This being a film festival, before we started we had a little speech from the director, who told us that the star was present, and would be doing a Q+A afterwards. The film is a bit over an hour long, and is a documentary about a chap called Garnet, who, approaching 60, wants to do something with his life. So he follows up on something that happened to him 20 years ago, when he was hiking in the Highlands, got lost and nearly died - but he did find a mysterious staff, wedged into a cleft in a rock by a stream. He kept the staff, and over the years developed the theory that it marked the spot of buried treasure - specifically, the hoard brought for Bonnie Prince Charlie's campaign, and hidden on the shores of nearby Loch Arkaig - as by the time it arrived, he'd already been defeated at Culloden.
It's an absolutely beautiful film, and I highly recommend it if you get the chance to see it. The cinematography is wonderful, and the Highlands have never looked more beautiful - or, when a storm blows in, more menacing. But it's also a tender and intimate portrait of one man and his dream. With an early start the next day, I didn't stay for the Q+A - but as I was leaving, I caught sight of him entering, looking nervous. Really sweet, the whole thing - and I think I spotted some other people in the audience who'd featured in the film.
I'm glad I caught the end of this festival. Looking at the awards round-up, I see that two of the horror shorts I saw on Friday won awards: Best Horror Short for The Herd (can't fault that, it was very disturbing), and Best Short Short for Killer Road (well deserved, it was really witty). On my way home, I tried to enter the Tube station by the way I'd come out, but it was closed; continuing determinedly, I spied something interesting at the other end of a hotel entranceway:
Turned out to be a section of the old London Wall (part Roman, part medieval construction) that the hotel paid for the conservation of. It was also a detour I didn't have time for, but I did waste some happy minutes reading the history, and taking the walkway through an arch in the wall. An intriguing find!
As I say, I had an early start the next morning (yesterday). So, no blogging on Saturday night. Although I didn't exactly get to bed early - Microsoft did its usual thing of not working, and in trying to fix it, I stupidly followed their advice and proceeded to mess up my temporary internet files. Again. There's a moral there. So I was a bit groggy when the alarm went yesterday morning.
I skipped breakfast, taking some KitKat Chunkys with me instead. Well, whatcha gonna do.. so, this was a trip to Salisbury and Stonehenge, courtesy of the London International Meetup - whom I'd never done anything with before - and we had to meet at Waterloo for 8.45. On the way, I came across two main groups of people. First, those dressed in sports gear, carrying sports bottles and looking determined. (The London Marathon was on yesterday.) Second, those dressed casually, carrying cases and looking depressed. Really depressed. Well, I suppose you would be, travelling so early on a Sunday!
I think I got to Waterloo about five minutes early. Directions were to look for our organiser, Mark, under the big clock, where he'd be wearing an orange scarf - and he did indeed prove easy to find. However, we found ourselves waiting a while for the others. Three more showed up - and Helen would be meeting us down the line, closer to where she lives. But we were expecting several more! Eventually, he started trying to chase them down - some hadn't given him their phone number, although he'd asked, and one had already cancelled. He rang another, whom I believe he woke up, and who obviously wasn't coming now. The others were just no-shows.
Out of 13 who booked, eight didn't come in the end. This was generally ok, and Mark was philosophical about it - the train tickets were bought at the last minute anyway, after he knew who was there, and I think the same was true of the cathedral tickets. He cancelled one of the taxis he'd booked to take us from Salisbury to Stonehenge. All ok. Unfortunately, he'd also had to book Stonehenge tickets in advance, which are, of course, non-refundable: so I think it was bad form of people just to leave him hanging like that. It doesn't take long to let someone know you're not coming, after all..
Anyway, with our reduced numbers, we had no problem getting seats on the train, which was waiting on the platform. Unfortunately, one of our group had decided he wanted a bottle of water - when Mark came back from getting the tickets, this fellow was missing, and when he wasn't back after a certain time, Mark went in hot pursuit. And wouldn't let him buy the water he was holding, but made him come straight back. I'll say this for him - he's good at shepherding his charges!
