I started reading Discworld in 2011. Yes, very late to the party! The first book I read was Equal Rites, simply because that was the earliest one my brother had that I could borrow. I was soon hooked, and have read the whole lot at least twice since then.
I don't remember why I never got round to reading any Pratchett earlier - possibly it was slightly daunting to be faced with a series of 37 books. But I'm glad I did, because he was a very talented man. I'm very much in favour of books where I don't figure out the ending until I actually get there...
Last week the 41st and final book The Shepherd's Crown was released. I was going to wait a while before reading it, ideally until I could get a paperback copy to add to my collection. But then I accidentally read a big spoiler last week (fuck you, random website) and changed my mind.
Two late nights of reading, and I'm done. I'm not going to review the book, and I'm certainly not going to post any spoilers/plot details!
But I will say this much - it was emotional. The story itself, the fact that it is The End, and very definitely the fact that the 'about the author' page is now written in the past tense
In celebration of hosting some world cup rugby matches, and because sculpture trails seem to be the in thing at the moment, Gloucester currently has a Scrumpty trail of 20 statues dotted around the city centre - plus mini versions in shop windows.
Some of the Scrumpties (I note with disgust that the official website pluralises with an apostrophe - "Scrumpty's" - yuck!) are rugby themed, some are local themed, some seem to have no obvious link to anything but are very pretty, and one is actually a bit terrifying.
The map suggests the Monkty (on the left, below) is near the main road, but actually he's standing outside Blackfriar's priory. A much more fitting location - though I believe his inspiration is nearby Prinknash Abbey.
The Viking looks quite at home in the docks next to whatever tall ship is in there at the moment, and is one of my favourites.
Monkty and The Viking
Others are less exciting. Sadly a few have been damaged- the Mouse (from the Tailor of Gloucester) has been fixed after having an ear ripped off, and 'Cracked' (top left in my collage) should have a spoon sticking out of it. Scrumpy here is missing a stalk, so just looks like a red blob rather than the apple it's supposed to be. Shame.
sorry Scrumpy, but you're not the most exciting
Minor vandalism aside, I enjoyed finding them all. Being local I wander around town fairly often, so it's a nice change to have something new to look at!
It seems to be some sort of unwritten rule that meetups with Rachael involve running of some sort. For her birthday, we went to Snowdonia.
I had to stop on my drive up to take some photos because the sunset/view was absolutely stunning:
Anyway, to the bemusement of everyone else I managed to get all the way to Llanberis without the aid of satnav or google maps. I still maintain that it's not that difficult, but then again I've been to Llangollen/Bala kayaking so many times and once you get past that point there are only so many main roads and big towns and they all have signposts. But I digress.
Saturday morning was an early start to get to Conwy for parkrun! (see, I said there'd be running). The course there is very pretty, starting at an RSPB reserve and running along the estuary with views of the castle. The weather obviously helped, though it was rather hotter than I was expecting! I ran 31 minutes at consistent pace, which I was pleased with as I've got a 10k in September and have still not managed to run anywhere near that distance...
We regrouped afterwards for breakfast cake in the café and decided that as we were so close, we may as well visit the castle.
I'd been before when I was little, but that was a long time ago and I was dragged around so many Welsh castles that I struggle to remember which is which. There's a lot of Conwy castle still standing, including eight towers you can climb to the top of. Not a bad view, as you'd expect.
The fun didn't stop at running and castles though.. We headed off down the A470 to Blaenau Ffestiniog and Bounce Below. I have a feeling I'd been to Llechwedd Slate Caverns as child too, but recently it's reinvented itself as an activity centre, with massive zip lines, mountain biking and underground trampolines.
Bounce Below is several levels of trampoline nets suspended in an old slate cavern. There were ramps to climb up (including a massive and very cool spiral), and to get back down you had slides made from tubes of netting. I was not at all keen on the slides - similar to water slides, urgh. I also didn't particularly like it when people jumped around, but given that they're trampolines I can't complain too much!
Our hour of bouncing went really quickly, and it's safe to say we were all exhausted afterwards. Luckily there is a café on site for paninis and ice cream
tags: books 
