So I haven't been online for the last five days, have watched no TV and I've had next to no phone signal. Why? I have, quite literally, been living the dream.
The Arvon foundation are an incredible little foundation that provide creative writing courses for both adults and school students. They have four houses over the UK (we went to Totleigh Barton) that are the base for these courses and each week, they have published authors or poets that tutor you and help with your creative writing. Now, I've heard about this particular school trip for bloody years. Each year, a group of friends of mine come back and are raving about it. I mean, literally raving. They go on and on about how fabulous it is and I have always wanted to get myself a little slice of this so called heaven.
So when I started my English literature A level course and had a teacher say the words "we're going to Arvon", I was right at the front of the queue. It turned out that I was the only one in this particular queue, but nothing was going to stop me. I was going to see what all this fuss was about myself. So I was the only one in my class that took up this fabulous opportunity which was, quite frankly, fine by me. Although a lovely class, I wouldn't say I have anything in common with any of them which is a shame I suppose, but not something I am likely to dwell on. So there I was, getting on a bus with a group of year 10s that I didn't know. A friend of mine was eventually invited to fill up places but I didn't know 15 out of the 16 people I was going to spend a week of my life with.
I was dubious to say the least.
So I knew that this place was going to be in the middle of nowhere. I'd heard that there would be no phone signal. All fine. Whatever. The (slightly strange) bus driver starts going from motorways to duel carriageways to smaller roads until we're on this track that is literally in the back of beyond. Go a little further and what's that we spy? A house?! Sat in that valley where you can see nothing but fields and green? Yup. That's Home for the next 5 days.
The house, I must say, is absolutely beautiful and a real highlight to me. It can be found in the Doomsday book which makes it 1000+ years old and there are parts that are back to the 17th century. It's gorgeous. When I say picturesque, I mean in the old way that you can practically still see the maids and horse drawn carriages. My room was pretty big actually, conjoined with the one that my friend was staying in, with a sofa (yay!) and a set of creaky old stairs that lead down directly into the kitchen. You can't get better than that, really. I fell down them three times and fell up them once. I have a bruise on my shin as evidence. But I kind of fell in love with those stairs.
The kitchen definitely deserves a mention. Not only was it as beautiful as the rest of the house, that place was magical. We were treated so incredibly well and food was never in short supply. An absolute feast was put on for us each lunch, but there was an endless supply of goodies. The biscuit barrel was full despite people never leaving it alone, we went through ~ 32 cartons of juice and we polished off 2 bottles of balsamic vinegar. I'm pretty proud to have been a part of it.
We were introduced to Eliza who is part of the running of the house and was lovely. Ground rules were laid down, bla bla bla. Dinner was served - pasta bake. Yummers - and we had a session in the barn where we met our tutors for the week.
These were two absolutely lovely people that really were inspiring. Jen Hadfield, a poet with the most soothing voice of anyone I have ever met. And Adam Marek who had hair that slightly resembled hair ala David Tennant Doctor Who and hands that dwarfed the mugs we had, but was a really nice guy.
Dinner each evening was cooked by a team of four of us and the food was absolutely yum. Salmon, Sausage and Mash, Curry, Lamb. It was gorgeous and all locally sourced, organic, fresh. It was like living a healthy life for once. I liked it. And it was really nice that we were all cooking for each other because it meant that everyone actually tried the food, even if they thought they wouldn't like it. I must say, I am guilty of saying I wouldn't like the Tagine because it was a jumble of everything I hate - Aubergine, Courgette Almonds, Tomato, Chickpeas. Yugh! - but it was bloody lovely! Round of applause for the chefs that night!
Each morning we had a workshop with both tutors with a small break in between and to say that the workshops were random is an understatement. Jen had us all holding potatoes and writing about them from the point of view of different people - us, a member of out family, the potatoe itself - and I was wondering what the hell I'd actually signed up to when I read over my poem from the point of view of an woman that had seen a potatoe for the first time in the 17th century. By jove, I think she actually knew what she was doing! I'd produced a poem that wasn't half bloody bad without even really thinking I'd been writing poetry. Well played, Jen. Well played.
On evening two, Adam and Jen both read us some of their own work. Jen's poetry was beautiful (as you'd expect) and Adam read us the title short story from his collection, "The Stone Thrower". Although a lovely story, I did have to ask why he seemed to have a fondness for decapitating chickens. It all became clear in the end.
