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Last week, Matthew and I went to see Ryan Coogler’s Sinners at the cinema. I’d heard good things through social media and the press that made me interested to see it. Caveat. I don’t do horror and this one verged on horror in parts.
At the end of this movie, I was impressed. I thought this is effing genius, this was magnificent and wow hard hitting too. Michael B Jordan was very impressive. He was great in Black Panther but here he is playing twins Smoke and Stack. Miles Caton who played Sammie had an amazing speaking voice, looked so young and his voice was so deep and his singing? Wow.
I will try not to give spoliers but it’s hard. Also I never heard of the word Hanked before. So clever though.
This is a story primarily about black lives, poor lives in the south of the USA. It doesn’t dwell on the misery but uses it to paint a picture that is bleak and also beautiful as people live and love and survive there. The KKK are mentioned like pepper in the stew, the lingering threat, the nail in the coffin at the end. There are other people of colour featured. Chinese immigrants, Chaktaw natives, and even Irish who had been downtrodden in their homeland and came to the Americas for a better life. They also came here to Australia and I am a descendent of a number of them.
There is folklore here, real or not, I cannot say, but it is woven into the fabric of the story and the music which is at its heart. Sammie’s music draws in demons and spirits and there is one scene that showed this and it wasn’t time limited. There were ghosts of the past as well as the future. At times, the visual elements could be overwhelming and a little incoherent but then there was a coherency to that. It is a movie that will need to be watched again to pick up the bits I missed.
The way music is used in this film in innovative and compelling. From the boy, Sammie who just wants to play, to those who want to listen and sing, to the bad guys and their music, their lure if you get my drift.
Genius and a must see.
What amazes me is that Ryan Coogler wrote this and directed it. The cast was so good. Every single one nailed it. What an amazing feast for the eyes, the ears and the heart.
It may seem kind of weird celebrating 65 years on the planet. The age of 65 is no longer a huge milestone. Before the dark days, lol, retirement in Australia for women was 60 years and then it became 65 and now it is 67 so why am I celebrating? Firstly, I didn’t get to celebrate with my friends on my 60th, which I think is a milestone. That was due to the pandemic. I also wanted to celebrate getting my Phd but that timing did not align to either my 60th or my 65th. Anyway, I think 65 is a milestone and I’m very happy to be here.
I recall that when I was discussing knee replacements, I was told to wait until I was 65 and I said what if I don’t make it to 65? I mean there’s cancer, accidents, decreptitude and so on. However, I am here and I feel good. I don’t take feeling good for granted. Some days I don’t feel great physically and even mentally. If I do too much of the wrong thing, I hurt. These old bones but mostly just oesteoarthritis, which the first signs appeared in my early 40s. I inherited it, just like my migraines. So when I feel good I need to do stuff, you know, write, walk, enjoy the day, see friends and family.
I guess now I’m just thinking about things. Friends and family that have passed. Events that shaped me or even those that I don’t remember all the time that come back out of the blue. The things I forget and feel so bad about. I think back and my memory could be pretty bad even in my forties. I think a lot had to do with stress and paying attention. I still only half listen some of the time. Of course my greatest fear is dementia. Both my parents had dementia but I want to have all my marbles if I can.
Although not officially diagnosed, it is quite clear I have ADHD in many ways. I used to be really good at organising but I’m not so sure I have all it takes these days. To be really efficient, you need energy and at 65 reliance on energy isn’t so easy. I also think my strategies don’t work as well as they used to. I am thinking of doing less craft but I haven’t quite managed that yet or actually do a lot of craft. My craft room is a blackhole in which no light can escape.
I don’t know why I can’t get as much done. During lockdown there seemed to be so much time.
I think about life now and how different and complex life is for kids now. I didn’t really start using a computer at home until 2000 and even then it was my then partner’s. I couldn’t afford one before then. Social media was non-existent. We used email chains and chat rooms. Compared to my childhood, kids don’t have time to themselves, time to think and contemplate, it’s just go, go, go. Learn this, process that, news here, social media bombardments.
