A week already since I last wrote in this thing. Time certainly does fly. As to last week, not an awful amount happened. The only thing of note was that last Tuesday Nathan, Uncle, Les, Andrew and I all went to Matlock Bath for an evening of amusement arcades and fish and chips. It was a good evening, and the sight of a Fish and Chip shop called 'The Lighthouse' made me smile in amusement. I'm odd, I know...but still.
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This weekend, my grandparents and I got into the car at 7:30am (after having woken up at 6am...that really hurt), and drove to be at Hay on Wye for around 10:30ish. We got there just as the main car park was beginning to fill up, so we timed it pretty well. It was fantastic there. I'd heard mixed things about the place, so I didn't know exactly what to expect. One or two places had books so overpriced that it was a wonder that people bought them. Then again, people who go there as tourists as opposed to collectors or dealers would be willing to pay over the odds for something. All in all however, I went around drooling all day. (Not literally of course, that would've been gross), but figuratively. I ended up spending around forty to fifty pounds there. Not bad, considering thirty of those were on two collectible Anne McCaffrey books. First editions of 'The White Dragon' and 'Dragonsong'. As well as collectibles however, I did get myself a few new reading books. Not that I need them of course, my 'to be read shelf' is all but beginning to buckle under the weight of all the books on there.
We left Hay at around 5 or so, after I'd spent a good twenty minutes at the last bookshop. (One my grandfather pointed out to me. It was down a long alley way type thing beside the castle and I would have missed it otherwise. I'm glad I didn't, since I managed to get two Analog and one IF magazine from there). A half an hour drive up roads barely wide enough for the car later and we were in a place called Knucklas, at a B&B called 'Castle Inn'. Now, here was where I made my mistake. I'm still on tablets for my stomach lining problem currently, and I decided to try and eat a proper full meal whilst I was there....bad idea. I couldn't sleep that night for the stomach discomfort. It didn't help that I was woken from a doze at 6:30 that morning by a cockerel, and had to drive up to Bishop's Castle with a stomach that seemed to be on strike.
Still, we got to Bishops castle and had a wander around there for an hour, going back to the car for a bite to eat. From there it was about a fifteen minute drive to get to the wolf sanctuary, which we did early and had to go back up the road to wait. When we got there, the group gathered (there were twelve of us in all) were told by Tony - the chap who runs the reserve - that Luna had passed away that morning. Luna was the wolf that I had adopted for me, and though I'd never visited her, the news rendered me rather saddened for a few minutes. It's still a sad though even now, but the initial shock wore off as we were taken on the tour of the place.
Two and a half hours later we went back into the main yard, and actually got up close and personal with a wolf called Maddagh. It was truly a fantastic experience. I bought a print of Luna and got the artist, Eva Dutton, to sign it. We stood talking for a good ten to fifteen minutes, before I had to go, my grandparents wanting to get off to make good time in getting back to Derby. Eva told me to keep in contact and to pester Tony about volunteering next year.
We stopped off at The White Swan on the way back, and I had a more sensibly sized meal, even though my stomach is still acting up.
All in all it was a pretty amazing weekend. All that was left for me to do today was wash the car and clean the boots I was walking around the reserve in. All is good. ^_^
