'So, what is it you do?'/ Blog Secret Santa

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas, sorry I've been rather absent on here. I know, yet another 'sorry I've not updated in ages' excuse, they seem to be a common theme on blogs, and in particular this one!! Even so I appreciate you all for sticking around and hope you've all got something exciting lined up for New Year's Eve!

This year has been a bit of a weird one for me, I got into a new career path unexpectedly, which I have fully considered and decided is probably not what I want to be doing forever. Having said that I am enjoying it day by day, and it is a HARD time for jobs right now so its important to be grateful for what we have and it really can be so difficult to remember this. This Kurt Vonnegut quote really spoke to me when I came across it the other day:

I guess what I mean is that, you can let your job define you. You can work so hard, do loads of voluntary work and unpaid internships looking for a way in to a career you want. You can invest in yourself, do courses, get qualifications and all of that. But outside of your day job, what are you doing? Because being creative is everything to me, outside of work I like to visit museums, do different writing projects, listen to and learn to play music, read books and I used to enjoy loads more things which have fallen by the wayside. I read once that the most creative thing most people do everyday is pick out what they are going to wear that day. This year I did project 365 (and gave up, admittedly after about 10 months) and took a picture of what I wore each day, trying to see what I could come up with, with what was already in my wardrobe without feeling like I had to buy new things all the time.

I seem to have lost my point a bit now, and gotten off track, but what I'm trying to say is that next year I'm going to try and be more creative in ways that nourish my life. I will update this blog at my leisure as I enjoy doing it without feeling pressure to update every day or anything, but I will also make a point of doing other projects because even if I'm not in the career I hoped, yet, it doesn't mean I can't have meaningful things going on. The next time someone asks you 'What do you do?' the answer doesn't need to be your actual day job, if that's not the most important thing about your life. That is an important thing I learnt this year.

 

Page from Wilson by Daniel Clowes

 On an altogether different note, this year I decided to take part in a blogging secret santa hosted by my friend Rani who blogs about clothes and Edinburgh amongst other things on her blog Cupcake Couture, so I'm going to write about that. I don't always really feel part of a blogging community as while I have met some fantastic people through blogging, I don't write a blog about fashion and as such, this might be a weird post compared to my average entry. Apologies if you were hoping for museums!

Anyway it all came wrapped in the most delightful brown paper stamped with snowflakes and tied up with string!

 

I must say it was a real trial to follow that instruction!

Inside was...

Some incredibly awesome foamy cushiony dinosaur stickers, amazing. I write a lot of letters so they will always come in handy.

An amazing scarf with horses on! I'm really obsessed with horse adorned things so this is spot on, also it is made of man-made fibres rather than silk which is perfect as I'm vegan.

A lovely Belle & Sebastian tote bag! Amazing. I love this band, and I love totes and this design is really super. Also my favourite colours are red and blue so the colour scheme of the bag and scarf are fantastic. All in all everything was really me, I feel like you know me really well santa, and this is one of the best Secret Santa's I've had!

One of many reasons why I don't have a fashion blog: took about 1,475,973 goes at trying to take an appreciation picture of the wonderful pony scarf! Went for a cowgirl style ;)

Thanks SO much to my Santa, the reveal happened here and I found out that it was Jen of the awesomely titled 'let's all do colouring in' that was behind this really thoughtful set of gifts. And you can see who I bought for too, which was a lot of fun. Many, many thanks to Rani for organising it! ♥

On a final note, lets have a nice B&S song in keeping with the season:

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a good one, don't forget loads of museums are open around this period and are a great place to visit as they are often free of charge, don't be forced into consumption!

I'm sad I'm not in the North East this Christmas; by the looks of it, Beamish has some exciting festivities going on, check out this trussed up Tram!

Image Credit: Beamish Transport Blog

Respite from Christmas madness at the National Portrait Gallery

I hadn't realised how much was on display in the free entry galleries at the National Portrait Gallery, I have to admit I have dismissed the National Portrait Gallery somewhat in the past, possibly due to my first visit there being a very short one.
We visited on Saturday just gone, hoping for a day out in London which didn't involve last minute mass consumption, and spontaneously decided to drop in to the National Portrait Gallery.

It was very interesting to see the portraits of prolific politicians and also scientists on Level 1, many of whom have their own works on display in The Science Museum including Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Michael Faraday and Mary Seacole - who you can also 'meet' at The Science Museum.

