L.L. Diamond's Blog, page 17

Norwich Castle

I finally did something touristy! Not a major trip or thing, but I tagged along on a trip to the Norwich Castle recently. I’ve been to the Cathedral (which is spectacular if you’ve never been) for Evensong during the Christmas season, but we just went for the morning and missed out on the castle.

The Norwich Castle is a 900 year old Norman castle originally started as a fortification according to our tour guide, but later the plans changed and it became a Royal Palace. Norwich Castle, today, is still the original structure, but instead of being just the castle, like most of the castles I’ve seen here, it is more a museum and art gallery.

When you enter the castle the centre-most portion is a cafe and stairwell. On the upper floor, there are exhibits for the Romans and Vikings, an exhibit honouring the Norfolk military, and the castle keep (the original part of the castle built). On the lower floor, there is a national history exhibit, an exhibit of Norfolk artists (including a Gainsborough!) and the Iceni and Boudica. I know I’ve left out bits and pieces, but we weren’t there for the entire day, so I did miss bits.

Also don’t forget to make it down to the dungeons for that portion of the exhibit as well. We had a guided tour of the castle keep, which added a lot to the experience as well. I understand there are also tours of the dungeons as well.

The castle is not huge and can be toured in a day without rushing. There’s a lot of variety and a good number of artefacts to enjoy and study. There’s so much in Norwich and a mall nearby the castle to enjoy when you are done with the castle. Definitely a fun day out!

 

Next up… Flatford! I know! I got out more than once!

Particular Intentions is an Audio Book!

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e-book Cover

By now, some of you have heard this for about a week now, but I’m really excited about having an audio book for those who love to listen to their favourite stories. I initially put my book up and hoped someone would want to narrate it, but most narrators prefer shorter books. Fortunately, Leena took a chance on this one!

I will say that it’s a bit strange listening to something I’ve written practically being acted out like an old-fashioned radio program (without the sound effects of course), but my house was extremely clean while I was listening through them all! I couldn’t write or distract myself on the computer so cleaning was how I occupied myself. I’m surprised my husband hasn’t asked me to have another book done!

Leena is also so great. I don’t know how she came up with so many different inflections for each character. It was definitely a fun experience and I hope I’ll be able to do it again!

If you’ve never read Particular Intentions, I’ll provide the blurb and everything just below as well as a link to Amazon where you can listen to a sample of Leena’s amazing work.

 

Who is this Mr. Darcy and what are his intentions?

Like much of Meryton, the Bennets of Longbourn anticipate the arrival of Mr. Bingley and his friends to Netherfield, yet an unexpected visitor is not a part of Mr. Bingley’s or Mr. Darcy’s plans. While the two gentlemen attempt to control their uninvited guest, Elizabeth Bennet arrives to tend to her ill sister. An overheard conversation, the intriguing behavior of Mr. Darcy, and Miss Bingley’s cloying manner all fascinate her, but manage to throw her emotions into turmoil as well. As Elizabeth becomes better acquainted with Mr. Darcy, his world unfolds and, if possible, it is more complicated than the man himself! Mysterious strangers and seducers lurk in the shadows – enough to threaten anyone’s equanimity. Elizabeth’s courage will be tested as she not only struggles to discover her own heart, but also why danger seems to surround Mr. Darcy.

 

Now! I have a free Audible copy of Particular Intentions to give away! Just leave me a comment on this blog post, and I’ll enter you into the draw! It’s that simple! 

 

Link to Amazon for the Audible audio sample.

Eindhoven

Once we had our fill of Ghent, we drove the remaining way to Eindhoven, which is normally another 90 minutes or so, but took a bit longer due to some crazy traffic in Antwerp. We had a hotel just on the edge of the town centre, which was good and bad. Good because we weren’t in the heart of Carnival (I know someone whose hotel room window was by the deejay booth) but we still had a bit of the crowd and noise.

So, if you’re interested in a nice quiet weekend in Eindhoven, don’t go during Carnival! Carnival is a Catholic tradition there and celebrates the last week before the fasting of Lent, much like Mardi Gras and other carnivals around the world. It’s a lot of crazy costumes, dancing and alcohol. People get loud, drunk, and they party hard!

We settled in and decided to wander around a bit and find a place to eat–always a bit of a chore in a different country. We walked around the town centre, which is a lot of shopping, restaurants, bars, and a pretty church before we did an internet search for a gluten-free restaurant. The site we used first wasn’t very helpful and most restaurants didn’t have options for us. Eventually, we tried a place called Vintage, which could make anything on their menu to suit us.

I must say with language barriers and such, I was a little nervous and I probably over-asked several questions, but the server we had was very nice about it.

