Visit to Nottingham University Park and Bakewell area

Set in beautiful grounds — worth visiting

VISITING DERBYSHIRE AND NOTTINGHAMSHIRE — BIRTHDAY TREAT!
Recently, we had a short break away to celebrate my hubby’s birthday and visit family. We stayed in a Sleeplodge in Derbyshire. We booked into a ‘superior room’, which had facilities for meal preparation (sink, kettle, toaster, fridge, and a microwave). Certainly it had a posh new bathroom, plenty of hot water and heating. The view from the window was also good. However, certain things did not come up to scratch. But never mind that, we had a lovely time visiting my sister near Nottingham (taking her to the Nottingham University Highfields Park, and the Attenborough Nature Reserve. We had a great lunch with my hubby’s sisters and their husbands, plus visits to their homes. We also visited Chatsworth Farm Shop and the Garden Centre on the Chatsworth Estate. A pleasant walk round Bakewell too. A lot to pack in and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Visiting the University Park always brings back memories of my youth (we used to live about a mile away) and, of course, Derbyshire is where my hubby was born (85 years ago) and lived until work and then marriage meant leaving home.

We sisters in University Park, Nottingham

View from sleeplodge window

The apartment’s posh bathroom

ARIA; Left Luggage by Geoff Nelder — a review by G B Hobson

ARIA; Left Luggage by Geoff Nelder

Beware luggage left on your ‘doorstep’!

It must be incredibly difficult to come up with a unique and yet believable storyline for a Science Fiction novel. It appears that Geoff Nelder has done precisely that. The plot is simple and yet mind-blowing.

A simple-looking case planted by aliens on an orbiting space station makes the story of the Trojan Horse look like a mere nursery tale. The whole human race is threatened, not by hordes of odd-looking space creatures as seen on certain TV dramas, but by an unseen virus — Alien Retrograde Infectious Amnesia — that invades the brain as soon as contact is made. But there is nothing to indicate contamination, that is, until it is obvious that memory is being eaten away at an alarming rate. No one appears to be immune. With no cure, it does not take long for ARIA to become the gravest mankind issue the world, as we know it, has ever been faced with.

I know what it is like to have a loved one suffer from Dementia. It is a cruel disease and heartbreaking for all concerned. But to have the whole population in various stages of rapid amnesia — aggression, mounting diseases, starvation, bodies stinking in the streets and everything in a state of chaos and horror — is a dreaded nightmare from which there is no awakening… or so it seems. But all is not lost — YET.

Our heroes and heroines, highly believable characters who have, so far, escaped contamination are yet to make their mark in world history.  Dare we hope the alien force will relent and deliver relief before the END? Or must we put our faith in human resourcefulness?

An unusual, mind-blowing read. I look forward to the second book of the trilogy.

Go To Publisher’s website for more details

Can be bought at Amazon (Both UK and Amazon.com plus The Book Depository