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Jinxing Ann's jaunts
May. 9th, 2010 05:22 pmAs you know, Bob, the impetus behind our trip to Brittany last autumn was that our friend and client Ann Cleeves was booked to appear at a crime fiction festival in Saint Malo. The festival was cancelled, so Ann didn't get her trip to Saint Malo, but by then we were hooked on the idea, so we went to Brittany anyway, and had a great time.
When Ann told us that she was planning to celebrate the completion of her Shetland Quartet with a party on Fair Isle, where her love affair with Shetland began, and where the fourth book of the quartet takes place,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
durham_rambler and I put our names down straight away. We love the Northern Isles, but had never been to Fair Isle: what better introduction could there be?
Whatever patterns I may claim to see in events, I am not actually superstitious: which is just as well, because if I were, I might be wondering whether there's a jinx at work here.
Setting aside the heroic feats of organisation required for any excursion, let alone one which brings people from all over the UK (and potentially beyond, although when it came down to it the Scandinavian contingent failed to materialise), the first major hitch was accommodation. Ann's plan had been to take over the newly refurbished Bird Observatory for the week before it opened for the season. But at the last minute it became clear that the builders were something like a month behind schedule* and there was no way the Obs. would be available. This could have been a disaster, but was in fact cue for more of those heroic feats of organisation, and everyone has been found somewhere to stay, whether in thoe B & Bs not already full of the builders from the Obs or in people's homes (this on an island with a population of about 70).
durham_rambler and I are staying at the South Light, in B & B in what was the accommodation block for the lighthouse keepers. We're very comfortable and well looked after, so although it would have been fun to be a house party all together at the Obs, we're rather enjoying living at the lighthouse (if anyone's reading along at home, the South Light is the one on the cover of Blue Lightning, though the murders take place at the North Light - which is not the real-life location of the Obs).
No sooner was that sorted, and everyone allocated their accomodation, than a fresh cloud of volcanic dust blew in, airports closed, and travel plans had to be revised. At a get-together at the Hall last night for visitors and hosts, I was hearing dramatic accounts of having to hold the Good Shepherd which travellers made last-minute dashes down to Sumburgh. But in the end only one person was actually unable to travel. The rest of use enjoyed Dave Wheeler's show of his photographs of Fair Isle in the '70s, when Ann was first here (though she had somehow escaped being photographed).
And any minute now we're going out to the big party, full of gratitude to the people who have worked so hard and against such difficulties to allow us to come here and have such a great time!
*This is not entirely their fault - but I'll come back to that some other time.
When Ann told us that she was planning to celebrate the completion of her Shetland Quartet with a party on Fair Isle, where her love affair with Shetland began, and where the fourth book of the quartet takes place,
durham_rambler and I put our names down straight away. We love the Northern Isles, but had never been to Fair Isle: what better introduction could there be? Whatever patterns I may claim to see in events, I am not actually superstitious: which is just as well, because if I were, I might be wondering whether there's a jinx at work here.
Setting aside the heroic feats of organisation required for any excursion, let alone one which brings people from all over the UK (and potentially beyond, although when it came down to it the Scandinavian contingent failed to materialise), the first major hitch was accommodation. Ann's plan had been to take over the newly refurbished Bird Observatory for the week before it opened for the season. But at the last minute it became clear that the builders were something like a month behind schedule* and there was no way the Obs. would be available. This could have been a disaster, but was in fact cue for more of those heroic feats of organisation, and everyone has been found somewhere to stay, whether in thoe B & Bs not already full of the builders from the Obs or in people's homes (this on an island with a population of about 70).
durham_rambler and I are staying at the South Light, in B & B in what was the accommodation block for the lighthouse keepers. We're very comfortable and well looked after, so although it would have been fun to be a house party all together at the Obs, we're rather enjoying living at the lighthouse (if anyone's reading along at home, the South Light is the one on the cover of Blue Lightning, though the murders take place at the North Light - which is not the real-life location of the Obs).No sooner was that sorted, and everyone allocated their accomodation, than a fresh cloud of volcanic dust blew in, airports closed, and travel plans had to be revised. At a get-together at the Hall last night for visitors and hosts, I was hearing dramatic accounts of having to hold the Good Shepherd which travellers made last-minute dashes down to Sumburgh. But in the end only one person was actually unable to travel. The rest of use enjoyed Dave Wheeler's show of his photographs of Fair Isle in the '70s, when Ann was first here (though she had somehow escaped being photographed).
And any minute now we're going out to the big party, full of gratitude to the people who have worked so hard and against such difficulties to allow us to come here and have such a great time!
*This is not entirely their fault - but I'll come back to that some other time.