After our meal, we walked back towards the hotel and had a good time watching everyone dressed in their craziest get-ups for the celebrations. Tents with loud music, alcohol, and crowds cropped up throughout the area.

Our second day was spent mostly at the National Swim Centre, which is an amazing place if you’re into swimming and pools. It’s a beautiful facility and was fascinating to wander around when we weren’t busy.

After our busy day, we were certainly hungry, so we drove back to the hotel. I messed up a bit and I’m still waiting for someone to mail a ticket to my house since then! I missed the little side path for the car and ended up in a bus lane then I got stuck behind someone making a left turn, which made me run a red light. Hopefully, there were no cameras!

That evening, we wandered through the now filthy streets in the town centre to find another restaurant. Our problem this time wasn’t finding a place that was gluten-free so much as finding a restaurant that had room. All of them were packed!

Finally, a really nice gentleman at Ilios found us a table. I love Greek food and this place didn’t disappoint. The manager/owner spoke very good English and was so nice, even apologising for the slower service when the small restaurant was packed to the gills! The service, in my opinion, hadn’t suffered at all.

Once we’d eaten, we wandered around the streets a bit, but people were rowdier and the streets were truly gross with beer bottles and garbage, so we headed back to the hotel to sleep.

The next day we woke to our last day in Eindhoven, we swam, and we made our return trip to the Eurotunnel in Calais. The trip back was without any traffic and the weather was decent. We made it to the Chunnel about an hour and forty minutes early for our scheduled train. We were offered an earlier train, made it through customs, and when we were through, it said that our train was preparing to board, so we drove through the maze and onto the train. We didn’t discover until after we were packed in like sardines that it was the train before ours. I suppose they have plans in place for that because we had no issues and we paid nothing extra. We just ended up back in the UK 30 minutes before we were supposed to. I wasn’t upset about that at all!

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Just for laughs, me swimming. Not a pretty pic!

 

On the Road to Eindhoven!

Off for another sports event! This time was to Eindhoven, Netherlands!

This time I drove and boarded the Eurotunnel (Chunnel) in my own car, which was a new experience in itself, so I’ll tell you about that too.

Horniman and the Robot Zoo

We were looking for something for the kids a few weeks ago and I found this exhibit at the Horniman Museum for their Robot Zoo. Deciding to make a day of it, we decided to take the train since the tube ride was considerably shorter from the train station than the outermost tube station and the train is faster into London.

We made a late start and had a bit of fun navigating other trains to get to London since we missed the direct service, but we made it in and took the over 40 minute tube and London Overground ride to Forest Hill. It’s a neat part of town. A suburb really of London and was a fun one mile walk uphill to the museum. Now, there’s much more to the museum than just this Robot Zoo, but due to time and weather this time of year, we didn’t do everything the Horniman had to offer.

My children wanted to see the Robot Zoo and the Aquarium, so we paid for the two together as the rest of the museum is free. The Robot Zoo is downstairs and really in one large room. There were several animal “Robots” set up around the room, built to show and kind of explain different physiological features if you read the bits that go along with each. For example, Giraffe’s have a series of valves in their neck to prevent them from passing out from blood loss from raising and lowering their head, so the robot version had a series of valves as well. There were also other activities that went along with each animal featured.

The robots were colourful, imaginative, and interesting. I will say my youngest, at 9, is probably on the line to being too old for this exhibit. Most of the children there were quite young. It’s really geared towards younger children and while my 11-year-old did seem to enjoy herself, but said she would’ve preferred to stay at home with my eldest.

We then ventured down another level to the Aquarium. My children enjoyed the poison dart frogs, but the exhibition is actually rather small and I found it disappointing. It didn’t take long to wend our way through the tanks and make our way back upstairs.

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London Skyline

We walked through a portion of the natural history museum, but my children were beginning to complain of hunger and how they wanted to leave, so after a quick walk through a small part of the gardens (which has a great view of the London skyline, by the way!) we called it a day. We took the Overground and the tube to Borough Market and ate at a seafood restaurant right in the shadow of a neat old church, walked about Southwark, crossed Millennium Bridge, and from St. Paul’s walked to the tube to return to the train station.

 

After a quick trip to Platform 9 3/4 and a Hotel Chocolate store, we took the train back home!

The Robot Zoo runs at the Horniman through 29 October 2017.

 

 

The Chunnel to Brussels

Now, most people would travel to Brussels and stay a few days so they can see all the town has to offer, but when you’re travelling with a band of teenagers for a sports competition, that doesn’t happen. Despite this trip being a very short one, there were a number of firsts for me. This was the first time I travelled by any mode of transportation across the channel, or under in this case, and into Europe as well as my first time in France and Belgium; not that I saw much of France but a bit of Calais and the motorway.

