Which fictional world would be the most fun to vacation in?
This one has taken much thought, but I’ve finally settled on Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory!!
The magical works of chocolate streams and waterfalls. Edible flowers and meadows. The TV room, the Oompa Loompas , the fantastical candy creations …. sounds like a fun vacation to me!!
Friday 31 July 2026 to Sunday 2 August 2026
Another year passes and, lo, my arty friend from London comes to visit again and what a weekend we have in the two majestic Northern cities of Manchester and Liverpool!
Manchester is busy! It’s sunny! It’s the weekend! It’s ever energetic. The GMEx is hosting a ‘Megacon’ event and the trams and the streets teem with young people in colourful costumes. We meander through the crowds and the turn into the calmer St John’s area, to find the Aviva Studios. The venue the Ai Weiwei’s Button Up! Exhibition. And, for me, this exhibition is jawdroppingly good!
The critics describe it as ‘monumental’ and ‘colossal’ and the sheer size of exhibits inside the vast warehouse space gives me an instant wow factor! Which, if you are, like me, not an art afficionado, is most welcome! But then, as I begin to explore more deeply, I recognise the perfect nature of the setting. The room itself is so huge that the exhibition feels spacious and there is room to take a thoughtful 360 tour of each work and to study and learn about it in more detail. I read many reviews, some good, some less so, of this event but I chime most with the critic from ‘The Reviews Hub’ who describes it thus:
Button Up! is both awe-inspiring and intimate. The sheer size of the installations demands leisurely contemplation and Aviva Studios offers also the rare opportunity to get close enough to study the craftsmanship involved in their construction and appreciate the meticulous work.
But we voyage on. Onto the M62 to be precise for a day on ‘The Beatles Trail’ in Liverpool. This is far more of a regional tour of the areas such as Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields, that shapes the real lives of the ‘Fab Four’ and inspired some of their catalogue. There is more walking and outdoor trekking and it is a lot of fun!
So time to end this brief snapshot of the wonderful culture of two cities: one I call ‘home’ and the other now my place of work! But this was a fabulous weekend in which to slow down and take the time to see them both in a bit more detail.
Friday 24 July 2026
In this sunniest of Summers, I am just back from a week on the Northumberland Coast with my girls! Holidays people – there’s really nothing like them…
I hail from a ‘holiday-ing family’! Throughout my childhood, every year we’d pack up the car and heads to our Welsh caravan for the entire Summer holiday. Six weeks of beautiful beaches, icy cold seas, steam trains, mountain climbs, fish and chips and hours of board games, laughter and family time. Kind of an ‘in a bubble’ experience, which had little to do with the life we led ‘back home’ but somehow made that life better and family bonds stronger.
And the same is true now that I’m a mum. Whether abroad or in the UK, our holidays have been great times and those shared experiences have made us a closer-knit unit. I don’t think the location actually matters, but spending time together does. It is a unique quality time, without the distractions of home and the sometimes stifling familiarity of the everyday. And I am not the only one who thinks so; here is the blurb you’ll find on most of the holiday sites!
According to an article published in TES by Elizabeth Buie, a staggering two thirds of conversations between parents and children revolve around their daily routine. A holiday away provides the perfect opportunity to break this conversation cycle and have more engaging exchanges with your children, plus gives you more time to get to know their individual personalities and notice how they’re growing, changing and developing as people.
Equally, I ponder, is it also a time in an adult relationship, those not eternally bonded by the unconditional love you feel for your kids, when you realise you are, or are not, on the same page. I recall a trip about 10 years ago to Rome with a guy I was seeing. As I explored the evocative forum, in my head imagining togas, great orators and the jaw dropping sophistication of that early culture, he had his eyes glued to a Google search for ‘Real Ale bars of Rome’. I’m not saying one is better than the other, and I’m sure many would opt for the beer, just that, as I found myself thinking
“I’d actually rather be here with my son or ex-hub; at least they’d have something interesting to say!’
