Days of Gratitude - Creativity, Charity, Cafes, Carousels, Coaches. And Darkness.

Five more days.  They were good days.  I spent them in Manchester staying with an awesome person, the creator of my soft toy Blob Thing.  She's a very busy person these days, excelling in her passion and slowly working her way towards her dream.  I believe that she will achieve that dream.  She has found her niche and it's a place where that great passion is combined with a talent and definite flair and I believe that she is going to affect the lives of lots of people in a very positive way as she continues to walk this path.  Autistic children will benefit massively and so will their parents/guardians and those around them.  They already do benefit massively but this is only the beginning.  One of my joys over the past sixteen months since meeting her has been to watch the way she has run down this path with such total enthusiasm and to watch the way that she has begun to create something pretty damn marvellous.  When I met her this thing did not exist anywhere but her head.  And now it does.  And there is much more in her head to become a physical reality at time progresses.  I am looking forward to watching it happen.

Five more days.  Since Amanda is so busy I now have to occupy myself quite a bit when I'm there.  I am finding ways to occupy myself and know that there is never a cause for me to be bored either when reading and writing at her house or when I go out - walking, visiting a town, writing in the library, or finding new places and people.

This visit was no exception and below you will find a few things I am excited about.  And a cafe that I'll be returning to.  It even has convenient plug sockets for a laptop.  Southport has also given me a writing prompt for a story that is churning in my head right now.  At some point it will come to rest and I'll know the broad outline of the tale.  But that's not something for now.  I'll just tell you it involves palmistry and an impossible fortune becoming possible.

Something else.  I am typing this at the Literary and Philosophical Society Library.  I joined today.  Yes, I am now officially a member.  I plan to spend lots of time here writing and reading.  Perhaps there will be people to meet too and it will become the source of more surprises in my life.  I hope so.

16^th December


Grateful to have found amazing places and things while having to spend hours in Manchester city centre without a plan.

Here:

A brilliant free creative space in Afflecks. With a possibility something similar might happen one day in Newcastle.

The awesome art cafe.

Some great street art.

So many pictures to choose from.

17^th December

Grateful for a great day with Amanda in Southport.

Chips, ice cream, charity shops, a carousel, and tea. Our kind of day.

And it was the first time I have ever seen the sea it Southport. On every other visit it was miles away.

18^th December

Grateful for darkness and light.  The not-church church I attended in Manchester was based on the theme of darkness.  I liked the people there.  I don't think it would be "my" place but I did like them and I liked the honesty and openness that was greater than that seen in most church churches.

And grateful for the women's toilets here in Nexus Art Cafe.

Yep, a gratitude post about a toilet.

19^th December

Grateful to spend most of the day with Amanda.

We caught the bus to Leigh for charity shops and to visit a very good cafe there.

A screen in the cafe displays slideshows of someone's photos. As I was paying I noticed the photos at that moment were of Newcastle.

20^th December

Grateful to have achieved the front seat on the coach back from Manchester.

Grateful for an easy journey.

And grateful for roast chicken. Because I am still a corpse eating monster.

Newcastle Upon Tyne - Pictures From Market Street To The Quayside, 4th November 2016

I told in my last post of how I had not succeeded in my challenge to photograph a gorilla in a tutu.  That's a sentence to confuse any chance readers who clicked on a link based on the title.

I had left an appointment at Broadacre House - a place where almost everything seems to happen - and needed to reach Tesco in Gateshead to buy a specific pizza.  I'd decided to walk a route which would take me past the maximum number of Snowdogs.  A Snowdog obsession was gradually developing.  They've become like Pokemon for me.  Gotta catch 'em all!  Or at least see them all and take pictures.

I hadn't quite given up on the gorilla idea that day and hoped to see one somewhere.  I decided that there might be one in an art gallery and since there was an exhibition on at the Abject Gallery I paid a visit.  There was no gorilla.  The paintings were good - and if the exhibition was still on I'd recommend seeing it.  I like Abject.  Both its galleries.  Most people in the city probably don't know that these galleries exist.  They are located in Bamburgh House, directly opposite Broadacre House on Market Street.  Even if you don't like art then you should go, because Abject is situated on the ninth floor and the views across the city are excellent.