Part 2: How Well Do You Know Your Jane Austen?

 

The answers for Part 1 are up at Austen Variations, so don’t forget to check yourself there too!

 

 

Ready? Let’s see how you did!

 

 

What movie and what was the house’s name in that adaptation?

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Norland Park, Sense and Sensibility (with Emma Thompson)

 

 

 

 

2. This could be in more than one adaptation, so tell me the book and the location.

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The Cobb, Lyme Regis (These steps are called “Granny’s teeth.”

 

 

3. This one is easy peasy! What’s the name of the fictional house and which adaptation?

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Pemberley, Pride and Prejudice 2005 (Otherwise known as Chatsworth)

 

 

4. Hint: If you name the book/movie, you name the place!

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Northanger Abbey

 

 

 

 

5.  Whose house is this and what movie?

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Mr. Knightley, Emma (Gwyneth Paltrow version)

 

 

 

 

6. Where was this folly and what important scene happened here?

 

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The folly was at Rosings in the 2005 P&P, Darcy’s failed proposal took place here.

(The folly is at Stourhead in Wiltshire in real life

Answers to Who Said It?

Thanks to everyone who submitted their best guesses on this scavenger hunt post!

 

Congrats to Pam Hunter, who won the giveaway!

 

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. Henry Tilney (Northanger Abbey)

 

One shoulder of mutton, you know, drives another down. – Mrs. Jennings (Sense and Sensibility)

 

In essentials, I believe, he is much as he ever was – Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice)

 

“My dear Alicia, of what a mistake were you guilty in marrying a man of his age! Just old enough to be formal, ungovernable, and to have the gout; too old to be agreeable, too young to die.” – Lady Susan (Lady Susan)

 

“So you and I are to be left to shift by ourselves, with this poor sick child; and not a creature coming near us all the evening! – Mary Musgrove (Persuasion)

 

I do not know whether it ought to be so, but certainly silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way. Emma Woodhouse (Emma)

 

“A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. Mary Crawford (Mansfield Park)

 

“One is never able to complete anything in the way of business, you know, till the carriage is at the door.” Mr. Parker (Sanditon)

 

“What he told me was merely this: that he congratulated himself on having lately saved a friend from the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage, but without mentioning names or any other particulars, and I only suspected it to be Bingley from believing him the kind of young man to get into a scrape of that sort, and from knowing them to have been together the whole of last summer.” Col Fitzwilliam (Pride and Prejudice)

 

“The one claim I shall make for my own sex is that we love longest, when all hope is gone.” – Anne Elliot (Persuasion)

Part 2: How Well Do You Know Your Jane Austen?

If you haven’t taken the quiz at Austen Variations for Abigail Reynolds’ giveaway, then don’t forget to stop over there and follow the instructions there before you call it a day!

If you’ve come over from Austen Variations, then this is the quiz of locations from Austen movie adaptations! How well do you know your Austen? We’ve tested your knowledge of places from her life, now, to test your movie knowledge! For this giveaway, we have a signed copy of one of my books, this calendar of National Trust properties, two Jane Austen book postcards, and a pack of Austen Variations notecards.

 

 

Don’t forget to send your answers to ldiamond531@yahoo.com when you have them done to enter the draw!

 

 

Ready? Let’s get to it!

 

 

What movie and what was the house’s name in that adaptation?

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2. This could be in more than one adaptation, so tell me the book and the location.

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3. This one is easy peasy! What’s the name of the fictional house and which adaptation?

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4. Hint: If you name the book/movie, you name the place!

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5.  Whose house is this and what movie?

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6. Where was this folly and what important scene happened here?

 

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7. This room has been in two of Jane Austen’s books as well as the movies. Which ones?

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8. What fictional house is this and who walked there?

 

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9.  Which heroine grew up in this house? What is its name?

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and the last one!!!

 

10. Which great fictional house is this and what movie does it come from?

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Alrighty! Get those answers in to me at ldiamond531@yahoo.com for a chance at the giveaway!

And, if you haven’t taken the quiz for Abigail’s giveaway, do that here!

 

 

 

 

Photo credits:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Irland_2010.08.18_026.jpg by Ingo Mehling

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ClaydonHouseSWAnsicht.jpg by mym

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pump_Room_Bath_02.jpg  Immanuel Giel

Jane in January: Who Said It? Part 2

So you’ve answered the first set of questions and now you are seeking the last set! (If you’ve happened upon this post first, then backtrack to Austen Variations for part one of the Scavenger Hunt! Once you’ve got these down, email them to me at ldiamond531@yahoo.com, and if you have them all correct, I will enter you in the drawing. If you can tell me which book the quote comes from, I will count it as bonus if you miss one of the others