On the train, we got two adjacent tables, and had them to ourselves apart from one other guy, who sat in the corner. I had occasion to go to the toilet soon after we left, which wasn't a pleasant experience - this was not one of the more modern train toilets, and was both cramped and wet. Meantime, Helen was sending news down the line that there was a problem at Andover, and train delays. It turned out to be lucky, both that we weren't travelling any earlier - or we'd have been delayed - and that we weren't passing Salisbury, because that's where our train chose to break down. :-) Hey, we were blessed.
Mark was a fount of information, which he freely imparted for the whole journey. He had guidebooks, flyers, an itinerary of events for Salisbury, which was celebrating a belated St. George's Day. We were to go to the parade, then had a choice - all, or part, of a guided tour, or a variety of other things. There were mock battles, a trial of St. George vs. the dragon, and of course the cathedral and its Magna Carta exhibition, in this, the 800th year since it was drafted.
When we arrived, he set a blistering pace into town so we'd catch the start of the parade. Which we did! It was a small affair, just stiltwalkers, kids on unicycles (and one on a pogo stick), and the town dignitaries. The parade proceeded from the Guildhall, round the building, and back to the entrance from the other side - and took 10 minutes. Cute!
What with me, Mark, and Helen, we took a substantial number of photos of the day. Plenty are available on the Meetup page for the event, linked to at the top of this post. Mine and Helen's are also on Facebook:
Mine: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10206911830338559.1073741877.1361836980&type=1&l=c43733ea94
Helen's: St. George & Dragon: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153283048362433.1073741954.762887432&type=1&l=cb58153e0e
Salisbury: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153283039957433.1073741953.762887432&type=1&l=02c8ba350c
Salisbury Cathedral: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153283030867433.1073741952.762887432&type=1&l=0926ffb1bf
Stonehenge: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153283067472433.1073741955.762887432&type=1&l=c6859a3564
A couple of areas in the square were roped off for events. Directly in front of the Guildhall, the parade was immediately followed by some Morris dancing. When that finished, we headed into the Guildhall for a cream tea (or squash, and there was also tiffin). This was held in the banqueting hall, filled with royal paintings, with a ceiling decorated with chandeliers. Apparently it's available for hire. And apparently, haunted by three ghosts, although they didn't bother with us.
Afterwards, the others headed on a guided tour, while Helen and I watched a mock battle (no dragons involved) and then had a wander through the town, returning to the Guildhall for 1pm for the trial of St. George vs. the dragon. This was held in an old courtroom, and turned out to be a hilarious affair, with the poor dragon looking far too cute to be guilty of anything. A packed courtroom was encouraged in a singsong, and a highlight of the proceedings was when the jester (acting for the defence) threatened to sing himself if the crowd didn't, and the dragon at that precise moment fell off his perch! Much hilarity ensued. Oh, and you'll be delighted to hear that the dragon got off.
As we passed through town, we came upon St. Thomas' Church, which Mark encouraged us to enter. We were not prepared for the wonders within - it's crammed with medieval wall paintings, and must be quite unique. Medieval-lovers, take note. This is special, and I don't doubt it's often overlooked, what with the cathedral just down the road.
We headed to the cathedral after that, and to the Magna Carta exhibition. The entrance to it includes a couple of video installations, one about human rights in general, the other more historical. Magna Carta itself is lodged in the Chapterhouse, in a covered marquee for protection, with various displays dotted about - and is fascinating to anyone with an interest in history. And the cathedral is stunning.
Afterwards, we all joined up outside the cathedral for our taxi to Stonehenge. It was a people carrier, room for us all, and we drove quite a distance - I overheard someone remark that public transport there is spotty. Given the cost of a taxi, as well as train fares, and entry fees to the cathedral / Magna Carta and Stonehenge, what we paid for the trip was very good value! And the scenery the whole way there was highlighted in yellow by fields of rapeseed.