Personally I have a panic attack if I haven’t got my phone and if I am participating in some sort of event, like the movies or a play or my 65th birthday party, and I don’t touch my phone for hours, it is a feat of monumental proportions.
I didn’t have a television until I was four years old and even then there was limited programming. We didn’t have streaming. We had vinyl records that got played on the stereogram, which was a piece of furniture that included a TV. TV was black and white and we all sat around as a family and watched the same things. It broke down often. Luckily my dad liked SF because we got Lost in Space, Disney on Sundays and Saturdays were the only early morning cartoons etc, Astro Boy, Prince Planet and live action Phantom Agents and Samurai. A lot of our TV came from Japan and the USA. Godzilla! Mr Squiggle was Australian and other programs began to emerge. There were often news items and articles about how TV was destroying the kids. I think my dad called me square eyes. However, my thoughts were that I was learning stuff and that had to be good.
We played outside. Actually not much choice as children were seen and not heard and we were often locked out. My mother used to leave us alone, if my aunts could be believed and I don’t doubt them. I remember being locked in and I was like 3-4 years old. How things change. It was probably not legal then either. Anyway, we kept occupied. I used to go walkabout all the time. The cops brought me home many times when I was just 3 or 4. Later, I just went visiting people and places. The only time I got in trouble was because I borrowed a friends tricycle. He gave it to me but his parent did not approve and complained. I think I got a hiding. You know I’m glad hidings and thrashings are not the done thing these days. I recall being beaten once, being thrown around and thinking I was going to die. Another time I was hit with the belt buckle and I had imprints and bruises up my thigh. The nuns said I must have been very naughty!
At my birthday party, I talked about my elder brother and sister. I don’t remember Ian too much as he was often trying to get away from me. I have memories of following him and him getting away. He was often lumbered with us younger ones to take to the movies. I was too, which is weird because I was too young to look after them and I recall being thrown out of Kogarah cinema because my younger brothers ran around. My sister though I survived. Don’t get me wrong we are close these days but when we were young we did some risky stuff. She used to take me down into the storm water drains but I baulked at the dark tunnels and fretted when she didn’t come back. One day she and her friend climbed out and left me behind. Then they said the storm water gates were opening and I’d drown. I had to run over to Rockdale where the sides of the drains sloped and I could run out. Once she took me up to the train lines and got me to put my head on the tracks so I could hear the trains coming, you know like in the western movies. However, I was a survivor and got the hell out of there as it was a suburban line and the trains were frequent. She was teaching me to spit and one day I spat on her on the way home from school. She was going to get me so I ran and ran and ran onto the road and was hit by a car. She must have freaked because she saw my small body fly up and then down. I was seven years old. Obviously I survived. Why I survived I have no idea. Perhaps I am a cat in another life.
When I was young I never thought about being old. I mean you’re too busy living in the now I think to contemplate that. However, the things we do influence how we grow old. A while back I met an 89 year old lady who was so energetic and had done so much she inspired me. I realised if I wanted to be a spritely old lady I needed to work on that now, diet and exercise and look after my health. If you starve yourself when you are young you get shit like heart problems, oesteoporosis and so on. Also, I don’t think I understood a lot about myself when I was young but do now. Also, I was pretty when I was young and I didn’t even know that or think that. Now I see it but well that’s just a memory now. I also have some kind of body dismorphia thing. I look in the mirror and think you’re such an ugly old hag. But then I see a photo from ten years ago and think I didn’t look too bad, but I thought I was an ugly old hag then. These days I’ve changed the narrative. Now I say you’re looking good today or make your hair nice and so on.
When I was young my life was a mess and I made messy decisions. However, I grew up, made better decisions. I studied and got a degree, a good job, climbed out of the poverty hole because I wanted more for my kids. I’ve since done a PHD but I left school at 15. I hated people thinking I was dumb. Hated it. However, everything you do in life teaches you something. For a writer that’s useful.
