I got to meet some fab people that I've known online for a bit but have never met - namely, of course, Marsh and Gav my co-hosts. But also some really great skeptical folk from Manchester and Liverpool. As I sat on the train home on Wednesday I felt quite disappointed that I was leaving it all behind.
I was quite glad that I'd gotten to meet Janis, who helps to orgnise the Greater Manchester skeptics who told me all about the 'Ladies who do skepticism (and coffee)' events that the GM Skeptics have recently launched. It's an amazing idea that I hope catches on throughout the skeptical community. If there is one thing of which I am sure it is that sometimes being a skeptical person can be a bit lonely if you don't know people who are like minded and, being female, the prospect of going along to a pub full of skeptics can be quite daunting if you've never been to a SitP event before. So going along to a coffee shop to meet like minded females is a great introduction to the skeptical community. It opens doors and might go some way to closing the gap between the genders in skepticism. If anyone wants to learn more they should contact Janis via the GM Skeptics facebook or twitter. Or by getting in contact with @Skepticladies on twitter for more information.
The live recording of Righteous Indignation was unlike anything I have ever done before. People laughed at things I said and I got applauded for answering Trystan back *giggle*
It's going out on Monday as our normal show normally would do. You should deffo check it out. It was interesting AND fun. It was great to be sat next to my cohosts for a change and I secretly hope we get to do it again.
The rest of the week has gone by in a blur of gardening, nice weather, random stuff and applying for masses of jobs and suddenly I'm at Saturday and I'm facing the prospect of a really interesting evening, night and morning in an ancient public house in Bristol. The Llandoger Trow has a hugely interesting past.
It was around when pirates would have frequented it and it is reputed to be haunted by a child who wears leg braces - referred to as Pierre. He apparently died in the pub many years ago. According to Guy Lyon Playfair in The Haunted Pub Guide, many apparitions have been reported here.
Dating from 1664, the building is stepped in a mysterious and interesting history. A trow was a flat-bottomed barge, and Llandogo is a village some 20 miles north of Bristol, across the Bristol Channel and upstream on the River Wye in South Wales, where trows were once built. Trows historically sailed to trade in Bristol.
The pub was partially destroyed by a bomb in World War II but three of the original five projecting gables remain. It is a grade II listed building.Tradition has it that Daniel Defoe met Alexander Selkirk (Robinson Crusoe) here, and it was Robert Louis Stevenson’s inspiration for the Admiral Benbow in Treasure Island.
We're going to be there from 11pm until 6am and I really cannot wait. There's something strangely nice about sitting in an ancient building with such a history at, say, two o'clock in the morning drinking a cup of tea wondering if the supposed ghost is really lurking around the corner or whether it's all down to somebodies imagination.
This is the ghost that was apparently caught on camera by a previous investigation team at the pub in the cellar. It's really scary. Not.
I didn't know ghosts appeared as yellow arrows, but there we go :P
This is the ghost that was apparently caught on camera by a previous investigation team at the pub in the cellar. It's really scary. Not.
I didn't know ghosts appeared as yellow arrows, but there we go :P
On a final note; it would seem that my 'A brighter Bradford-On-Avon' website has attracted the attention of a homeopathic fan who decided to spam the comments box. It's quite funny as this happened yesterday and today a rather important figure in Bradford-On-Avon's community shook my hand on my door step whilst telling me they liked the website very much indeed.
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