I have a few different hobbies all of which, I think, can be described as pretty geeky. One of these is Napoleonic re-enactment. Generally this involves me spending a few weekends a year sitting around in fields in funny clothes drinking tea/wine (depending on the time of day). There are various things that attract people to re-enacting but for me it’s all about the people and getting away from the stresses and strains of modern life. There’s something about changing into ‘kit’ at the beginning of weekend that lets me switch off from all of things I normally spend my time worrying about. Also you get to meet a whole range of people in a setting that means you don’t have the normal tools to judge them – which is a great leveller. I’m not one of life’s outgoing types and I cope far better with situations where there is easily identified common ground to start off conversations.

Anyway it’s not really the weather for going camping so the winter ‘off’ season is party season. This Saturday I spent the evening having a party in the splendid setting of the SS Great Britain, with around 70 others. A chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones. It’s in dry docks in Bristol so no danger of getting seasick.

The ship is beautiful and has the most amazing full size recreation of the steam engine. Looking round during pre-dinner drinks on the promenade deck with everyone in their regency finery really was like stepping back in time. Apologies for the quality of the photo’s – I only had my phone and the lighting wasn’t great.