My good friend Simon and I recently visited Skipton. Skipton is home to a superbly preserved castle, but Simon and I didn’t get chance to see it.
We explored the town, on a regular day, rather than a market day. It had lots of lovely little shops. Some reasonably priced, some not. Some selling some unique products, some selling tat.
There were a couple of new age/holistic well-being shops selling crystals and the like, but no pagan shops selling witchcraft supplies.
We had a pub lunch and then went for a walk following the upward path of an unknown waterfall. Here are some photos of the waterfall:
All Write Up North, Image From & Copyright Wigan Council, 2020.
All Write Up North was the first Writers, Authors and Illustrators event in Wigan. The event was held yesterday and was hosted by Wigan Council’s Libraries. The event was well attended and had a warm welcome. Refreshments were available throughout and lunch was provided. The event couldn’t have been better organised.
I went along hoping to learn something from the workshops, to use the opportunity to network and to promote my book.
I didn’t manage to get into any of the workshops. The first one I missed due to the room being too small for the number of people interested, the other two I missed due to getting chatting to some friends and losing track of time.
It was wonderful to be around so many Writers. Although being honest it was a little disappointing to see the lack of Writers in my age group, most where older.
I met author of Address Book, Simon Tingle. Address Book is a short book of poetry about the people that have or do inspire him. I shall do a book review soon.
I’m looking forward to future events and to entering any future competitions they have. I only found out about the event a few days before. So to avoid this happening again, I am now following @WiganLibraries on Twitter.
The Northwest Boroughs Healthcare NHS Trust have taken my report seriously and the feedback has been responded to with both top-down and bottom-up approaches.
The meeting couldn’t have gone better and I left feeling very assured that they had not only taken my concerns seriously, but responded to them appropriately. They are due to write a formal response to me in due course.
I followed this with a self-care treat of a 60 minute full body massage. This was relaxing and de-stressing. It was a GroupOn deal, I’ve never used GroupOn before, but it’s great for trying out new experiences or businesses at a reduced price. So check it out.
Yesterday I attended a meal to celebrate what would have been Alex, my younger brother’s 28th birthday.
Words that sum up my last few days: unease, anxiety, bravery, changing things for the better, relaxing, de-stressing, remembrance, celebration.
April brought a change to my medication for my mood disorder. This change led to an unstable mood and would lead to a crash into a depressive episode later on in the year.
In April I also got my gorgeous kitten, a black Bengal that I named Nicholas:
Nick, my black Bengal kitten, he wouldn’t take his eyes off me, I think I was being stalked :P.
Quickly becoming my favourite animal, the giraffes. What I love about giraffes is that every time I’ve politely called over to one (in different Zoos I might add), they come over. They look at me with their big black eyes and some times, if I’m really lucky, they let me take a photo before they walk off.
This is how close we got to a Lion. Able to look in its eye and see the intelligence, along with the hunter instinct. He appeared to be eyeing us up as a snack. Blackpool Zoo had two male Lions living in the enclosure together from what I saw. They seemed pretty well bonded and one went and groomed the other while we watched.
Look how close we got to this tiger at Blackpool Zoo. In Chester Zoo I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tiger, let alone been able to get close enough to appreciate its stripy beauty.
Orangutan.
The parade of Elephants.
Penguins.
This photo of a penguin is most probably the best photo I’ve ever taken. The penguin was swimming at great speed, although you wouldn’t have guested. I looked at this photo when I got home and it looks like it was taken by a professional. A total fluke.
