A Walking Tour of Somewhere Else...

Ah Tenet. Your charms were lost on me. But 
I thoroughly enjoyed being back in a cinema, in
a dentist's chair with a cherry coke. Upsides.

Breaking News: I'm on holiday. I'm writing this today, three whole days before I went away. Or, to put it another way, I wrote this last week, but I'm typing these words in real time. I am living in the moment, even though it's a moment last Friday. Perhaps because I saw time-twisting Tenet last week, this makes perfect sense to me. (My three word review? Not for me.) So now it's Monday morning and all being well, I'm not in the one-mile radius that has contained the majority of my social life since February. Fingers crossed I made it; I escaped the confines of the village I live outside, and am now somewhere else. I'm counting on there being no last minute policy changes that mean I'm not sunning myself on the Cambrian Coast, dodging rain clouds and feeling the tension drain with each ebb of the tide. Only time will tell. I'll find out, well...now.

Being somewhere else with
cheese is the absolute dream. 

This mini-break to the place I escape every year, is particularly gratifying this time around. Obviously, the fact I am somewhere else, is far sweeter than I've ever felt on previous trips. Since making this booking, I've refused to get excited. I've assumed that when the time came, it'd be called off. There'd be some restriction about entering Wales, that would be announced just as I'd packed up my car. But as of last week/now, it's still on. The sweet feeling of escape continues.

Sweet Aber. Loveliest 
seaside town of the plain.

The second reason I'm well up for this holiday, is even better. The last time I went to this, my favourite UK holiday destination in all the world, I had a rough plan of a novel plus a few early chapters under my belt. This year, the whole thing is done. (Subject to tweaking, natch.) And the reason that's particularly marvellous on this visit to Aberystwyth, is that the novel is set in Aberystwyth. I know. How very meta. 

I do know I've mentioned this before. Last year, around this time, I wrote about how much I love films that bring a location to life. I wrote that particular blog post from the apartment I am about to visit/am currently in. That fact hasn't changed. I love a vivid location. I love when a writer (or director) makes the reader (or viewer) feel like they've been to the place they describe (or show). Some people might find that a distraction, but for me it's a hook.

The cliff railway gets a
mention in the book. A whole
chapter takes place at the top.

So this year is particularly exciting. Not only am I somewhere else, not only do I have a completed draft of a novel set in Aberystwyth, but I can also embark on my very own book's walking tour. Yes! In a wholly-expected egotistical move, I will be spending part of my mini break visiting the specific locations that get a mention. This will include the more mundane delights of the little Tesco and the chippy on the corner, along with the epic majesty of the cliff railway and the hospitality at Baravin - a restaurant that has been used (in my head) as the location for the climax of the second part of the book. A little further up the road is Y Banera - the place in which a chunk of Part Three takes place. I will visit there too - for their lovely wine as well as to remind myself of the logistics of where the characters sit, chat and - in one racy section - snog. I know. Actual porn!

My walking tour has
EVERYTHING.

For now, however, let's keep our fingers crossed that I made it across the border, and I'm spending today/next Monday in my happy place. Meanwhile, I hope those of you who've felt the desperation to be in your own somewhere elses, have been able to make that happen, or are planning to do so as soon as is convenient. We've all got our favourite somewhere else. Hopefully I am in mine right this minute. Otherwise, my somewhere else is, infuriatingly, somewhere else and I am currently at home, annoyed at myself for jinxing my hols by writing this post. Picture me shaking my fist at Last Friday's Nicky. Go on, do it. It'll make me feel better.

Have a lovely week, folks.