Also, things change, views change and these culture wars we are having. I never would have thought they were on the cards. Just like I never thought I’d live through a pandemic. It’s really unnerving because the future seems so uncertain. Things might not settle down before I die. What world will my grand kids inherit? As a writer of SF and fantasy these are scary times because my imagination and past reading set me up to imagine some bad shit. However, I am very pleased about the Australian election and that meaning a rejection of Trumpism, and basically hate. There are other reasons for the win too, but that’s a biggie. Why am I a Labor supporter? I wouldn’t be where I am in life without the Hawke/Keating years. I was able to study and get childcare. University was not free unfortunately and that was a set back for me. However, it was cheaper than it is now to pay for a university degree.
Why am I reminiscing? Shrug. I am meant to have some profound thoughts. Being old gives me a license to blather? I am happy to be here. Some of my friends aren’t. I know my life is more than half over. I’m no longer young and pretty but that comes with life. It’s not an easy transition and you know health and death loom larger than they once did. You have the luxury of looking back on your life and loves. Hopefully not to dwell on regrets. Of course there are things I am sorry I did and did not do. I think now though is for me to do what I can, what I want for as long as I can. I enjoy writing and I have a lot more stories in me, I love my life and my partner and my children and grandchildren and my friends both old and new. I’m working part time and that suits me. I’m a boring old fart who watches way too much streaming and listens to too many audio books and doesn’t read enough or do enough craft or catching up with people. Lol. I’ve just transitioned from a middle-aged geek to an old geek. Eep!
I can still write stories though…for now…
Me, with my dyed grey hair. I’m embracing 65 with a vengeance.
On returning from New Zealand on my actual birthday, I hung about in Sydney with my daughter and then drove home with Matthew in the evening. I was hyped. I was happy. My birthday bash was on the Saturday (May3rd) and I had a few things to organise. Tuesday was a work day, but from Wednesday it was must get a few things done. I had prepaid the event before I left for NZ, trying to finalise numbers.
While I have organised events before, I’ve not done one for myself and it’s been awhile. So I wasn’t quite getting the bar tab thing. That is you have to pay a minimum amount to have a bar and well you don’t get a refund on that. Anyway, let’s dwell on happy things.
The theme was 1960s so dress up and music too. Many thanks to Cat Sparks for finding my music list and for making it to the party. We had food and drink of course and a photobooth which is always fun.
I had a great time. I think my guests had fun. However, it was blinking cold so my indoor outdoor venue lost some of it’s purpose and space as they closed the shutters and put the heating on. The music was great outside, not so good inside. In the end we used my $67 Karoke speaker and danced to that inside. I brought games for the kids to play. I’m happy to say they did play, despite the cold and my white boots got covered in grass and scuffs after I retrieved the far flung hula hoops and coits and bean bags from the corn hole throw from the lawn in the dark.
Most of the photos were taken by Cat Sparks and I’ll try to share the ones of me, rather than other people as I don’t have their permission to post here. Matthew doesn’t get a say! Okay a few others don’t get a say too. Sorry Keri.
Me and Keri on the deck before we needed to leave. I did Keri’s pants.
Me in my go go boots. I made the dress and refurbished a vintage hat.
Matthew really getting into the groove. He appeared at the top of the stairs dressed like that and I screamed.
Traditional pretend drunk shot of me and Keri
Me and the hula hoop. I took out the background. Still it’s okay.
A lovely close up by Cat Sparks. Thanks Ca.
