I’ve just been off work for a week on much needed annual leave. I’ve had a great week off, the weather has been warm, but with intermittent sun and showers. Here’s a list of things I’ve done:
Had plenty of rest and relaxation – including some naps here and there.
Attended Wigan Pride (gay pride event), organised by BYOU+. It was a great event which included: a parade led by the legendary Sir Ian Mckellen (better known to some as Gandalf or X-Men’s Magneto), a stage with local performers performing (also opened by Mckellen) and a marketplace of information stalls. BYOU+ and the residence of Wigan did Wigan proud and it is an event that I shall look forward to attending again in the future. Here are some photos from the day:
Wigan Pride Parade (1)Wigan Pride Parade (2)Wigan Pride Parade (3)Wigan Pride Parade (4)Wigan Pride Parade (5)The closest I could get to Sir Ian Mckellen (under the rainbow brolly).Wigan Pride Main StageSir Ian Mckellen opening the main stage (1)
Sir Ian Mckellen opening the main stage (2)
Caught up with Sye, James and Sye’s family (who are kind of like my adoptive family!).
Had my eyes tested at Specsavers, got a new prescription and had the lenses put in my existing FCUK frames (as I still love them and they suit the shape my face).
Had coffee out (twice) and lunch out (once) on my own, to have some me time.
Went on my monthly man date, we had dinner out at a posh place.
Article 3: Freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment
Article 4: Freedom from slavery and forced labour
Article 5: Right to liberty and security
Article 6: Right to a fair trial
Article 7: No punishment without law
Article 8: Respect for your private and family life, home and correspondence
Article 9: Freedom of thought, belief and religion
Article 10: Freedom of expression
Article 11: Freedom of assembly and association
Article 12: Right to marry and start a family
Article 14: Protection from discrimination in respect of these rights and freedoms
Protocol 1, Article 1: Right to peaceful enjoyment of your property
Protocol 1, Article 2: Right to education
Protocol 1, Article 3: Right to participate in free elections
Protocol 13, Article 1: Abolition of the death penalty
Article 1 & 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) are not in The Human Rights Act (1998), as they are covered within the Act.
It is open to interpretation. For example, Article 12: The right to marry. Despite the Human Rights Act being dated 1998, Civil Partnerships for gay people only became legal in the UK in 2005. Gay Marriage only became legal in the UK in 2013. Prior to this the right to marry in the Human Rights Act (1998) was interpreted as only applying to straight people.
What it lacks?
With rights should come responsibilities. The Human Rights Act (1998) lacks listing responsibilities of the citizen, of local government and of national government. However you could argue that these responsibilities are covered by other UK laws.
The Human Rights Act does place a duty on Public Authorities to act within ways that are compatible with the Act, but again, this is open to interpretation.
Why?
The Human Rights Act (1998) exists to outline the rights and freedoms that every person in the UK should be entitled to.
When?
The Human Rights Act was passed through UK parliament in 1998, but came into force in October 2000.
How?
If a citizen feels their Human Rights have been denied, they can ask a court of law to look at their case. But this is a complex process and without good legal support can be difficult. This means that justice on Human Rights breeches are only challenged if people can afford good legal counsel, or are supported by certain charitable organisations that do work around Human Rights.
The Future of Human Rights?
The Government wants to replace The Human Rights Act (1998) with a British Bill of Rights. The concern is that this new bill of rights could weaken the rights laid out in The Human Rights Act and be even more open to interpretation than the current Act.
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What’s new? Lots. In this blog post I’ll be telling you all about new things I’ve bought (or been treated to by others), my latest batch of homemade and handmade candles, my experience of using Bipolar UK’s eCommunity, attending my local Bipolar Support Group and dealing with a change to my medication.
Things
I’ve got quite a number of new things recently. I saved up and bought-in-bulk the following Dorothy Morrison candles and oils from The Angry Cauldron:
Photo above is of my candle collection.
Photo above is of my oils chest. Included are Dorothy Morrison limited edition oils and other essential oils.
My old hoover started making sounds like it was going to explode and takeout half of the town with it. So I bought a new one:
My New Hoover bought on Amazon: VYTRONIX VTBC01 1400w Compact Cyclonic Bagless Cylinder Vacuum Cleaner HEPA Hoover
My mum recently got a new sofa. She kindly gifted me her old sofa. It was really appreciated as my old sofas were knackered. To protect the leather from scratches by my cats, I bought throws and rubbed lemongrass essential oil on the sofa in places they would be tempted to scratch. Cats don’t like lemongrass essential oil or at least mine don’t. I also dug out some old cushions to match the throws.
