nineveh_uk (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nineveh_uk) wrote2016-12-04 06:54 pm
nineveh_uk) wrote2016-12-04 06:54 pm
Down by the Valley Gardens
I am back from a long weekend in Harrogate with my sisters in celebration of the fact that I have a significant birthday approaching.* I am feeling surprisingly less tired than I might have expected, probably helped by the fact that despite the time of year the trains were civilised so the journeys weren't tiring, even if last minute ticket purchase when I decided that driving wasn't a good idea made them expensive. There is something to be said for enforced sitting down and reading. Middle Sister had donated her work-flights-earned Air Miles to the cause so we had a very nice hotel and I had a bath this morning just because it was there. There was some delicious food, entertaining theatre, and large amounts of nostalgia.
Yesterday involved a walk to Harlow Carr, which we didn't actually go into because this is not really the time of year for a rather expensive garden, but spent much time in its excellent bookshop. My sisters bought various Christmas presents, I bought some lavender-flavoured white chocolate. We took it in terms to comment on the qualities of various cornus in the absence of our mother. Alas, we didn't eat at Betty's because it isn't the time of year you can do that without booking or lots of time, but I had a sausage roll and curd tart, and purchased biscuits of gratitude for a couple of colleagues who have been particularly helpful with big stressful project.**
The main event of the weekend was West Yorkshire Playhouse's production of Strictly Ballroom, which had opened on Wednesday and was enormous fun. Bring on the sequins! On the way back to the station we observed that the long-awaited John Lewis has finally arrived. Honestly, we'd been promised the bloody thing for decades, and then it turns up after my parents leave. The building is genuinely impressive, though; we even admired the car park. It looks like origami done in stone, and yet is strangely in keeping with the buildings around it. Also noted on the way to and from the theatre was the extraordinary extent to which the people of Leeds have embraced the Christmas jumper.
*According to my student self by this point in life I am supposed to have re-read Ulysses and have published a novel. I have decided that the former was a whim, not an obligation, and the second delayed by circumstances beyond my control.
**Technically they were just doing their jobs, but with an unfailing good humour and helpfulness that meant that at least I didn't also have to stress about the photocopying because I could fling it in someone's direction with ten minutes to spare. Material acknowledgement feels warranted.
Yesterday involved a walk to Harlow Carr, which we didn't actually go into because this is not really the time of year for a rather expensive garden, but spent much time in its excellent bookshop. My sisters bought various Christmas presents, I bought some lavender-flavoured white chocolate. We took it in terms to comment on the qualities of various cornus in the absence of our mother. Alas, we didn't eat at Betty's because it isn't the time of year you can do that without booking or lots of time, but I had a sausage roll and curd tart, and purchased biscuits of gratitude for a couple of colleagues who have been particularly helpful with big stressful project.**
The main event of the weekend was West Yorkshire Playhouse's production of Strictly Ballroom, which had opened on Wednesday and was enormous fun. Bring on the sequins! On the way back to the station we observed that the long-awaited John Lewis has finally arrived. Honestly, we'd been promised the bloody thing for decades, and then it turns up after my parents leave. The building is genuinely impressive, though; we even admired the car park. It looks like origami done in stone, and yet is strangely in keeping with the buildings around it. Also noted on the way to and from the theatre was the extraordinary extent to which the people of Leeds have embraced the Christmas jumper.
*According to my student self by this point in life I am supposed to have re-read Ulysses and have published a novel. I have decided that the former was a whim, not an obligation, and the second delayed by circumstances beyond my control.
**Technically they were just doing their jobs, but with an unfailing good humour and helpfulness that meant that at least I didn't also have to stress about the photocopying because I could fling it in someone's direction with ten minutes to spare. Material acknowledgement feels warranted.
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And I think that showing appreciation for people doing their jobs in a good-humoured and helpful way is definitely a good thing to do now and again.
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When I was a student I thought publishing a book of poems was terribly important, but a few years later I'd realised that publishing a book a poems that anyone might actually want to read was much, much more important, yet virtually impossible to do, so when I did, aetat. 34, it wasn't much of event, all told. Novels are different though because people do legit. want to read novels.
Anyway, happy approaching birthday!
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If you happen to be, and find yourself at a loose end, I'll be around between the 23rd and the 29th.
It always amuses me to think of people visiting my old home town in order to have fun! But I suspect that's the best way to get fun out of it. That and reading the bulletins of the Harrogate Civic Society - cast iron lamp posts! Inappropriate signage! Paiting of stone walls! - never fails to put my own problems in perspective.
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It'll be interesting to see if the centre of gravity of Leeds's shops is pulled towards John Lewis now. One of the entrances gives out directly on the market, so with luck people will pop in there for a bargain after spending lots of money in the posh shops in the arcade around the JL and keep it going... (the posh shop that tempts me most is a tea emporium - I have to keep a grip on myself like in bookshops- "no! I've already got lots of things I haven't read/drunk yet!").
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The impact of JL on Leeds will be really interesting. That end of town's been developing for some time, and part of me is fond of it as architecturally it is a lot nicer than e.g. Albion Street. It would be nice if it did benefit the market.
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We had a great time, but I suspect that not living in Harrogate might be the best way to enjoy it! We were waxing lyrical about how lovely it was, how much we'd like to live there, and then fading into "But maybe actually it might get a bit small". I can definitely believe that the Harrogate Civic Society are thoroughly invested in lamp posts and the like...
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They are *really* invested in lamp posts. There was a big campaign about getting exactly the right kind around the Town Hall. Too bad the Town Hall is about to move to the outskirts... They also care a great deal about stamping hard on businesses with large signs, and exhibit restrained but unholy glee when they have foiled their plans.
What really terrifies me about the Civic Society is that they seem to have assimilated people I knew when I lived in Harrogate, who were to all outward appearances normal...