More Spin than Din

Listening to University - Throwing Muses

I was not going to bother watching Dan Cruickshank's second programme in his Best Building in Britain series. After the power and drama that is Harlech Castle, I didn't think that Hardwick Hall would be anywhere near as good. However, I was stuck in the chair with Number one son asleep and any move I made would wake him up so with nothing else to watch I started the programme with a view to turning it off before the end. Now Dan has a wonderful small-boy's enthusiasm for his subject whatever it is which suggests that he might actually burst into tears at the beauty or complexity of his subjects. I was hooked and watched the lot. I was hazily aware of Bess of Hardwick as an ambitious old battle axe but despite the show supposedly being about the building itself, the history was dealt with well. I should not start on Harlech Castle. We used to stay in a house on the coast nearby and of course the castle was always on the visit list.

We went to Chirk Castle the other week and though this is more of a stately home rather than a fortress, it does have a section with simple spiral staircases and darkened dungeons. There was a notice about it not being suitable for young children which meant my daughter (5 to 6 as she describes herself) wanted to go up down and all around. I now appreciate the subtle nervousness which I can detect looking back at my dad watching us crawl all around Harlech Castle all those years ago. Harlech still has only very low walls around the high-level wall walks which never made me nervous then. We went some years ago before being toddler-bound and my wife wouldn't go up any stairs. Instead she walked around at ground level following me as I walked nervously around the top level. My dad having no worry at all about heights must have been seriously worried to have shown any concern at all. I think Conway may be the place to visit instead. Daughter is beginning to not show any fear of heights or dark places. At the William Wallace memorial in Stirling, she did get a little scared at the long spiral staircase to get to the top despite being described by one of the Canadian visitors as Princess of Scone.

I had forgotten how good an album University actually was. I think I bought it at a time when I began to have too much music to have that strange thing where your mind starts singing the next track as the previous one finishes. However, I know all the tracks on this album. Listen to it!

Educational Reading for the day here. You might not agree with it but it all seems so true.