I really want to thank my friends and family for coming. There were those who couldn’t make it, those who I invited last minute when someone dropped out, there were people I didn’t get to invite, mostly due to budget constraints. Thank you to Keri Arthur for driving up from Kilmore to make the party. Thank you Trudi and Paul for flying in for the night from Melbourne. Thank you to my elder brother Ian Hanson for coming by train, my sister Kylie, nephew Jose, niece in law Katrina family for driving down from the Blue Mountains. Also, my ex husband, his wife, some of the kids who came down from Sydney. My daughters one who drove from Sydney. Rangi, step daughter who flew in from NZ. Many heart felt thanks and hugs. Also lots of love to my grandkids, my friends and their families that attended. Much love to Ferdi and Taamati who couldn’t make it from Singapore due to a conflicting event and many thanks for the financial contribution too. See you guys in three weeks.
When I first met Kaaren in the early 2000s she was vibrant, focussed and enthusiastic. And she never ceased being so, even when she knew her days were numbered. She was determined to live every day to the full, feeling as well as she could for as long as she could.
After meeting Kaaren at an editing workshop where she as a presenter, we got talking about auditing and said come and work at the Australian National Audit Ofice. I did apply and got in and we worked together on audit projects. Partners! She approached her work in a focussed and organised way and she had a really ordered way of looking at things. She made audits fun, even though she was very competitive. You’ll never be as old as me, she said once. I replied, “Not much I can do about that.” She was also a writer and a horsewoman at that time, as well as a runner and cyclist. She was as focussed about those things as she was everything else. Her earlier books featured flying horses. She was quirky I suppose, she would tell me about the conversations she had with her characters. Her Kered’s Cry series was about recovery from trauma and it was researched and planned.
We were working together when she got her first breast cancer diagnosis. I cried. She told me to stop it. That was Kaaren. Tackling breast cancer was a huge challenge, one which Kaaren attacked like everything else. The only casualty was writing. Her publisher turned out to be dodgy and the stress became too much. I published the last book in her trilogy when I had my publishing imprint. I remember talking to her after her mastectomy and she had been outside in the cul de sac (she lived rural) trying to get her fitness back up. She went into remission and made the five year and the ten year mark. She worked as a contract editor at the Australian National Audit Office and worked back at Immigration, her other home. She moved to the coast and then moved again, once she found a tumour on her spine. She wanted to lessen the chores so her husband didn’t have to worry. Always planning ahead, always organising. She gave her her horses, her mini ponies but kept her cats. There are many more adventures of Kaaren, coming off horses and so on…
From memory, she’d started writing again when there was a lump on her neck. Dragon Boating and kayaking had become her new athletic thing as well. Up in Canberra, she had a very gruelling 7 hour operation to remove the tumour on her vertebrae just below her neck. I remember her telling me that it could affect her eyesight as she had to be on her face the whole time. They put a little cage in there to replace the vertebrae. I visited her in hospital afterwards and the worst thing was a sore neck. She’d hurt her neck a few years before getting thrown off her horse and nearly lost the use of her arms. At this time I didn’t know it was a recurence of the breast cancer. Maybe Kaaren suspected. When they sequenced it, they found it matched her breast cancer. She was officially terminal. She refused chemo at first but had some radiation. The doctor talked her into a drug that slowed bone metabilising. She was fit and well for maybe a year, nothing to see on the scans. She wrote the first book in her trilogy, Undercover Mage, featuring Everand from her first series. She started on the second. I remember her telling me. The doctors want me to to X and I can’t because I need to be well enough to launch this book and write the next one. She donated money from the sale of the books to breast cancer charity. She finished the trilogy, did in person launches for all the books and wrote a romance novel, which she finished just a couple of weeks before she died. When others would curl up and die, Kaaren refused to.
In the photo above she was at the RWA conference in Sydney in 2023. She had started entering competitions for anthologies and placing. It really lit up her world to get the validation and the encouragement. This year she placed second in the spicy bites.
Her funeral was beautiful and everything so many people said was true. She was many things and it is really hard to think of her gone. I’m crying now, because i’m writing about it. But after the funeral I had to think of her somewhere else, not gone as that was the only way I can cope. She had a positive influence on me always. She had me riding horses and writing and laughing. One of the things I learned about Kaaren’s life from her brother was that she had a really good childhood. I think that’s why she could walk around with a little dragon on her shoulder and wear it with pride. She had a solid beginning.
