Wildewire

I drove a guy I’d met through theatre and Facebook here on Saturday but he had to go back to work tomorrow so I drive him back today. -It’s a 45 minute journey.   He is coming back on Thursday, I’ll be collecting him from Haltwhistle station. When I dropped him off I had no desire to “pop in” at home- if I’d seen anything upsetting it would have influenced my holiday! I did contemplate going over to Garry’s but when I called him he kept saying he was in Chester Le Street (as if I should know why and what he was doing there etc). I drove through Cowgate and stopped off to have the car cleaned. – Last time from those bastards! I think they’re Eastern Europeans and middle eastern geezers and I think they give not as good a service as they do their white clients! Passing Acomb on the way back to the castle I had this burst of anger and very nearly turned off to march into head office and demand to know what decision they’ve made and when the appropriate people will be in...

On the Sunday before last, I got a message on Facebook from someone I met at Laurieston Hall, asking if I was going to the Albion Faeries Autumn Gathering at Featherstone Castle. It was starting two days later. I immediately realised it was something I NEEDED to do. Work has been... quietly frustrating, but I still enjoy it. A mini-break like this would be just what the doctor ordered. My new-food vehicular-enabled freedom and the fact that the castle was allegedly 45 minutes from my home clinched it. I began hatching plans to cram 5 days of admin into two days, grovelled to my boss, cancelled two meetings and found myself en-route, after a particularly gruelling day with two public events, towards Haltwhistle ("Centre of Roman England" allegedly). It was one of my first night drives with no road lighting which was quite cool. What a trip the next five days turned out to be! I loved the craziness of meeting all sorts of "radical" people from all over the pla...

I joke about being closely related to some habitually hibernating species because I always experience a dull, slowing down and urge to curl up in bed for weeks when it gets to this time of year and the clocks haven't even gone back yet. I've been feeling hemmed in by "domestics" of late which has been the main reason for not writing this blog. I have been forced to accept things with which I disagree and have exploded only once. I attempt to practice serenity around things I cannot change without causing even more turbulence, so, once again I bottle up my annoyance and hold my emotional breath amidst assurances that soon I will be able to live my life in the way I want to and not be restrained by circumstances I have allowed to develop. I laugh at myself to not that, for someone with a reputation for being forceful and strong, how regularly I find myself abdicating my power to the weak and the paranoid. Recently I have done what I tend to do in these situations:...

I wasn't able to do much last week for Bridge House as I had a heavy schedule at work so I was keen at least to meet with the building's owner to let her know what we wanted to do, how we planned to do it and to get a measure of her while I was at it. In the event, I met someone who was pleasant, down to earth and under Garry's spell! She could be getting more than she is from Garry for the building, but she likes what he wants to do and wants to be part of it. She was talking about it being the sort of place she could nip away from her work for a coffee and somewhere she could sell the craft things she makes alongside her core business. I felt able to put all our cards on the table and point out the bits where we know we could be shafted in the future and got assurances from her that she'd be open to legal agreements to protect both sides from the project's potential success. I took away a file full of documents that I think will really help proposals for the ...

Today was the most pleasant day I've had in my job... or any job I've had for a while come to think of it! A dozen workers from the EE phone company came to the community centre where I work to volunteer in the gardens and grounds surrounding the building. They worked with some of the learning-disabled people we serve who also provided them with their buffet lunch. We cleared a whole load of stuff into a mound that we'll burn soon and the bee hives have been freed from their jungle (the bees were trapped in their hives for the day and weren't too pleased by the time they were released!) and it was just a lot of fun. Straight after the gardening volunteers left, we opened the doors to an event organised by the council's housing 'ALMO'. I had been worried that nobody would come, but it was the usual fayre of face-painting, balloon-modelling, children's crafts and free nosh so over 100 people turned up. An added activity was finally being able to...