… it was a sign that we were not as well suited as I’d previously thought.
So, back to those happy family trips and I’ll finish tonight with a photographic trip down Memory Lane. So glad we took the time to holiday together in the past and let’s hope we will carry on doing so even though my kids are now all grown-up! Holidays are magical times, and you’re never too old for a bit of magic!
Saturday 18 July 2026
Gosh it’s been busy and I have much to catch up on so let’s start with milestone birthdays … and coming face to face with your younger self!
Several University friends of mine are now hitting milestone birthdays and the Summer has been dotted with parties to mark the momentous occasions. It has been great; chances to meet up and catch-up, enjoy good food and drink … and even indulge in dancing!
Although we first met 30 years ago, I have been good pals with most for many years. We’ve holidayed together, toasted in New Years together and watched our children play together. So we are very much used to the older versions of each other. But when I am taken to see the photo gallery at tonight’s gathering, I realise that I have also become over-accustomed to the more-aged myself; the mum, the bill payer, the problem solver, the grafter.
One of the party rooms is full of lots of pics of us all from our teens and 20s. I am literally transfixed by my own photos. Yes younger! Yes thinner! But it is more than that…I actually don’t recognise myself.
Who is that girl? Where has she gone? …Is she ever coming back?
She looks happy, calm and at peace. She looks free! By contrast life has made me tough and resilient but also… often worried and sad. The walls of responsibility have closed around me and I know that this girl is never coming back.
For this night only, particularly as music from our college bar steals through the night air into the party gathering, I can close my eyes and picture myself stepping right back to this time. But it really hits me now that this is only a passing moment of nostalgia. My youth is gone. I hope I made the most of it and just in case I didn’t I resolve to make sure that I encourage my three offspring to relish these precious years, they are such a special time…
Friday 8 May 2026
Off to the flicks I go for my May movie! Hoping for a bit of a ‘Thriller‘ of an evening this time with the Michael Jackson movie, imaginatively entitled ‘Michael’
And I do enjoy it!
My popcorn-pal on this occasion is an old pal from school. We’ve not met up for over a year but, as we rendezvous, are both thoroughly in the mood for a musical trip down memory lane. A chance to be transported back to the youthful times that bond us and to relive the excitement that the Jackson explosion caused in the first half of the eighties.
And the movie delivers this. The best part for me, is the re-tell of the making of the ‘Thriller’ album. The track list is unbelievable. To name just a few: Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’; The Girl Is Mine (with Paul McCartney); Thriller, Beat It; Billie Jean and P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing). And as they are reeled off and performed in the film, it is jaw dropping. I guess, it remains the best selling album of all time for a reason!
And then there is the Thriller video! Well, those of you too young to have been around at the time, we literally stayed up all night to see it first hit British TV, such was the electricity that surrounded Jackson’s early creativity, as the standards for videos and promotional strategies were rewritten. What I was not aware of, as a high school pupil in the 1980s, was that the album broke racial barriers in the USA with Jackson as the first black American artists allowed to appear on MTV performing ‘Billie Jean‘
Critics of the film are correct when they decry the superficial treatment of the many well know complexities of Michal Jackson’s life. But maybe this was not what the film makers intended to do. Maybe in this movie they, like us, simply wanted to celebrate the music and the magic it brought to that early eighties era, as opposed to an in-depth exploration of the sometime darker side of the man behind it.
Maybe such controversies are waiting for a sequel; this movie ends with the artist walking out on stage at Wembley in 1988 at the start of the ‘Bad’ tour and as the music finally fades the screen reads
The story continues…
But that is for another day. My friend and I head out into the night humming songs we ‘ve not hummed for several decades and have a wonderful evening with food and beer, indulging in reminiscence about past larks, loves and lives from age when we were still teenagers with the wonderful roller coaster of life very much ahead of us …
Sunday 26 April 2026
It’s a works night out with a difference for me …
I work quite a lot this year. I have a regular weekday job but also, left over from a roller coaster year of free-lancing, a few ‘side hustles too’. And at one of these, my absolute fave, my boss decides that for our annual staff outing we all need ‘something chill’ , which in her world means one thing; a Shisha -Bar
“What even is that?” I pipe up like an innocent abroad “And…is it legal”
Well readers, worry not, it is all very much above board! Though not necessarily the healthiest of pastimes, as shisha is a flavored tobacco mixture smoked through a waterpipe. But I decide, as a one off…it should be okay? And. although my kids think it is ‘absolutely hilarious’, I sign myself up!