I'd also recommend going round the corner to the galleries in the New Bridge Project and in Commercial Union House and in the building next to that too.  Newcastle has lots of little galleries that very often have interesting exhibitions that you'll love or hate.  Explore them - most of them are free entry so there's nothing to lose and much to gain.  I say that as a command to myself because I realise there are lots of galleries I've not visited yet - The Outsiders, System, Gallery North, and so on.  And if you get a chance to visit the Side Photographic Gallery then do.  That can be pretty awesome.

There wasn't a gorilla in abject.  There were paintings such as this, painted by a contemporary Chinese artist.  They were well painted but on this occasion weren't quite my kind of art.  That didn't matter.  I think it's good to see art and it's possible to find pleasure in it whether or not it matches your taste.

I left Abject and walked down the hill, in the general direction of Snowdogs.  As I descended I passed a couple of examples of art.  Some sticker art on a signpost.  And a piece of stencilling on the wall by the entrance to World Headquarters.

Down the hill some more.  I found this notice board containing all the useful news and information anyone would ever need in the city.  I wonder when these boards last contained information about anything.

And then into the tunnel near those boards.  It wasn't signposted.  At all.  I didn't have any idea what I would find at the other end but it seemed to be going in the right direction, seemingly under the city motorway that rips through our city.

I followed the tunnel.  It led to stairs and more stairs.  And then to a sign proclaiming that I was now in a multi-storey car park.  That wasn't the plan!  I thought about going back and finding a more normal route to the river.  But perhaps there would be another way out of the car park.  These steps couldn't be the only way.   So I stepped out of the stairwell into the light.  The view that greeted me was worth the stepping out.

I stood by the wall and looked down and for the first time in a long time I experienced a profound sense of vertigo accompanied by dizziness.  Far below me, immediately below me, was the city motorway.  And I had to step back.

I decided to climb to the top of the car park - or at least as close to the top as you can get.  And the view improved.  This is The Sage from a pleasing angle.  I spotted that the big graffiti wall behind the sage had changed since I last passed it a few months ago when that particular panel had been painted in tribute to David Bowie.

The tower is that of Holy Jesus Hospital.  I hadn't known there was a tower.  It was built in the mid-17th century, sometime during the Interregnum and thus predates the building of the actual hospital.

To continue with the views from the car park - of The Sage, Tyne Bridge, All Saints Church, and in front of them the main east coast railway line.

This is Manors railway station - not to be confused with Manors Metro station.  It's a quiet station.  Newcastle station serves 22,000 people a day.  Manors serves 6,500 people a year - that's 18 passengers a day.  I should go and visit the station one day. 

I couldn't stand in the car park all day.  Marvin the Paranoid Android was once asked what he was doing in a car park.  His response asked what else he would be doing in a car park except parking cars.  Marvin, with a brain the size of a planet, was wrong.  I had not parked a single car in that car park.  But maybe the car park at The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe didn't have quite the same views as a car park in central Newcastle.

I found a promising way out from the car park and passed under the railway to city road, close to the CastleGate which houses a big church that meets in what was the turbine hall for the generators that ran the electricity for Newcastle's tram system.  Heading down the steps I found myself here.

I also found myself near my first Snowdog of the day - but this is a Snowdog free post.  As you walk down towards the river a passageway on the right leads to this place.  It's another place that most people probably don't know exists.  Unless you're in the habit of looking up unknown parts of the city or you're in the habit of walking down passageways just to see what's at the other end it's unlikely you would know about this.  Fortunately I have both of those habits.

This anchor came from one of the ships from the Spanish Armada.

This green space is connected to Live Theatre.  Yes, theatre.  Newcastle doesn't just have a thriving group of art galleries - and enough artists to fill them with an ever changing set of exhibitions.  We have a thriving group of theatres too.  And we have writers.  Many writers.  It's really great to live in a place where the various creative arts are evident.  I'm only just beginning to discover them and I think the path of discovery is going to include some crazily exciting moments.

To close.  My one moment of sadness for the day so far - because not finding a gorilla in a tutu hadn't saddened me particularly.  At the back of the theatre was this skip.  And in the skip there were these two boxes.

My sadness?  That the boxes were too heavy for me to walk off with.  Perhaps I should have gone into the theatre and asked about them and then pleaded for someone to deliver them to me.  I'd have liked them.  Never mind.  Such sadness wasn't going to dampen the day.  There was more journeying to be done as I reached the river and headed for my destination:

Tesco in Gateshead.

Sometimes the journey really is more interesting than the destination.

Still Challenged To Take A Photograph 4B: A Pink Flamingo

This post continues from a first post about the enjoyment I found trying to find a pink flamingo in Sunderland today.  And that one continues on from a quest to photograph a butterfly.  It's been a busy day!