Stonehenge has quite a comprehensive and modern visitor centre, and we busied ourselves in the gift shop while Mark picked up our tickets and audio guides. You can download the audio guide to your smartphone, which they encourage - but I didn't have headphones, so I went with the one you can pick up at the ticket office, as did a couple more. The trip starts with a 360-degree video presentation, which you stand in the middle of, and which gives you a flavour of the site, from the perspective of standing in the middle of the stone circle. Most atmospheric. Past that is a more conventional exhibition, with displays in glass cases, and info panels - another video at the end shows the evolution of the different parts of the site. Out the back door is a small display of Neolithic houses, which we left for later, instead heading straight for the shuttle buses up to the stones.
..and then we found ourselves getting off halfway (just our group). Mark's idea. There's a stopping point you can walk from, called Fargo's Wood - just ask the driver. O my poor feet! But it was worth it, for the walk over the hillside, with a good view of the stones in the distance - maybe not so much on a windy day, mind, in such an exposed landscape. When you get to the site, follow the numbers on the signs, which take you around to the left and correspond to sections of the audio guide, explaining the nature and history of what you're seeing.
They're imposing, brooding things, these stones - you can't get in amongst them, lest the site be damaged, what with all the people that want to see them. Instead, the marked path follows a circle around them, coming back to the start, from where we took the shuttle bus back to the visitor centre, had a mooch around the Neolithic village, tried our luck at pulling the sample stone they have there (not much success), and waited for our prebooked taxi out again. Well happy with ourselves, sated with history, and fairly exhausted.
Finally, we were promised food! The taxi took us to the Old Mill, just south of Salisbury. It's a pub/hotel/restaurant, in a tranquil setting (as described on the website) and in a fabulous old building. It was just a bit chilly to sit in the beer garden, and after we'd photographed the family of ducks in the mill pond, we nabbed a couple of tables in the bar, and after ordering at the bar, were shortly served by a friendly chap who insisted on calling all the ladies "My lovely". Which wasn't at all objectionable. Our food was well received in general, with my gammon steak being literally the finest I've ever had. I didn't much feel like dessert, but I would recommend this place to anyone in the area. Maybe not the Pinot Grigio, though - it was a bit insipid.
Afterwards, we made our way back past the water meadows, with sheep chasing swans on one side and iconic views of the cathedral on the other, on a gorgeous evening when the sun had finally decided to appear. A relaxed stroll took us back to the station, where we had a little wait before the train obligingly arrived - 10 minutes early - just to give us a seat! And we drowsily travelled back to town - except I could have done with more room to stretch my legs, which really needed some R&R. I would've disembarked in Clapham Junction and taken the Overground, but thought at the last minute to check the TFL website, and sure enough, it was closed yesterday for planned engineering works. So I continued to Waterloo with the others (sans Helen, who got off at the same place she'd got on, in the morning).
It's quite a while since I packed so much into one day, and what a fascinating day it was! Mark proved an accomplished and enthusiastic organiser - I couldn't have done better myself! ;-) And very good value, with delightful company. I'd be delighted to go on another of his trips - we'll see what comes up, for me and for him. In the meantime, I checked to see what was on tonight, and came up again with one of those Meetup theatre groups as the most interesting thing happening (Mark runs theatre trips too, but they're surprise shows, and frankly, I go to so many that odds are I'd have seen it already, so I don't go on those). Nope, this was with one of those groups that charge a membership fee - so, naturally, I booked my own ticket and will go on my own. (Theatre seems to be becoming a feature of Mondays!) Annoyingly, although they give the show name, they don't mention the theatre, so I had to Google it - and so it transpires that I'm headed to Everyman, in the National, tonight, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. They had only three tickets left - in the stalls, which is nice for a change - two at £35 and one at £25. So I took that one.
I might be headed to Guildford tomorrow - not sure yet - if so I won't go out tomorrow night, I'll be too tired. On Wednesday, though, I'm headed to another Meetup - my first with the World Music Meetup, who are headed to a Gypsy Jazz / World Music Jam at the Vortex Jazz Bar. Hmm!
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