Here are the results, a lovely sofa and chair, which are both like new:
New sofa with brown throw and red & gold cushions.
New sofa chair with red throw and red & gold cushion.
My birthday came and went without any real celebration. Lots of people gave me money, which I am going to save for when I go away for a night in June.
But for the May full moon I’d burned one of my Dorothy Morrison Hot Damn candles. I had a load of wax remains on my altar and then came up with an idea: What if I bought a Wax Melter and burned the remains? I saw this gorgeous Yankee Candle Wax Melter on ebay and couldn’t resist:
This gorgeous Yankee Candle Wax Melter was what I bought with some of the money I got for my birthday. The orange wax burning is the remains of a Dorothy Morrison Hot Damn candle (purchased from The Angry Cauldron).
A good friend of mine got married yesterday. I needed a suit for her Wedding and I picked up this stylish and absolutely bargain priced suit:
I bought this Charcoal Grey suit from ASDA for a bargain price of £50 (£35 for the jacket and £15 for the pants) for a friend’s Wedding. It looks exactly like a Next suit but was probably around one third of the price.
Candle Creation
In January I made a batch of homemade and handmade White Champagne & Strawberry candles. I couldn’t blog about them at the time because a number were reserved as gifts for people. I gave one to my mum for Mother’s Day, one to my Grandma for her 75th birthday, one to Simon and two to my friend for her Wedding. Here is a photo of one of my candles:
My latest batch of handmade and homemade candles. They are White Champagne & Strawberry Candles in a 500ML mason jars.
I’ve completely run out of wax and fragrance. I’m hoping to do a batch of orange Pumpkin Spice candles and possibly repeat the red Hot Cinnamon candles.
The eCommunity is an active forum/message board where users (who can be people with bipolar or friends or relatives of someone with bipolar) can ask one another questions, share experiences and share helpful information. It’s free to use, open 24 hours and 7 days a week, and goes a long way to reduce isolation people with bipolar can experience.
I regularly check the forum and have posted there and replied to the posts of others. You can access Bipolar UK’s eCommunity here.
My local support group meets once a month. It took a lot for me to go along to a meeting, but I’m so glad I did. Nobody can understand bipolar or a mood disorder as much as someone who lives with it.
The facilitator and all participants of the group that I have met have been really friendly. I have found conversations there to be very useful and learned a lot just by listening and talking to others.
My group isn’t well attended and I think Community Mental Health Teams could do more to promote these local support groups (both in terms of posters/leaflets in waiting rooms and speaking to patients about them). These groups are free to access and go along way to reduce isolation. You can find your local Bipolar Support Group here.
Medication
I’ve recently started on Venlafaxine (antidepressant).
I’ve been in a depressive episode since at least last November. So I’m currently in the process of cross tapering, off Mirtazapine and on to Venlafaxine (NHS). So far the side effects of Venlafaxine have been quite severe. My side effects have included:
Dilated (large) pupils.
Daily headaches.
Being tired but wired.
Waves of nausea & dizziness.
Decreased appetite (not always a bad side effect).
Huge yawns.
Apparently Venlafaxine withdrawal is very severe. So I have two hopes for this medication. One that it improves my mood. Two that it is several years before my brain develops a tolerance and I have to be weaned off it and on to something else.
My friend Simon and I went back up to Hadrian’s Wall to continue our adventure following the Wall from one side of the country to the other, stopping at various sites of interest along the way.
We started this adventure last year in Cumbria. You can read about and see photos from last year in the The Hadrian’s Wall AdventurePart 1 and Part 2.
The day was dry and sunny, but it did get colder in the late afternoon. So here’s where we went, along with photos:
Haydon Bridge.
Haydon Bridge
Haydon Bridge is a village with an old bridge (photoed left) across River South Tyne. The village is very quaint and worth a short visit. Haydon Bridge is now a walk way, but would have been used as a crossing for people, horsemen and carts.
Essential Info:
Free parking is available on roads in the village.
Public Toilets are free to use and on both sides of the bridge.
The village has several pubs, a chemist, a chippy, a Tandoori restaurant and some guest houses.
Recommended for a short visit. The bridge is the only thing of note that we saw.