I left you in suspense.  Would I find the flamingo?  I didn't know.

So much art.  The art gallery had closed but all this free art on the streets of Sunderland made up for that.  Even the most derelict of buildings seemed to have some kind of beauty all of its own.

And this sticker, placed on a private car park sign seemed to have more to it than most stickers placed on private car park signs.

A little further on I found a church.  Information on the wall told me much about their ways.

I am guessing their traditional manner varies somewhat from the traditional manner believed so important by the Catholic Society of Saint Pius X.  It is a shame that the ordinary people here - without a pastor - are outside of the city of God.  I know for sure that this is the case because a sign on the church a few yards up the road proclaimed that to be the City of God.  I wonder how traditional the worship is in that city.  Tomorrow is a Sunday.  I could go and find out.  But I am not going to!  I wonder whether either of those churches would accept me.  For I am someone who obeys the first commandment written on that sticker.  I come queer!

Walking on I found something odd.  Blue paint.  Peeling.  And underneath the paint, some rather wonderful tiles.  I wondered who it was who thought it a good idea to paint such tiles a single shade of blue.  And who it was who wasn't keeping up with the maintenance of the blue so that we can see the tiles once more.  I cannot express how tempted I was to start peeling off the blue paint and revealing more of the tiles.

I hadn't found a flamingo.  But it was time for me to head off to the post-lunch section of the Liberation Theology event, in the place where I now thought it was.  I would have to cross the river - a bridge that I've posted about before.  Blob Thing has also posted about it when accompanying me on walks.  Along the way, high up on a building was an elephant I first spotted when walking in a Pride parade.  I love that things such as this elephant exist in the real world and are not just confined to fantasy worlds.

I crossed the bridge, eager to reach the theology gathering.  Hurry, hurry, hurry.  Stop hurrying.  Get distracted again.  By more art and more animals.

I had seen - among all the other enthralling sights - snakes, dogs, penguins, ravens or crows, a gorilla, a giraffe, cats, a bird in flight, a rhinoceros, plenty of fish, starfish, crabs, an octopus, a turtle, butterflies, a bear, a lion, a pig, a horse, an elephant, a fox, a hare, a badger, a mole, an owl and a lobster.

So many animals.  But no flamingo.  It wasn't fair!  And now it was time to do some theology.  Except it wasn't.  Because I arrived at the place where it was taking place and the door was locked.  Oh no!  I couldn't get in.  Eventually I worked out why:

I was in the wrong place.

And the right place was the place that I had been three hours earlier when I concluded that I was in the wrong place!

Yes.  I had completely mucked up the plans for my day.  I didn't mind too much though because if I had sat in Sunderland Minster all day then I wouldn't have found all those animals.  I walked back across the River Wear into the city centre.  No theology.  No marble run.  And no flamingo.

I decided to cheer myself up with some ice cream from the market at the entrance to the shopping centre.  I was doubly cheered when I noticed something marvellous.  The liquorice ice cream was in stock.  Now that brought smiles to my face.  But before buying it I decided to walk round the market.  Not for any reason.  It was just there.

On my way out of the market I passed a pretty things stall.  Not the kind of pretty things I want to have for myself.  But they are popular pretty things.  I went in to see the sparkly things.  And noticed a display case full of animals.  Glass animals.

And then I saw it.

This:

A flamingo!

Yes.  A flamingo.  It wasn't pink.  But it was a flamingo.  And I wasn't about to rush off to the Washington Wetland Centre and try to get there before closing time to see a pink flamingo just because this glass flamingo wasn't pink.  See, there is a way to photograph a pink flamingo in the City of Sunderland.  It's just in Washington.  Not in Sunderland.

My wife came to my rescue.  She pointed out that for a flamingo to be pink it has to have a special diet.  But a flamingo living in Sunderland wouldn't naturally have that diet so it wouldn't be pink.  And since Sunderland is known for glass making - if you get a chance, pay a visit to the glass museum as well as the nearby St. Peter's Church - any flamingo living and feeding in the area would naturally be glass coloured.

I had done it.

I had photographed a flamingo.

And it was the colour that it should be too.

Success number two of the day.

The other challenge given to me this morning was of course totally impossible.  Unless I found it's solution in a charity shop.  Which I hadn't.

There would be no way that I would be able to photograph a marble run.  A pity.  I like marble runs.  And so does she who has given me the challenges.