorn and bergamot.

Tonight's agenda has included: roast lamb, miso soup (for the week), chicke