Image Source

I also really loved the above picture of the Brontë sisters on display in room 24, it was thought lost and discovered folded on top of a cupboard as you can tell from the damage to the canvas. I like it when paintings have a really interesting history, and this one had a column painted behind the sisters which underneath had what is thought to have been an attempt at a self portrait of Branwell Brontë, their brother and the artist.
Rather fitting actually, as it was on this day that Emily Brontë died: 19th December in 1848 at just 30 years old, she is a sitter in several portraits at the gallery which you can see here on their website.

My favourite thing about the National Portrait Gallery  is the different histories and stories of the people who come to life before you, in a variety of mediums, there is really good detail on their website and its actually one of those places where I would advocate getting an audioguide to give you extra in-depth information. The place made for a lovely visit, the atmosphere was calm and peaceful in contrast to the bustling streets outside and I would recommend it for anyone after a bit of social history in amongst some art over the holidays.

I have to say I'm also rather excited about their forthcoming exhibition of work by Lucian Freud- from February 2012 - click here for more details - he was one of my favourites for doing bad a-level copies of famous paintings back at school, haha!

Salford Zine Library at Salford Art Gallery

I haven’t been as timely as I would have liked with my third blog instalment on my trip to the Lake District, but will aim to have the post up soon. In the meantime I recently visited Salford Zine library’s exhibition at Salford Art Gallery. Here are a few thoughts I had on it, apologies if you've seen this already.

I recently had the chance to check out the exhibition at Salford Art Gallery of the collection of Salford Zine Library which is usually at Islington Mill. I must say that I didn't realise photography wasn't allowed until midway through visiting, so if I should remove any images let me know, I just thought it would be nice to take photos.


The exhibition is set over two levels on the stairs which I thought was really nice space. Zines and artwork from zines were displayed on walls, and upstairs the exhibition film was projected onto a wall, and there were some seats and books about zines. If you had the time you could really sit and read for hours, which you are encouraged to do:


There is a film to accompany the exhibition which is actually quite a long and well put together film with input from loads of other people who make zines which is really great. It gives an insight into others experiences of making zines and self-publishing in general. I found myself learning new things from others aswell as nodding my head in agreement at a lot of the opinions on self publishing.

I'd recommend checking it out if you can and you have plenty of time to do so as the exhibition runs until January, I found the presentation really accessible aswell, so that people who are unfamiliar with zines got a great experience of a varied collection of them. I did donate my zines to the exhibition but couldn't see them on display, so hopefully they are safe and sound at Islington Mill. It's certainly a good exhibition to take friends and family to if they are confused about zines, or find them odd for any reason.

Going from images of the Library itself I think this exhibition is probably a small snippet of their collection and reason enough to visit the library itself which looks amazing, I'll definitely make a point of doing so when I'm next in Manchester.

For a more interactive idea about zines, check out the video they made prior to the exhibition:

For more photographs of the exhibition check out the blog post at Salford Zine Library's blog.

Lake District 2/3: Keswick Museum and Art Gallery

Keswick Museum and Art Gallery describes itself as "A Victorian Cabinet of Curiosities" on its website and I must say I totally agree. It is the only purpose built museum in Cumbria and was free to visit making it a must while in Keswick on a rainy day, and in a way I enjoyed it more than the pencil museum, probably as I had no idea what it would be like and came away pleasantly surprised.

We were greeted by a lovely volunteer on entering the museum and he seemed happy to answer any questions, offering some interesting information about some of the items on display.

Like a lot of small museums, it is seeking funding, more information about this can be found here http://keswickmuseum.webs.com/keswickmuseumappeal.htm on it's website. We were more than happy to leave a donation in the donation box as the range and quality of objects on display was super and the museum as a whole was really charming.

Yes, there actually was the remains of a victorian cat in the above chest. Rather disturbing!

I loved the above quilt, put together by various community members!

A rather impressive collection of taxidermy birds look over the interesting map of the entire Lake District on the left in the above photograph. It was made by Joseph Flintoft, taking 17 years and finally displayed for the first time in 1834. The maker painstakingly made drawings and measurements to ensure it was to scale (3 inches to the mile, horizontally and vertically!) William Wordsworth himself was reported to have viewed it and liked it. It is very fragile but incredibly impressive in person!

I was really struck by the above painting, entitled 'Skaters on Derwentwater' by Joseph Brown Junior. Thought it was quite Lowry-esque, but that's another blog post for another day. Don't accept my poor reflection-ridden photograph though, go and see the real thing yourself!