Kaaren leaves behind her husband, two daughters, son-in-law and a grandson. I remember one of her goals was to live to him born and she made it to his first birthday. She touched many lives and so many people. I can never be as brave as she was, as forward thinking and as caring of others, particularly her family. If she knew I was crying now, she’d say. Stop! Stop that.
I was telling Matthew that I haven’t found my groove yet. I’m currently grooveless.
Last post was from London. I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much in my life. Even using the tube and so on, there’s always a walk and those steps add up. This was a good thing because it helped with the weight gain. Lot’s of nice but expensive food to be had in London.
We also discovered the river bus (ferry), expensive but so much better than being crammed into a tube train. And there was coffee.
Biggest takeaway was how to ordinary people live-it’s so expensive. And why are there so many obviously wealthy people.
After two weeks in London we went to Malta for about five days. Why Malta? It was on a list of the possibles (Spain, Ireland, Italy) but what it had in it’s favour was one flight direct, warmer and dryer than the UK, cheapish flight and lots of accommodation to choose from. We loved Malta. We stayed in Sliema, with views of the beach (St Julian’s Bay I think) and we did tours as you do. Not quite warm enough for a swim for me. We even took a day trip to Sicily, which was awesome. It’s only 52 Nautical miles from Malta. Next time, more Sicily and Malta. Also, did my fan girl, Montalbano, visit to his police station. I didn’t pay to go in, just took photos.
Next stop was one night in London and the Hilton Heathrow Terminal 4 and then Singapore. We stayed with my son and his wife and my grandson in their apartment. We ate crab! Thanks Taamo! and did the Night Safari and the Amazon experience. Again more walking. We also did the Gardens by the Bay, which was lovely but Singapore is humid and hot. We caught up with some writing friends, Dev and Joyce and ate lots of yummy food and swam in the condo pool, well I walked in the pool, which was lovely and huge.
Sadly, all good things come to an end. We came home. For a few weeks we had started thinking about home, what we wanted to do, changes in our habits we wanted to make and thinking about our lovely granddaughter who started school while we were away. Nothing hurts more than those heart strings and she sent us messages that made us almost weep.
I started work on Monday (Day job) and today was meant to be a writing day. Alas, dr appointment, tradie, pool walking, Genius appointment because my phone is chucking a wobbly, and then meeting friends tonight, I can’t see where I’m going to slot even a solid hour in.
I am doing a novel crit group thing so I have at least finished this month’s novel and just need to write up my feedback. I guess that’s what I’ll be doing today because that’s not hard.
Jetlag I’ve been okay. I think the stop over in Singapore helped me adjust to Australia again, although I do zone out and get fatigued.
Weight I’ve lost 2.5 kilos since I’ve been back. Most of that would be fluid retention from the flight. But I found this neat and free calorie food diary thing and that’s helping me keep track.
I’ve also am trying a new self mantra. Instead of looking in the mirror and criticising myself, I’m going to say “Hey gorgeous. You look fantastic. You’re awesome.” I’ve read about two celebrities that I really admire and both have talked about how they have hated their bodies (Winslet and Thompson) and how every woman is unhappy with her body. I think this is mostly the body norms that are thrust at us constantly. For years I’ve had body dismorphia and I’ve hated how I looked. Now I’m going to accept it. That doesn’t mean I’m letting myself go. I get sick if I put on too much weight so I’ll keep my goals but I’m going to stop the negative self talk. Try to at least. Not easy.
Next post I’ll put up some photos. I’m currently backing up the phone so can’t right now.
We are renting a small apartment near the Imperial Wharf. It’s lovely and a 15 minute walk to the metro, but close to overland trains which is useful when we go to Hampton Court if the trains are not strike affected.
