Super Sports Car Driving Experience

This had to be one of my great experiences and something ticked off my bucket list. My wonderful friends chipped in and bought me a three car driving experience day for my birthday. got to drive an Aston Martin DB9, Ferrari and Lamborghini.

About to drive the DB9, this was the first super car and it was such a shame because it turned out to be the nicest of the three and as I wasn't sure of the track or the fact that I hadn't driven something so fast before I was a little bit cautious. And you only get to go around the track twice. If I'd have gone around more than that I probably would've got past 6o miles an hour!!!

A Stig looky likey, for those wanting a photo opportunity!

The Lamborghini. I was looking forward to the most, after seeing those two gorgeous women drive one in "The Cannonball Run" when I was a kid, I'd always dreamed of owing one! But I was actually really disappointed, it wasn't smooth or sleek and I certainly didn't feel like the hot totty from the film. Maybe I'd built it up in my mind to be more than I thought it would be.

The Ferrari was actually a pleasing surprise. The oldest of all the cars I drove, and I thought this was very rickerty with a few cracks in the leather seats and I was like "god I'll have to get towed round by a horse!" But pleasantly it was the fastest and I actually got past 80mph on some parts of the track. (I know it prabably doesn't sound fast, but when you're driving a super car around tight bends it's pretty scary! Anyway the instructor said I was a natural and very good, so there.

Next dare devil experience, either flying a light aircarft or a glider!! Watch this space.

Vampire Sorceress - A Paperback Book - Finally

The Third Book in The Beyond Series - Vampire Sorceress is out on sale in all good bookshops and on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. If you want a signed copy please contact me on Facebook @Alison Kershaw or through The Beyond Series website. 

Bath - The City of Pampering Spas and Ghost Tours

I have always wanted to see Bath, I love things old and historical, so when I got the opportunity to go to this amazing city I jumped at the chance.

The Roman Baths were just incredible, so well preserved and presented to the public, I love it when they show old ruins as they would have looked in their heyday and they certainly did that, especially when you walk through the courtyard and the museum shows digital video of people walking through the entrance and to the temple. Brilliant. The tour guide was excellent too, explaining even how the pumping system worked! It's not cheap, but if you want to everything about Roman life then this is the place to go. 

The town was revived in Georgian times when Queen Anne began to go there for therapeutic purposes and so this is why the architecture in Bath is so typically Georgian. The Pump Room is where you can overlook the main spring that used to service the Roman Baths and is now a beautiful tea room complete with pianist playing all the way through lunch. You can understand why Georgians and Victorians enjoyed the social occasion of High Tea. Very lovely.

The cathedral was amazing too. There was even a reading from the priest whilst I was just sat in a pew enjoying the peace and quiet, I was actually quite moved and uplifted by the sermon.

Now whenever I go to an old city, whether in the UK or in Europe, I always manage to find a ghost tour. I have even done one in New Orleans. It's so atmospheric and this was no exception. We started off at this alley next to the most haunted pub in Bath and the Bath Theatre. Looks creepy, yet cosy to me too!

We heard of Lovers throwing them selves from Theatre roof tops after a duel in the pub next door. A man that walked down a lane behind The Crescent, a battle on the field opposite The Crescent and Lone Ghost Butterfly that appears during a play at the old theatre, which is apparently a good luck charm!

Haunted Tree! Couldn't see any Orbs though.
My friend and I also spent a morning in Thermae Spa. Oh Wow! What a wonderful pamper day and THE BEST spa experience I've ever had. First you go in a Tepidarium type pool that has a current so you can just float around as you gossip with your friends. Then you go into the aromatherapy steam rooms (four massive glass rooms) until you can stand the heat no more, then move up to the roof terrace pool, which you cannot swim in, because its too busy full of women mainly nattering away very loudly, but also because there are jacuzzis in the corner of a steaming hot pool! Amazing, finished all too quickly.

Me at the Baths in Bath!
As you may know I love all things haunted, creepy and supernatural. So it's no wonder that I also like to write my own supernatural stories. Vampire Sorceress is the third instalment of  The Beyond Series of books The paperback version can be purchased from Completely Novel now or you can upload on Amazon Kindle today.

Plays that make you go Hmmm!!

The Changling A Jacobean Epic at The Lowry

I read a review in my local paper about a Jacobean Revenge drama written in 1622 by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. It is sexually explicit as well as violent and mixes the two with tragic effect.

Set in Roman Catholic Spain, the play centres around a love triangle. The aristocratic Beatrice-Joanna is in Love with Alsemero, but her controlling father wishes her to marry well to Alsono de Piracquo. DeFlores (the deflowerer) is in love with his Masters daughter who is reviled by his scars and deformity.

Hardly surprising then that this love sick man servant will do anything to help out Beatrice and murders her future husband. She tries to pay him in gold and rid him from the court, but DeFlores decides he will take his payment in kind. 

Initially she finds her predicament intolerable, until Deflores murders again for her and she realises this man is the love of her life, because he will do anything to protect her and their secret. Needless to say her newly wedded hubby Alsemero grows suspicious and challenges them both with quite horrific consequences.... I was sat near the front of the stage and I thought I was to be sprayed with blood when Beatrice gave her dramatic dying speech before flopping dead onto the boards!

I won't give everything away as I think it should be something that every discerning theatre boff should see at some point in their lives. I can see why critics hail it as the greatest tragedy in English Theatre since Shakespeare. Personally I just wanted to see how how explicit the sex scenes were!!!

Someone Who Will Watch Over Me - Manchester Library Theatre

This was an incredibly thought provoking play about three men, one English, one Irish and an American who had been kidnapped and held captive in Beirut by terrorists. The stage set was nothing but a cell and all three were chained to the walls and sat on nothing but a grubby mat as they attempted to come to terms with their predicament.

At first the Irish character tried to deal with the situation through humour, whilst the American found solace in the bible and the most recently captured hostage, the Englishman, lived in denial that there had been a huge mistake and they had the wrong man!

I sat in the audience, with an uncomfortable feeling of laughing at some of the jokes in such awkward and difficult circumstances and I'm sure I wasn't the only person there thinking "How would I cope in such a situation?" I asked myself that question so often afterwards that I finally wrote a book searching for a protaganist who could deal with abduction, hostage and rehabilitation of of such horrifying experiences. The Betrayal will be published soon...

The play however did have it's surreal moments as the three men embarked on an imaginary journey flying through the air, free as bird, chitty chitty bang bang kinda moment... Twas odd! But the final part was very difficult to deal with, as one is executed, another freed and the third left all alone in the cell wondering what will happen to him. Despite the seriousness of the play I have to say it is still one of the best I have ever seen.