In the end room was a Heritage Sport exhibition - as part of the lead up to the 2012 Olympics a lot of venues are focusing on this theme, see here for more details. Anyway, there were a lot of old photographs on display and above, these 'Road Skates' - (early rollerblades I guess!) belonging to a local man called Alexander Goodall. He sounded like a pretty interesting man, the display noted that besides his job as a foreman printer "he was particularly fond of climbing and was well known, having written several articles for magazines. He taught shorthand at evening classes and was about to become a member of the St John Ambulance Brigade" before his untimely death in 1903 at 26 in a climbing accident on nearby Skafell Pinnacle.

- The museum was full of these stories about local people which were all really interesting to read. I would highly recommend a visit if you are in the Lake District.

Lake District 1/3: Derwent Pencil Museum

Since my best friend went here in primary school it has basically been a lifetime wish to go to the Pencil Museum in Keswick. We arrived by bus from another town and it was a couple of minutes walk from the main bus stop near Booths (best supermarket in the UK, totally amazing, go there).

I was a bit sad that it wasn't in the above building really, and you didn't get to see the pencils being made in person(?!), that was what I was really, really hoping for. Despite these letdowns, it was really interesting!

It was really busy to be honest, we picked a rainy day in august so it was peak time I suppose. Entry was £3.50 which before visiting I thought was a bargain but having been I would retract that, to be honest.

The museum was all on one level, in one room with another space which served as an auditorium for showing a short ten minute documentary on the history of the pencils. This was really interesting as you saw footage of how they were made, making up for not getting to see it in real life.

I didn't get a lot of good pictures of the interior as it was packed with kids running about doing the trail which seemed really fun! I would certainly reccommend it for families with children of primary school age. I have found some fantastic pictures here on Flickr which show the exhibits though, well worth a look. The cases and exhibits were all really thoughtful and well cared for, and showed some fascinating aspects of the history of pencil making.

My personal favourite display was a section on pencils during the war. Normal pencils were made and sold unpainted due to limited materials. An exception to this was a special type of pencil, designed for the soldiers in World War 2. The exterior of the pencil appeared utterly normal, with a lead and rubber on the top, however the rubber could be unscrewed to reveal a compass and a map of Europe!

There was also the worlds longest coloured pencil on display! It was a real working pencil too, not just a decoration as I'd assumed on first sighting.

Image Source

(There is another awesome photo here!)

Not the longest pencil though, that title is for the 76 foot long pencil constructed in Queens, New York, back in 2007 - check it out!

So yeah, it wasn't quite what I was expecting in a lot of ways but it was still well worth going while I was in the area and really interesting. I went to a couple of other museums whilst in the Lake District so will be updating about them as soon as I can.

Salford Lads Club

I did wonder if this fitted in with the theme of this blog but then I thought, Salford Lads Club has a LOT of history and heritage and is a place Smiths fans frequently make a pilgrimage to, so why not!

Of course I had to have an obligatory photo taken...

The club was founded by Sir Robert Baden-Powell in 1903, who later founded the Scout Movement in 1907. As a guide for many years it was exciting to see what is apparently one of the best examples of a purpose built youth club dating pre First World War. It now welcomes girls too, and quite rightly.

It really gained notoriety thanks to The Smiths who used it as a backdrop for album art in the their album The Queen is Dead in 1986.

Photographer: Stephen Wright 

Image Credit

Standing on the corner of Ignatius Way and Coronation Street

I was not disappointed by the exterior. Much of the local neighbourhood has gone the way of new housing and big superstores but Salford Lads club is a total gem.

Here are some shots of the interior...

Sadly no shots of the reception and stairs area but it's gorgeous! This is the main room and you can see the Smiths room on the bottom left...

 

The wall is covered with images of the Smiths and Smiths fans, aswell as hundreds of tribute messages by visiting fans. All in amongst old fashioned boxing equipment, as it served as a dressing room.

The ceiling

There is this booth where you can write your own message on a post it note...

More fun facts about the building can be gleaned from its Wikipedia page, including details of its longest serving volunteers and the fact that it was apparently on The Secret Millionaire programme on channel four! How did I miss that? Think you can watch it online here!

Salford Lads club will be open as part of Heritage Open Days! This will be on the weekend of 8-11 September 2011, click here for further details. Other opening times and details of activities are on the Club's website here, though it is advisable to always ring ahead if you want to enquire about visiting. Otherwise you can take a picture outside 24/7!

It is about 10 minutes walk from Anchorage Tram stop, or about the same from Salford Crescent railway station, so easily accessible from Manchester city centre.

All the colour photos in this post were either taken by me or fellow Smiths devotee, Tim. Sorry not all of them are terribly clear, the light was fairly uncooperative, but you get the jist!