2015: A Year in Books

Hello and welcome to the first blog post of 2016. I could bang on for a paragraph about how this year I'm going to blog more frequently and stick to a regular upload schedule, but since when have I ever manged to do that for more than a couple of weeks at a time? Never. Exactly. Lets just assume that 2016 will be just as shambolic as previous years and that way neither of us can be disappointed when I go AWOL for a couple of months. 

Right, that's that covered. On with the post.

HOMESICK

I am homesick.

I lie in curled up in blankets on the couch that I bought myself, the first piece of furniture that can truly be called mine. I am snuggled up in the warmth and safety of this little flat that is all mine, with its crooked walls and slopping eves, its peculiarly shaped windows and doors that don’t quite fit. It is perfectly imperfect. It is mine. During the day, this building shakes from the crashing and hammering of the workmen below, but now in the darkness, it is still. Outside the rain pounds down, hammering against the fragile windows, demanding to be let in. It thunders down upon the roof, drowning out the sound of the cars driving along the street below. The wind howls down the chimney coughing little flurries of soot onto the hearth. Despite this onslaught the little flat prevails and I wriggle further down into the blankets and listen to the oddly reassuring cacophony of weather.

Suffragette

Last night the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield showed a premiere screening of Suffragette complete with a pre-show live theatre promenade performance, following the footsteps of Emmeline Pankhurst who made a prominent visit to the town in 1906 at the start of the Suffragette movement.

10 WAYS TO DE-STRESS WHEN YOU'RE HAVING A DAY FROM HELL

We've all been there. We've all day one of those days, heck we've all had one of those weeks! Days where everything has gone wrong. You're getting endless emails and phone calls from the entire world and his wife, all the trains are delayed, and there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done. Oh yeah, and your electric has gone off. 

Just So 2015

It's been nearly two weeks since I returned from volunteering at the wonderful madness that was Just So 2015 and I've still not got used to being back in the real world. The reality of commuter trains, smart clothes and household bills just doesn't quite have the same appeal as living in a field, dressing up as a mad fortune teller, and dancing to pirate music...not to mention the wonders of the David Attenborough song (it has now become my life's mission to make everyone on planet earth aware of this song).

June and July

June and July were a pretty manic couple of months for me and I was fairly absent from social media, instagram in particular, so for that reason this snapshots post will be quite a short one. That said they were two very important months for me and I have tried to document the important bits.

A MONTH WITHOUT TV AND INTERNET

I have had no internet or TV for over a month. The reason for this is pretty straightforward, I moved house and then had problem after problem getting my broadband set up.