Christmassy Castles and Bad Pantos

As you may be aware, my husband and I are travelling around the UK for a year promoting my Beyond Series Of Books We stopped off breifly in my hometown to begin my week long birthday celebrations - Happy Birthday to me! Ah thank you... Sold some books before driving Amethyst (the name I gave our motorhome) down to Bodelwyddan Castle in Wales, for my birthday weekend. 

                              

So we arrived on Friday night starting with a cracking meal, lots of FREE drinkies and entertainment from Kimika. The opening act was a VT of their past television appearances which were all from the 8o’s, a VERY young Eamon Holmes and Anne ‘thingy bobs’ from GMTV! I was like Oh My God! How old is this act gonna be? But actually I was pleasantly surprised. Granted the husband and wife act had aged, but rather well considering they'd been in the business for at least thirty years! 

The comedy in between the singing was very funny. The female singer did a cracking impression of Tina Turner and her husband was an amazingly talented guitarist. Oh yes and because it was my birthday, Del had arranged a surprise birthday cake, balloons and the entertainment staff singing happy birthday to me in front of a packed restaurant. Thank my darling hubby – was suitably mortified!

Saturday was pamper morning, I had a go at Tai Chi for the first time and I actually felt some things click and ping in my neck and shoulders. Then I went for a facial and massage which was amazing, then swim, sauna and Jacuzzi. Ahh, pampering myself always clears the head and cleanses my soul.

We all went for a lovely drive out to Betsy Coed, which was so beautifully Christmassy, with a little fair. We went to Swallow Falls, a place of outstanding natural beauty and charged £1.50 EACH for the pleasure, we even had to pay through an automatic pay machine which released the turn style gate when we paid… Outrageous!! Just to look at a waterfall.

Saturday night we had a Queen tribute act called Qween. He was very good and sounded just like Freddie Mercury. Another free night of drinkies meant we were all a little merry and so we ended the night with some dancing, including our first dance from our wedding… ‘Hello’, by Lionel Ritchie, but sang live by a ‘live’ singer. Loverly.

Tired on Sunday, so we just pottered around the castle. Doreen and I looked around the historical part of the castle, places like this always give me a sense of nostalgia and ideas for new stories. My Uncle and Hubby had a go at rifle shooting. I stayed away from the rifle range in case I got shot!

In the afternoon the hotel entertainment staff decided to use this weekend to practice their Christmas pantomime Aladdin on us poor, unsuspecting residents. Dear Lordy Lord… It was sooo BAD, it was brilliant! Yes, I enjoyed it because it was so awful… hahahaha… They were two staff down for the show so they got a guy from the bar to stand in. Granted he was very brave to get up and have a go, but he’d literally had a few hours to practice, so he walked into every scene with the script and he fluffed his lines sooo much he confused the rest of the cast to the point where Widow Twankey snatched the script off him to read his (I mean her) own lines….In fact all the mistakes and ad libs were funnier than the scripted ones. Someone should tell them to keep them in the performance on the other shows they do… Hahahaaaaaaaa…. Still chuckling at it.

And so another birthday week is over for another year, but we have already booked for next year.  And so on to Scotland for Christmas, hopefully I can get Lycan Lamia Edited on the long cold nights in the middle of nowhere… Really excited! Vampire Sorceress on Kindle