We are staying for two weeks because we wanted to get a feel for the place and do as many of things that we can. However, this is possibly the most expensive part of the trip just in accommodation alone. We had a lovely week in Kent with writing friends and we enjoyed every minute. Matthew was very happy to visit and, I think observing him and Dan together, that Matthew was nurtured and encouraged and mentored as a writer and fried.
The EV car is a gift that keeps on giving. Besides the scratch they have pinged us for lots of little things. No invoice as yet but Hertz had debited us $1200 so far. I don’t mind so much but an invoice would be nice so we can claim on our insurance. I wish Hertz paid as much attention to the EV battery performance as they do scratches on tire rims etc.
Yesterday after a late start we made it to the British Library for the fantasy exhibition: Realms of the Imagination. It was a lovely homage to the fantasy genre, with a focus on fairy tales and folk lore as origin, and featured some neat stuff. I have some new books to track down. Not comprehensive but a bit hard to do that I think. The exhibition was full of nerdy people like us who took ages to look at things so a bit frustrating for me, the whizz kid. Matthew took his time. I checked out the store and wept for the things I could not buy due to postage costs.
We went for a drink in a nearby pub then decided to go home and cook for ourselves. A quick shop and Sainsbury’s at the tube station and we had a heathy dinner except for the icecream. We have enhanced our supplies for breakfast and soon will be off to the Natural History Museum which isn’t far away. We will be taking the tube though.
Because we are here for two weeks, we get to fully unpack. I think I’ll have time to read and write but who knows. Sometimes I’m just so tired from walking around. I am averaging 9500 steps per day this last month. Of note, the weather is currently mild. I nearly died of heat in the tube with my coat on but no room to take it off. Today is set to be 13-14 degrees which is crazy warm. Where are the blizzards? I’ll probably jinx us.
We are scheduled to fly to Malta after this but now there are strikes in Europe so who knows. Watch and see.
Since Lincoln we have moved around a lot. We went to Newcastle upon Tyne, staying mostly out at South Shields. We loved this place. My Hanson grandfather was born in South Shields and it was lovely to get a feel for the place, where his father and his grandfather live. I went searching for the houses where they lived. Alas, the Long Row had been demolished and the Long Row now is only part of the original with new buildings, but they lived in these tenements along the river. They were seaman, steveadores etc so lived close by. I went looking for two other addresses. Catherine Street I found was now a library and the other place still existed but the house they lived it appeared on Apple Maps in someone’s backyard so no longer existing. We went looking for St Hilda’s cemetery and it is now a car park. I sort of gave up after that. I was going to go and look where my nana was born in Washington but her street didn’t exist and it was a suburb’s name now. Besides it snowed that day. We did one day in Newcastle and did my Vera thing, including Whitley Bay and the Holy Island on our way to Scotland.
In Edinburgh I caught up with a second cousin on my mum’s side. He and his wife were very interesting people. One of the things they do is medieval music. Fascinating.
We stayed in a lovely hotel, Holyrood with views to Arthur’s seat and very handy to the High street etc. They were so lovely. We left something behind and they posted it to us, charging us only for postage. Food was good, room was large and warm. We did a day trip to Perth to visit Farah and Edward and had a lovely lunch, talked about books etc before heading out to walk through the town/city. It’s quite big Perth. It was also quite cold with barely getting to the high of 1 degree C.
It was time to turn south and we stopped in Lancaster for the evening, meeting up with Patrick and Julie for dinner. Lancaster is a place we’d like to come back to as it seemed interesting but we couldn’t really look around as we were headed south.
In Knebsworth we stayed with my cousin and had a fab time. She took us to Windsor for the day and spoiled us rotten. Now we are in Maidstone in Kent also being spoiled, but today is chill day so I can blog.
It’s kind of sad as I have lots of photos but here are a few.
Windsor castle
Windsor Moat
Matthew in front of St George’s chapel, Windsor Castle.
