Bring me sunshine …
Phew. I’m glad to kick January out. It’s been freezing and hard to get back into the swing of things.
To help I’ve been on a tiny adventure and revisited hobby that I last did over 30 years ago! Clue – its not touching my toes…
The adventure was travelling to a fantastic art deco hotel, the Midland, on the English West Coast at Morecambe. It was stunning and looked out over the sea, which went out for miles and was so peaceful, compared to the lively North Sea on my doorstep.
There were a few gems, in particular the street art and the statue of a well-loved, now dead TV comedian, Eric Morecambe, who was born Eric Bartholomew but changed his stage name to honour his birthplace.
I also visited Lancaster on the way home, quite posh - two wool shops and good cafes as well as the best flapjack I’ve ever had at Lancaster Castle. It had been a working prison until fairly recently which surprised me, I presume the visitor attraction started after it had shut.
The photographer Chris Owens (who did my website pics) organises an interesting range of events through his Pattern image and storytelling website. His latest one, a few days ago was exploring failure with four speakers, Beth Hazon, Michael Ross, Lauren Archer-Hetherington and Charlie Charlton.
They were fantastic and SO candid. I sat with my fingers over my eyes and probably laughed too loud and inappropriately (sorry…) at tales of rude emails going to All Staff by mistake, major media conferences not recorded properly and people being inadvertently very tactless.
The sense of relief that it is not just me that cocks things up was massive. I love talking about failure, learning from it and the sense of camaraderie from sharing it. My own experience started early with failing my Maths and English O levels, in fact, I did eight and only passed four, despite working really hard. I know people with PhDs who don’t have O level Maths which might be a sign the old maths school tuition didn’t suit everyone.
To compensate I’ve revived a former hobby - knitting and next time I will post a photo of what I’ve achieved!
We need things to give us pleasure more than ever as the world news is so awful. I used to have to study it with my role at the North East Chamber of Commerce for statements and opinion pieces. So to begin my day on a happier note I’ve started reading Ben Aitken’s book The Gran Tour where he, a millennial, goes on Shearings holidays with OAPs. Every page has a laugh out loud moment, which my other half always loves to hear, or maybe not.
I saw Ben at Forum Books Corbridge when he was doing a tour about unloved cities and was covering my home town Sunderland. When I read it I was pleased he was full of praise for the people and what he’d experienced. Dodged a bullet. Him and the city.
As a writer I enjoy learning about techniques and Hattie Crisell spoke at Collected, the Durham bookshop specialising in women’s writing, last year. Her book In Writing, featuring brilliant authors and their advice is excellent. I’m learning so much.
Film-wise I’ve just seen the Bob Dylan film, A Complete Unknown. Brilliant performance by Timothee Chalamet. I thought Dylan came across as gifted but very arrogant – I was going to say prick but wasn’t sure if that was too much 😊
On TV I watched a film called No Exit which was a thriller set in America with a twist that made my jaw drop. Creepy but good!
Have a great weekend and thanks for reading this.