The Devil Rides Out

Back ache blues disappearing at last. The only trouble is Tim got hold of the sheet detailing the movements required to keep joints supple. He ate half of it and shredded the rest. He's much better than a shredder, I can tell you, and no running costs to speak of.

Further to the cheering up we have booked a two night stay at Crinan Hotel in April, so we have that to look forward to. We know we're going to France in early summer, and we've promised ourselves more quickie breaks. It means I'm going to need to be very disciplined with my writing if I want to continue. A few days ago I seriously contemplated abandoning it as I got little pleasure from it, but yesterday and today I've written chapter 20 of Blood Feud, and feel back on the ball again. Health is everything, isn't it? I can't write when I'm not feeling fit.

I've just finished reading Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out, probably first published in the 1930s. His books were very popular until the 1990s and then he seemed to fade from view. I discovered his stuff on Amazon Kindle, and was tempted to read one and see if I enjoyed it as much as I did all those years ago. I'd forgotten how rich all his characters were. Le duc, Rex, Richard - all millionaires. The action and plot read just as well now as back then, but there were one or two spots in the second half of the book where description got the better of him.

Car trips were described in detail, and Richard's private four-seater turned out to be a plane rather than a car. He took off from home, talked of Croydon airport, and whizzed through customs in France with a loaded revolver in his hip pocket. Laughable, given today's security strictures. Then the flight to Greece was described at length - too great a length to my mind. I suppose in all fairness that not many families owned a car in the 1930s and forties, even the fifties. Plane flights were a luxury and foreign places largely unknown, so the readership back then probably lapped it up. We're all too well travelled and blase now. But on the whole, the story passed the test!

I thought I'd loaded Part 1 of Chapter 5 of Capture a Queen to Wattpad on Monday, and only today discovered that it was still in draft form. I remedied that, and if anyone is reading - apologies - and the link is:

http://www.wattpad.com/37913888-capture-a-queen?d=ud

Adventures in Crinan

On the tow-path looking across Loch Crinan

We arrived at Crinan mid afternoon,  settled ourselves and Tim into the hotel and then went for a walk along the tow-path. This is a very pretty tow-path, with the sea (Loch Crinan) on one side and the canal on the other and hills all around. Tim showed a hair-raising inclination to jump into either the canal or over the edge of the twenty-foot drop into Loch Crinan, so we did not dare let him off the lead.

Coffee and a scone at the Coffee Shop revived us and we got there just before it closed at 5pm. A short siesta, fed Tim and then out for a swift walk before we went into the bar for dinner. Tim settled under the table and all seemed well. Then he decided to go exploring, pulled free of his collar and trotted off with me running after him, the collar and lead in my hand. I caught up with him in the Reading Room and since he wanted to play games, I rugby-tackled him as he darted by and caught him around the middle.

A waiter, a guest and the hotel proprietor all gathered around, laughing. Trouble was I couldn't let go, and I couldn't get the collar back on with one hand. The proprietor took pity on me and knelt down and talked to Tim while I got the collar back on. It seems he had a Dalmatian many years ago and Tim was bringing back happy memories. Tim meanwhile thought this was all great fun and wriggled all the harder while I heard about Breckon, who jumped ship off the west coast of Iona and swam to the beach where a young couple lay embracing, Desperate because there are no trees on that side of the island due to the wind off the Atlantic,  Breckon peed on the young couple instead.

Order was restored, we all settled down and  dinner arrived. My lemon sole was delicious and the creme brulee which followed wasn't bad either. We retired to an early bed well satisfied.
Check out more pics on http://www.crinanhotel.com/