Greetings from Chester

Greetings from the first of Jeff’s guest bloggers. I thought I’d start by introducing myself...

I’m a Welsh woman living in Chester which is a small city established by the Romans on the Welsh border. Since there is a law which states that any Welshman caught within the walls after midnight can be shot with an arrow I have to be careful. There is a small amphitheatre, the local Spud-U-Like has a glass panel in the floor through which you can see a Roman hypocaust, and a friend of mine dug a hole in her garden recently and found skulls and a very rare sort of ancient glass. Apart from that nothing much tends to happen here. Last week the headline in the local newspaper was ‘Child gets hand stuck in plastic bucket’ with the interesting follow-up story that exactly the same thing had happened to her aunt twenty years earlier, which had also made the front page. On each occasion the fire brigade were able to come swiftly to the rescue since, presumably, they were not already occupied. Nothing much changes - but we have got broadband. Which has changed my life - not always in a good way.

My cohabiters are a husband to whom I am connected via lap-top and two sons who are erm 20 and 15, I think. Obviously we have had to buy a hub. I’m not very good with ages or names and frequently get them muddled up, which is an hereditary failing.

I spend my entire life writing, reading and researching except sometimes I get a sudden weird surge of guilt and adrenaline and skulk at the back of an aerobics class or spinning session. I do that, enjoy it and think I must do that again, maybe tomorrow, or the next day...

My research at the moment involves shamanism so I am working my way through Mircea Eliade’s SHAMANISM - ARCHAIC TECHNIQUES OF ECSTASY (as recommended by my incredibly well-informed ex-colleague and esteemed writer Alan Wall) which is fascinating and has enough fantasy to keep me going for some time. To complement this I spent last weekend flat on my back ‘journeying’ with the aid of aboriginal drumming and a couple of lovely Shamanic guides In London. More on that in my next blog.

Clare.