I won't go into every minute of every day but here are some of my particular favourite moments.
* Sheepwash*
The nearest "town" as I kept on calling it wasn't a town at all. The teacher that came with us, Mrs Carroll, actually laughed when I asked someone if "they were going into town" and I soon found out why. The 2.5 mile walk there across country roads, surrounded by trees the entire time, eventually came to the so called "town". If you can call a Post office and a pub a town. Which you can't. It was tiny and overpriced (£2.60 for a large bar of Dairy milk) but noone complained because hey, they have to make a living and the walk was surprisingly nice. I really liked getting to know everyone on the walk and when you're going to a place called Sheepwash, you find that you can't help but enjoy it.
* The Ghosts *
As mentioned above, the house we stayed in was pretty bloody old. Someone, at some point, definitely died in it. It's the perfect place to be murdered aswell, by the way. You would never be found. But Heidi and Milly were terrified of their room. People had been moving things around there all day convincing them that it was haunted. Milly said she felt something brush past her in the hallway and so she was on edge, thinking she was going to die. Hannah and I, being the charmers we are, thought it would be a good idea to wind them up even more so I snuck into their bedroom, hid behind the bed and waited for them to come back in which of course they did. So I slap my hand up on the wall and sit up. Milly absolutely lost it. When she didn't stop crying for a good 10 minutes, I started to feel pretty bad but hey, it was still pretty funny and as I kept on telling her, it was character building!
When ghostly stuff started to happen in mine and Hannahs cojoined room on the last night - yeah. Not so funny. We didn't sleep in there that night. Ironically, we slept in Milly and Heidi's.
Karma is a bitch.
* The People *
As I've said, Jen and Adam were fantastic. I'll definitely be hunting their books down when I can. But it wasn't just them that made my 5 days in the middle of the countryside so good.
Tim Bowler, the visiting author that came on Wednesday evening to talk to us, was just amazing. I'm aware I'm using "amazing", "incredible" and "fantastic rather a lot but whatever. He was the kindest man you could ever wish to meet and an absolute joy to listen to. The extracts from his books that he read were just mind blowing. What cliff hangers! He was a dream, and I will definitely be hunting down some of his (many many many) books.
The year 10s that I had previously been dubious about turned out to be an absolute dream. Although sometimes a little too loud for this old-at-19-year-old, they were absolutely freaking hilarious Milly was never not singing something or other, Heidi had a horrifically sore throat from day one and so I'm still yet to hear her 'normal' voice, Tom is an absolute sweet heart that eats far too much and who I didn't really understand a word of any of the stories he told, Beth is someone that I never would have though I would get along with but really did and the list goes on. They were all so different but together, made a group that really worked. There were no arguments, no fights, and I think Hannah and I were the only ones that actually fought, but hey. We're an old married couple anyway. If we didn't fight? That would be where the problem was.
The two teachers that came with us were also an absolute joy. Mrs Carroll, my English teacher, and Miss Hughes the school librarian took on a big challenge when they decided to take 16 teenagers away for five days. But I'm so glad they did. Not only was it a chance to get to know two ladies that I admire a lot even better, but it was a chance to know them out of school for a while, with their teachers heads put to one side for a while. I feel a little sorry for Miss Hughes because she had to deal with all the ghostly shenanigans and I must say, did very well in not going absolutely mental at the late night screaming and yelling that went on. She also makes a damn good cup of coffee.
Mrs Carroll has exactly - and I mean exactly - the same taste in books that I do. If you're a reader, you know how much that means. When you can say to someone "Have you read *blank*" and get a million and one book recommendations from a person, you know they're your type of person. Apart from belting out Bohemian Rhapsody, doing the Harlem Shake and generally being an absolute hoot and a half, she really made the week awesome. Thanks, Mrs C.
I produced two pieces of work that I am bloody proud of over those 5 days and now have a million memories that will make me laugh for a long long time. I met and grew to love people I never thought I would (it's funny how being around people 24/7 speeds up the friendship process) and I've had a week that I will never forget.
I've found adapting to my 'real' life of phones and tv and contactable 24/7 a lot harder to adapt to than the other way around and I miss the place already. I don't know. Maybe I just get attached to easily.
I cannot stress enough that if you get the change to go to any of the Arvon houses for a week, you must go. You're missing out on so much if you don't.
Thank you to all those that made my week one to remember.
M x
