Laurie's birthday today - here he is speeding along on his first real bike!

It's the Under-the-Pier-Show!

Snow again last night! Decided to go for a run down the hill to the seafront; absolutely beautiful. I was a bit wary of slipping over in the icy/snowy/slush but had no problems at all.

In the afternoon, struggling to keep Laurie entertained, we resorted to the pier. After letting him run about the arcade, we wandered onto the pier itself and rediscovered 'The End of the Pier Show'; such a delight after the predictable tackiness of the arcade. the 'show' consists of a room on the pier within which you find a series of unique 'slot machine' experiences, all designed by local enthusiasts. Really, they're a series of surreal, often humorous 'experiences'. 'Crankenstein' invites you to bring Frankenstein's monster to life by cranking the generator wheel as fast as you can. Succeed and 'Frank' will growl and lunge for you! 'Test Your Nerve' dares you to place your trembling and vulnerable hand between the bars of a cage housing a slavering, sharp-incisored hell-hound complete with glowing red eyes. You have to try to keep your hand still whilst the beast tries to wrap it's jaws around your fingers. Great stuff for 40p; Guitar Hero next door has nothing on this.

Today I spent my 40p on 'The Booth of Truth'. A truly psychedelic experience. Stepping into the small booth, I was immediately enveloped in darkness as red velvet curtains swept closed from behind. An ethereal voice from above then prompted me to gaze into the mirror before me. Lights danced before me, to the side of me. Lights stretching on into infinity. Red lights, yellow lights; I felt myself entering a higher plane of consciousness. Secrets were revealed to me there which it would not do to reveal here; visit Southwold if you want to discover all the Booth's secrets!

What I really love about 'The End of the Pier Show' is that it takes you to another world; it feels like the past but a past that never existed. The 'Booth' I visited today, for example, has all the trappings of Victoriana; the red curtains, an ornately carved bronze framed mirror, flickering yellow candlelight (albeit electrically stimulated). And yet, if a Victorian had ever experienced the booth with its disembodied voices and its impossible, psychedelic lighting tricks then he/she would have surely believed they had met with some kind of supernatural encounter. For me, 'The End of the Pier Show' is like stepping inside a steampunk novel for five minutes - all steam powered infernal machines, wires and cogs: everything analogue nothing digital. Hell hounds and Reanimated beings...fantastic.

It's nearly Christmas and the wolves are ruinning again!

I've just finished Masefield's 'Box of Delights'. It's actually the first time i've ever read it but even so, it looms large in my childhood memories thanks to the BBC t.v. production from (I think) the 1980's.

Come to think of it, I don't even think I saw the programme the whole way through but it was trailed heavily that year and the images of snow, the hauting bell-tingling theme tune and, of course, those wolves have stayed with me all those years. I can clearly rember that Christmas - I must have been 10 or 11 - and 'The Box of Delights' seemed to encapsulate everything that was magical and mysterious about that time of year.

Now I've actually gotten around to reading it I've got mixed feelings; I love the snowy-winter's evening atmosphere which was exactly what I was hoping for and Abner is a great villian, a Bond-villain before his time really, complete with cars that turn into planes and underground lair (accessed, as lairs of this kind have to be, by an elevator concealed behind the fireplace). But I can't get on with some of the secondary world stuff - I want more of Abner and the box, not pages of feasting on mixed berries with 'The Lady of the Oak'!

To my mind, a book which gives me the same kind of christmassy feeling and also creates a haunting, mysterious atmosphere but which integrates its secondary world more effectively is Susan Cooper's 'The Dark is Rising'. Paul Magrs has discussed these two books on his excellent blog, pointing out that 'TDIR' is, in many ways, a reworking of Masefield's earlier work; which was obvious while I was reading but i'd never thought of it before!