A snap taken in the Undercroft Cafe with my cousin, whose treat it was for us.
The castle ruins in Rochester, Kent. We went for a day to check it out.
Medway River at Maidstone, we did a long historical walk around the town.
A Tudor style house in Maidstone. Then we went to lunch at La Villetta, enjoyed some great food and company.
We went to Aylesford to visit to Friars again and it was misty and moody and very serene. We enjoyed it so much.
The peace walk lookiing back to the gatehouse at the Friars. Note, to Ruby Heart/Emerald Fire fans, this is the priory I used in the book. It was a great setting for a secret society of magicians.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more photos. We head to London for two weeks on Thursday. The sand in our hour glass is running down. Although we are going to Malta and Singapore before we see our cats and family again.
We have an EV at home in Australia and we love it. When we planned our trip to the UK we decided an EV would be the right thing to do. Guilt free travel and better for the enviroment.
Immediately, though, we had issues, the first thing was charging in the suburbs of Brighton. There are a huge number of providers and apps, but some of the key apps can’t be downloaded to an Australian phone. Admittedly I was sick with a lurgy and it played on my mind and I was saying just take it back and get a hybrid, but my partner didn’t want to. If we had we might have found out that UK Hertz charge way too much to drop a car to a site that isn’t the orginal hire site. Like some 200 GDP.
After a few days we were able to charge on the motorway services using Gridserve, which has lots of chargers. However, the cost per kw is quite high in comparision to Australia, even though in Australia it is rising. So on average 79 pence per kw so that’s about $1.60 per kw so nearly what we pay for a litre of petrol at home. But consider I kw is not equivalent to 1 litre in terms of distance. Anyway we were just grateful to just to be able to charge. Eventually we worked out our favourite chargers and also our least favourite. Scotland Charge Place is our least favourite because can’t download the app, and they were everywhere in Scotland! So to charge in Edinburgh it was a hunt and then a long drive to charge, in the opposite direction. We almost always needed fast charging because the slow chargers were not accessible without RFID cards or apps.
The next challenge was that the car we drove a Corsa E did not go as far on a charge as advertised. It would say 219 miles on a full charge on the dash and it barely went 100 miles and so on average one and a quarter to one and a half hours before having to charge. We became very cautious because it was unreliable and we didn’t want to get stranded. At times it was cold and that affects the distance a battery will take you and having the heater on. We tested it without the heater on and it still fell very short distance wise. So when we planned a trip to move from Lancaster to Luton I added an additional three hours for charging. I was very pissed off at this stage. The reason we surmised was because this car was a rental, it had been slammed and only subject to fast charging which depletes the battery. So not only were we paying heaps for charging we were charging a lot more often so it was double the cost. It sucked big time.
Then if your plans change or you don’t want to drop the car at 8.00am at Heathrow try to find an alternative. Phone numbers not answering. Finding someone to talk to and eventually finding out that dropping the car anywhere than Heathrow was going to cost an addition 200 GDP so $400 in Australian money and that is ridiculous. When we picked up at Heathrow they said it was 200 GDP to drop at Marble Arch and we assumed that was because of congestion charges etc. But no, it is what they charged for any drop off other than Heathrow which I assume we are also paying a airport fee. We really like Hertz Australia, so efficient and helpful but alas the same cannot be said of Hertz UK.
We ended taking the car back to Heathrow early the day before it was due to save getting up early, getting caught in peak hour traffic etc. When we dropped it back the bloke assessing the car was not interested in how the battery sucked but he was interested in the scratch on the car which we didn’t know was there. Fair enough, but really he should have noted down and expressed some concern at the crap battery on this car.
Also, did I mention they charged us extra for the electric car. We had found that car at that price in Australia but they didn’t honour it because we didn’t take a screen shot. So lesson learned if you are looking find something but can’t reserve it take a screen shot. We had issues with our Aussie credit card not being accepted on the UK site (various cards over days) that we had to book from Australia using Australian Hertz.