We decided to stop at Hexham next. Hexham is a bigger village than Haydon Bridge, with an Abbey. However as we drove around the town centre looking for parking, all signage said Parking Disc Required, but no signage gave instructions or directions on how to get a parking disc. It was a busy Saturday afternoon, with some event on at the Abbey, so we decided to give Hexham a miss.
Chesters Fort & Museum
Chesters Fort & Museum is magnificent and is a site maintained by English Heritage. It has loads to see and do including: the remains of a Fort and Bath House, a picnic area, spy holes that show where Hadrian’s Wall would have been (including across the North Tyne river), a brilliant museum full of stone works (statues, altars, depiction of Gods & Goddesses) and tools, weapons and jewellery, a gift shop, a tea room and toilets. The only downside to this fantastic attraction is that the cost of parking along with its reasonable admission price makes it an overall an expensive experience.
The signs dotted throughout the attraction are really informative and is probably the best example of signage throughout my entire Hadrian’s Wall Adventure adventure. For example, one sign read that about 500 horses and men would have been stationed at this Fort. The next sign read that a horse urinates and defecates 12KGS of waste a day. This was my Fact of the Day. Just think of all that waste, along with that of the humans.
Essential Info:
Remains of a Fort and Bath House.
Also includes a Museum, Picnic Area, Tea Room and Gift Shop.
Toilets available.
Highly Recommended.
Admission Price: £7.30 for an adult with gift aid (£6.60 without).
Opening Times: Vary throughout the year. View here.
Parking: Pay and Display at £3.00.
Here are photos from Chesters Fort & Museum:
Chesters Fort (1) – 500 Horsemen would have lived in this Fort.Chesters Fort (2) – Remains of Stables.Chesters Fort (3) – Entrance Gatehouse.Chesters Fort (4) – Hadrian’s Wall will have run across the North Tyne river at this point. You can see the continuation of the Wall on the other side of the bank.Chesters Fort (5) – The Roman Baths.Chesters Fort (6) – The Roman Baths Porch.Chesters Fort (7) – The Roman Baths.Chesters Fort (8) – Presumably a trough for the horses to eat/drink from.Chesters Fort (8) – The Roman Baths, a cold bath.Chesters Fort (9) – The Roman Baths.Chesters Fort (10) – The Roman Baths Steam Room.Chesters Fort (11) – South East Angle Tower.Chesters Fort (12) – Possibly a storage room or stronghold.Chesters Fort (13) – A well in the main villa, which still had water in,Chesters Fort (14) – Flooring.Chesters Fort (15) – More flooring.Chesters Museum (1) – The Clayton Museum was a brilliant museum full of stone works (statues, altars, depiction of Gods & Goddesses), as well as tools, weapons and jewellery.Chesters Museum (2) – Entrance. Inside stone works lined each of the walls.Chesters Museum (3) – A headless statue of Juno Regina (Queen Juno). Apparently Queen Juno was one of the most important deities in Roman Religion, known as the protector and special counsellor of the state.Chesters Museum (4) – Various altars.
Then we drove through a village called Wall. After passing through Wall we saw signs for Brunton Turret.
Brunton Turret
Brunton Turret is remains of a Turret that would have been one of many along Hadrian’s Wall. It’s in a famers field and there is a designated Parking place at the side of the road. It is a quick site to visit that will take you all of 5 minutes to walk to and see. Photos are below.
Essential Info:
Remains of a Turret and some of Hadrian’s Wall, in a farmers field.
Free parking is in designated space at the side of the road.
Well signposted.
Brunton Turret (1) – Hadrian’s Wall.Brunton Turret (2) – Where the soldiers would have been stationed.Corbridge Roman Town – We chose not to go in, as it looked very similar to Chesters Fort & Museum which we had visited earlier in the day.
Corbridge Roman Town
Corbridge Roman Town is another Roman Town, maintained by English Heritage. We opted not to visit this site, as it looked very similar to Chesters Fort & Museum.
Essential Info:
Remains of a Roman Town.
Also includes a Museum, Picnic Area and Gift Shop.
Toilets available.
Admission Price: £7.20 for an adult with gift aid (£6.50 without).
Opening Times: Vary throughout the year. View here.
Free Parking on site.
Next year Simon and I plan to visit Newcastle to complete our tour across Hadrian’s Wall from one side of the country to the other.
