Blast from the Past: July 22nd 2000

July 22nd 2000

"Today was fun but tiring. My opinion was it was pretty cool. We rode on a train to Warwick station and walked to the Warwick Castle. Our plans were to look around, to eat, then have a look in the castle until 3:00. So, we split up again. Mom and me, Joe and Lex, Dad and Katie, Carl and Bibby. Mom and I went to the Ghost Tower first. This guy, his name was something... Greville, was murdered by his servant (I don't know his name) and then the servant killed himself. And the rumor is that Greville's ghost haunts the tower at night. Then mom and I went ot the torture chamber. It luckily didn't have any wax figures or demonstrations, just the devices. I thought the worst one was "The Boot". They slipped the victim's foot into a "boot" around they're shin and clamped it shut. Then, they rotated it around the skin and the spikes ground the skin and bone to pulp. I was like, "Horrible!" so I left.
At 2:45 we headed towards the field with the tournament. Here are the details: There were five knights in different colors: Yellow, Green, Red, White, and Black. A Jester who told you what was going on, told us all the cheer for them all but the Black, but the Black happen to be the coolest one! So I cheered him on too. There was also a girl dressed kind of like Xena riding on a pure white horse around the arena in front of the others. For the first part they all did tricks on their horses across the arena, then they all hit these fake knights with their sticks, then these tiny little shields, and then the Black knight had changed his black horse with a white one and had the horse do tricks around the arena. Then came the jousting. The knights came around the arena slowly asking for hair accessories to put on their sticks for good luck for fun and Katie put her scrunchy on the Yellow knight's pole. The White knight won them all but the Black one, then they dueled, then the White one won...what's new?
After the show, I wanted to find the horses so Lex and I went to find them. We found them, and I pet and fed the Black knight's trick horse. Then we had been told to meet by the clock so that's where we headed. When we got there, we both sat and read (by the way, I finished Phantom Tollbooth and now I'm in the middle of Silverwing, which is so far pretty good!) Lex has summer reading. I feel bad! She hates the book she's reading.
I'm getting so mad with Uncle Carl! He won't talk to me! I try to talk to him, he either doesn't listen, or changes the subject to either Lexy or Bibby. It is getting really annoying. I told mom, and she said dad will talk to him. I've written everything about today, so, bye!"


Our nickname for my cousin Olivia was "Bibby". I don't know why, and I never have, but that's what we called her.

The Iron Boot. That's what the device was called. Spikes on the inside, and if it was a boot and they twisted it around the shins, my guess is it broke the victim's ankle as well. I remember the chamber was full of all the crazy devices they used to use, and as I was standing by some chains, a small speaker next to them emitted the sound of chains jangling and I about died. I couldn't believe all the awful things they used to do to people back then...

I don't remember much about the jousting tournament. It's all a blur. That was a really long day, but I remember being super happy when we came home that day, so we all obviously had a good time. And I do remember feeling really awkward around my Uncle. It was like he had absolutely nothing to say to me, and if I tried to talk to him he got all weird and changed the subject. I tried so hard to be friendly, but it just wasn't working. So I eventually stopped talking to him all together. Whatever... maybe it was just 14-year-old angst.