Hello, and welcome to the GhostOfClayton twice-fortnightly blog. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin.

Trivia Answers

Firstly, I know you�ve all been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for the answers to to last week's quiz questions, so I will keep you in suspenders no longer:

Q1. What was known to the Romans as the Mare Nostrum? (Shame on you if you don't know that one!)

The Mediterranean

Q2. Which modern word derives from the Roman practice of posting news items at a junction of three roads?

Trivia � ('Tri' and 'Via')

Later addition: Q2a. What was the name of Frankie Howerd's character in 'Up Pompeii'?

Lurcio

Human League Update

Due to the many, many tonnes of snow that fell (the sheer weight of it actually brought down the roof of our local Tesco Extra superstore), I didn't get to see Human League. Thankfully, they cancelled and rescheduled, so I'm now going next Sunday.

A 'Keepy-Back' Story

Also due to the many, many tonnes of snow, nothing much has happened worth blogging this week, so I�ll tell you all a little story of something that happened to me a couple of years ago, and that I've been keeping back for just such an occaision. I contribute walks to a walking website called www.walkingworld.com. A few years ago, I was visiting the Cotswolds, so a fellow contributor asked me to check out a walk that they had been unable to visit for a year or so. This is fairly common practice among Contributors, and I rarely do any advance homework or look at a map � just turn up with the walk instructions and follow them � this is the best test they can get.

So, I set off, and about halfway round, came to a wood. The path into the wood was badly overgrown, and I was about to give up and turn round. I persisted, however, and gradually the brambles thinned out as I entered the wood proper. Some old masonry a few metres off the path caught my eye, and I had a quick look at the walk text to see if it was mentioned.

The ruin near the path is part of a Roman villa, but if you venture on beyond this to another small ruin with a corrugated roof, look under and see, covered with sheeting, a tiled mosaic floor.

Needless to say, I was intrigued. I located the referenced structure, sure enough, found this (not my photo):

How remarkable is that? In the middle of a wood (and the only way into the wood was overgrown) was this well preserved Roman mosaic floor, covered only by tarpaulin and a very run down looking lean-to topped off by old corrugated sheet! It should be in a museum somewhere, shouldn't it? Wow!

Weekly Stuff

There are only 67 more days until The Eagle of the ninth, and my Aterix book of the week is 'Asterix and the Golden Sickle'.