And so it is, that one sunny Sunday afternoon, we set off to Manchester’s Curry Mile for some (savoury) food and thence to a Shisha Bar were we order, tea, waffles and … one large Hookah with several mouthpieces. Everyone has a few puffs, but eventually, we mostly leave it to the more seasoned smokers and just lean into the social atmosphere of the venue. In the absence of alcohol, the vibe is more relaxed than many pubs and very convivial. The buzz is all about the chat, conversations over teas and coffees, leisurely debates between swirls of smoke or laughter and gossip as the cake is shared out.
We have a great time. It has always been a lovely team but, as we drive back to our corner of the Northwest, having had the time and space to talk properly to everyone, we are even more united … and committed to the cause.
‘But what of the shisha?’ I hear your cry.
Am I a convert? No! I wont say ‘never again‘ but it definitely wont be for at least a year or two, until the annual outing decides to head that way once more …
Easter Monday 6 April 2026
Well there’s a walk to get your step count up!
The spectacular 230 foot limestone cliff of Malham Cove is our destination for a ‘nice Bank Holiday’ walk!
Golly – that looks steep!
Up to this point I am having the loveliest of days. A leisurely lie-in. Chauffered through the Yorkshire Dales by my favourite person. A tasty lunch of soup and sourdough at a trendy Skipton cafe. Blue skies and a rare bit of Spring sunshine and then… one very sheer cliff to scale!
Happily, in an apt analogy of life, climbing it isn’t actually as bad as thinking about it the trek ahead. Yes; there are dusty tracks and around 400 stone steps and yes; I do stop, at least once, feigning interest in ‘the view’ to catch my breath, but before too long we have reached the summit and the famed ‘Limestone Pavement”, resplendent in the April sunshine and a far cry from atmosphere of eerie desolation when it featured in the Harry Potter ‘ Deathly Hallows’ movie. Today by contrast, this maze of eroded limestone blocks is a lively scene of walkers gathering sit and chat, eat and drink and enjoy the view.
As readers of my blog will know, I love a Bank Holiday. Something about the communal day off, just fills the air with shared happiness and joy. Family time, friend time and a seemingly endless length of time. We wend our way back down, find a pub garden for a cheeky beer, before finally heading home.
Good times, good company … what more does anyone want from a day?
Sunday 5 April 2026
Come on you movie maestros….deliver us an epic for 2026!
Many classics of the past delight us this Easter Sunday night, where the TV schedule sparkles with such a fest of fine films on the TV: Toy Story 3, The Imitation game, ET, Hot Fuzz .. that I can hardly fit them all in.
And, as I am blubbling my way through the final scenes of Spielberg’s iconic little alien parting with his human friends, I wonder if I am ever going to find a truly memorable movie this year.
Yes, my New Year’s quest to see at least one new cinematic offering every month, has been fun but I am yet to uncover any real treasures and March’s choice, ‘How to make a killing’ does little to address this.
I did really look forward to this one. Our protagonist, Becket, stuck in a dead-end sales job and estranged from his obscenely wealthy family, hatches a deadly plot to kill off the other heirs to the family fortune, take the money for himself and gain the respect of femme fatale Julia.
The trailer hinted at deliciously dark, slick and stylish. In reality, I find this movie lack-lustre and bland. It is hard to remember a memorable acting performance, a noteworthy character or a standout moment. No, if I had to sum up ‘How to make a Killing’ I would describe it as ‘100 minutes of silliness.’