Interesting to note that our last charge on a Tesla supercharger was cheaper than any on the other chargers we used. Go figure that.
That said, some of the charging at services was really brilliant. Ten or so fast chargers and a separate bank of Tesla chargers. Only a select few of the Tesla chargers allowed non-Tesla charging. To do so, google Tesla superchargers UK, then un highlight everything but non-tesla superchargers, then if you are actually at that charger just press on the charger on the map, find the number, add your credit card details and you are away. I found that worked with BP Pulse too, using a map etc, much to my partner’s surprise.
Just a quick post to encourage you all to come along to the ARRA book signings. It’s a great opportunity for romance readers and fans to meet authors. The signings are all over, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
In March 2024 I will be signing at ARRA’s A Romantic Rendezvous in Sydney and Melbourne. These multi-author signings will be held in four cities and will feature up to 30 authors at each event. You can find the full list of signing authors here: https://australianromancereaders.com.au/events/arr2024/. Tickets are now on sale: https://www.trybooking.com/1123090
Another great bit of news is the ARRA awards are going to be hosted in Brisbane this year. I really like going along to support ARRA and the nominated authors and it’s a fab time too.
I had hope to have a new book out in time for the book signing. But naughty me went skiving off to the UK for a few months. I will have my newish releases available, Awakening and The Changeling Curse. And if I get a move on, I might have something else in the pipeline.
We’ve moved on from Nottingham and spent a lovely week in a village just outside Lincoln. Nettleham was so lovely. Lots of quaint stone houses, a beck and great, great company. We loved it.
This photo is Matthew on one of the little bridges over the beck. The whole village was wonderful.
The picture above is Lincoln cathedral. We really liked this and the city of Lincoln was an unexpected pleasure.
The remains of the city wall.
Now we have moved onto South Shields, where my paternal grandfather was born. My paternal grandmother was born nearby in Durham. These next few days we will explore. Today we walk into South Shields and maybe find the house where it began about 200 years ago. There are even some relatives nearby. Not sure I’ll meet them. The people are very friendly.
On BailWe did a big walk today down to Long Row but the house wasn’t the house but a 25 year old one. Later research revealed the Long Row had been subsumed into a wharf/ship building thing and the existing Long Row is just on the end of it. Also, Thrift Street was subsumed too and there was another relative there. We walked to St Hilda’s church hoping to find a cemetery but no graves were there. We walked to the churchyard and it was a car park (apparently the bodies were exhumed and it closed in 1855) and then went to another address but that was weird and I don’t think that house exists either. Then when we got back I did some research and the other place I wanted to find in Catherine Street is now a library. I should write a story about an unquiet carpark. Look, my relatives were poor so their houses don’t exist anymore. I was kind of sad. I haven’t give up hope of finding a grave but we will see.
This is a view of the Long Row but it is a newish construction and only part of the original, the original long row being absorbed into the dock expansion. It did give me an idea of how close they lived to the docks where by GGG grandfather was a stevedore in 1894. There is some historical photos which I’ll buy of these streets that don’t exist now.
A bit of trivia. My great grandfather was Alexander Hanson, but he was born after the other Alexander Hanson, his brother died at 15 months. Alexander is one of those repeating names because Elizabeth Erichsen and John Hanson who married in 1834 both had fathers named Alexander.
The above is the local church I believe my ancestors went to. As discussed, no cemetary.
Also, snow was predicted and we got a short film of it. I think it then turned to sleet but excitement.
A view of Littlehaven beach where we are staying. That’s the head of the River Tyne.
I’m tacking on the trip to Newcastle yesterday. It’s an amazing place. Too short a time to explore and we walked so much. I did my Vera homage, and we went to the castle, the cathedral, the Milenium Bridge and did a M&C cafe lunch.
We walked up the Longstairs on our way back from the bridge.
Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing 