Awake at 6am, but somehow still managed to not be ready in time for Lift Up Your Pens at 8am. After breakfast I went to the Write a Haunting Tale course, to learn about ghost stories - something I've never managed to write but would like to. There were lots of inspirational pictures up around the walls and Stella, the course leader, let me take a particularly interesting one with me when we left. In the gap between the two parts we were instructed to wander around the Hayes looking for our spooky elements, and I found mine down by the lake in a spot where the reflection of the willow looks much more sinister than the tree itself.
In the tea break I bought some postcards, intending to cheer up my boyfriend, who was sick at home, by sending him one every day. This would have worked better had they not all arrived on the same day - so much for first class stamps!
Two lots of homework from the poetry course, a toy soldier and a tiny key, because there aren't classes on the fourth day of Swanwick, it being reserved for the excursion and catching up on writing/sleep. With half an hour to fill, I then went on a wander to explore the old house and found lots of very odd corridors off of corridors, including one that stank of cigarette smoke. There were lounges both with and without TVs, communal bathrooms with actual baths, and at some point the rooms started to have letters instead of numbers. I didn't see either of the ghosts, but the place has a definite atmosphere.
After my wander I went to the poetry reading by Matt Black, and bought one of his books in the spirit of reading more modern poetry. Tea was the most random meal so far - topped with mashed potato so we thought it was shepherd's pie, but when it was dished up it turned out to be some indeterminate white flesh in sauce. Our next thought was fish pie, but it actually turned out to be chicken. Even though it was topped with mash, we also had roast potatoes. It wouldn't be Swanwick without a few mystery meals!
The speaker was Alan Samson, who works as an editor for celebrity books. I was going to skip it, as the subject doesn't interest me at all, but went along with my notebook in the end with the plan fo doing my homework if I got bored. As tends to happen in these cases he was actually very funny, although there was a problem with the sound system that gave me a headache.
The evening entertainment was a quiz, latin and ballroom dancing, and a buskers' night. Once again, I ended up in bed early with a cup of tea and a magazine - after a frog rescue, escorting a friend down to the lake to deposit a tiny frog there.