So all eyes on April. Maybe, just maybe, it will be ‘fourth time is a charm’ and I’ll be writing of a ‘must see movie’ for you all!
21 February 2026
Are all the best people born in February?
For this shortest of months, a quick google search reveals an impressive roll call of famous figures with birthdays in the second calendar month. To pick out just a few: Rosa Parks, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronald Reagan, Bob Marley, Jennifer Aniston, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, Galileo Galilei, Michael Jordan, Ed Sheeran, John Travolta, Toni Morrison, Millie Bobby Brown, Rihanna, George Washington, Drew Barrymore, Steve Jobs, Fats Domino …
Just a few? Blimey!
But hang on there a minute…I think there’s room for three more on that list! Yes, two of my lovely offspring, Small Boy and My Eldest have February birthdays and so do I! And this year we celebrate in culinary style.
A midweek road-trip to the South West, brings my Eldest and I to Brown’s Brasserie, for a birthday feast with Smallboy. It is February-fabulous. We set off with starters and mains but then, emboldened by the wine and also just to prolong the deliciousness, we go all in with a cheese board too.
A week later I am back in the NorthWest, where for my birthday, I am treated to an amazing dinner for two at a local treasure, The Pearl. Described by the Good Food Guide as ‘A tiny restaurant with a big heart’, this one is also a taste sensation. I think my actual words to the waitress were ‘off the scale of scrumptiousness’. Featuring top quality ingredients and ethical sourcing, each course is incredible, but I have to give a special shout out for the ‘mushroom parfait’, a starter so unbelievably good, I almost didn’t want to order a main. Almost being the key word; in reality we abandon our plan to go for the two course menu, opt instead for three and, once again are ‘all in’, sharing puds and cheeseboards! I blame the chef; the food is just too good!
So are all the best people born in February? I am not sure but it as definitely been a month when I have eaten the best of food and and kept some of the best company . And who can ask for better than that!
Sunday 15 February 2026
On a damp and gloomy Sunday morning, I drive out to a local cinema to see film number two of 2026. My choice ‘Wuthering Heights‘, a movie based upon Emily Bronte’s infamous and intense novel.
We grab a coffee on the way in, to wake up and ward off the the wintry chills. My friend is grim faced.
“Have you seen the reviews?” she asks arching her eyebrows.
Then dropping her voice to a whisper,
“One even described it as Baroque porn!”
Yikes! Have made a huge mistake?!But we are here now and … at the very least, it sounds livelier than ‘Hamnet’! So in we go, juggling our drinks and snacks.
And I really enjoy the film.
So is it exactly like the book?
No! But come on people; this is the big screen and a new piece of story telling that has to fit coherently into a 2 hour slot.
Is it a relentless hot bed of steamy sex and naughtiness?
Well there are a few moments when we nearly drop our popcorn, but,for the most part, it is no saucier than many other movies.
So what is it that I love so much about my February film choice? Well, whilst the producers undoubtedly adapt and alter some of Bronte’s more minor characters as well as plot lines, what this movie does brilliantly capture is the all-consuming, destructive passion between Heathcliff and Cathy on those desolate Yorkshire moors. And, for many of us, who read and love the original book, this is the central theme. Raw, romantic, compelling and ultimately… devastating.
The soundtrack adds emotional layers and, of course, the moors provide the perfect backdrop. Wild, untamed and uncontrollable, reflecting the moods and desires of our two main characters. This film delights the senses.
So, for two hours, I forget the dreary day outside and lose myself in this great story and when we finally emerge back into the carpark, do you know what I see the damp drizzle through completely new eyes. Suddenly the misty and overcast skies of this Bolton morning look atmospheric and evocative… hinting of brooding desires and forbidden passions and …. and then I see the queue to get out of the carpark and come crashing back to reality!
That is until next month! If I ever get out of here and get home, it is straight off to research next month’s movie …
Smashing Single Parenthood 