So after my weekend trip to Copenhagen, I’ve been busily back to work at Burnley Arts Centre, but have also found the time to do a few other bits and bobs. Just last week I nipped back over the border to represent the UGRL Scholarship scheme (see what I’ve been doing with them recently here and here) at the University of Leeds Freshers’ Week stalls, and naturally I took time to enjoy the best of what Leeds has to offer once more, with a trip to Layne’s Espresso for a coffee and some Colours May Vary literature…

I also had managed to scoop two free tickets to The Glass Menagerie at West Yorkshire Playhouse, and so in the evening my dad joined me in Leeds and we headed down town to watch the production.

The show was surprisingly good, with a narrator guiding us through the series of flashbacks and memories which formed the dramatic storyline. With both acts of the show taking place in the same setting (a city flat) and with a very limited collection of props, the four actors did an amazing job of communicating events, personalities and emotional traumas which cropped up along the way.

I was, then, completely gutted when I realised that we’d miss the very end of the play, as we had to head off about 10 minutes early to ensure that we didn’t miss the last train home! It has, however, inspired me to hunt down a copy of Tennessee Williams’ career-changing play, if only to see what happens at the very end! I shan’t be posting any spoilers here…

Sooner or later, as ever, I was back in Burnley and decided to head out of my house for a quick walk with the camera to try out some photography tricks in the evening. Having had a lot of them fail, I was very happy with this long exposure of a road at night.  The orange haze of the streetlight eerily glows in what seems like broad daylight, but what was in fact the last remaining glimmers of twilight.

Before winding down to prepare for my holiday (more on that in just a moment), last Saturday I made the impromptu decision to pick up Danni and head off to Nelson for a food festival!

Although we didn’t eventually have much time to eat much food, we did have time to grab a pizza and some ice cream in the uncharacteristically sunny weather, and had a good ol’ laugh and catch up as we always do.

But anyway – some exciting news! I am literally five minutes (my dad just shouted me from downstairs and I’ve had to beg for an extra five just to finish this blog post!) from being whisked off to Manchester Airport (once again!) with my mother to head off for a week in Spain!

We’re flying out for a relaxed few days at my auntie’s apartment down in Murcia on the southeast coast, before I’m heading off by myself on a train to Madrid, to go exploring and eat as much tapas as humanly possible.

Do not fear, I will be back of course with a brand new post next weekend documenting my time in Spain. Until then, it’s time to grab a glass of sangria and practice the ol’Spanish…

¡Hasta la semana que viene! ¡Chao!

Just last week my sister Ellie headed off on her Gold Duke of Edinburgh expedition down in Wales, and so me, my mum and dad felt we should join her in spirit and set off for a wander through our nearest Yorkshire town: Todmorden.

It was a lovely clear evening, and I naturally brought along ‘Jez’, the name I’ve given to my trusty Canon 700D. We mainly just followed the path of the canal, and I snapped a few photos along the way…

As we hit the half an hour mark, my watch gave me a gently buzz and reminded us that we should turn around. Wandering back was much more picturesque, as you can see…

Once we’d arrived back near the car we made our obligatory stop off at Grandma Pollard’s Fish & Chip Shop, where I once again sat by the canal and enjoyed a beautiful fish and chips made by the old man Grandad himself. It was delicious, and I stopped only to appreciate this duck as he swam by on his way.

A quick update (see: warning) to let you all know that my site shall be having a bit of work done on it over the next few weeks, and so some things may not work as expected or may be shifted around slightly! I’m hoping to add some exciting new pages and features such as a travel section, dedicated photography area, as well as getting my portfolio up to scratch and generally updating anything that’s evaded my attention over the last year or so of my site running.

I’ll be sure to keep you all informed as best as I can, however if you find something which seems to have gone horrendously wrong, it’s probably me being an idiot – so do feel free to get in touch at any point. I shall post any updates as I go along, and invite a few of you all to test out new features for me, and will be back with a long post in a few weeks looking over everything that’s changed/been added.

Until then, it’s back to the daily grind. I write this from a fancy new MacBook in Leeds’ Apple Store, whilst waiting for my dad to turn up so we can run off and eat Five Guys and watch The Glass Menagerie at the West Yorkshire Play House this evening. Exciting!

Just before jetting off to Copenhagen this weekend (a post for which will be coming very soon), me, my dad and sister wandered off down to Colne for the Great British R&B Festival. Naturally, I took the camera along – but even before we set off, the sky treated me to a display of sheer beauty right outside my bedroom window, arcing over Burnley.

After I somehow (given my total lack of vehicular control) managed to perilously park our car on what felt like a 45º incline, we scrambled up the cobbled hills of Colne and began weaving our way between angry taxi drivers, drunk punters and hot-dog stalls.

With all the pubs and clubs overflowing, we decided to keep on wandering and soak up the atmosphere as the sun set. Passing a church where me and my dad had stopped for a bacon buttie at last year’s festival, we were soon wandering past an overflowing Weatherspoon’s and to the extremities of the festival.

We did take time to stop off at a Briggs family favourite, of course: the legendary Jim’s Café. It was packed out, however, much unlike the quiet family meal we’d had just the week before, so we took a couple of (very bad, hence their non-inclusion here) photos and headed back to the car.

After such a busy evening of wandering round and doing next to nothing except clicking a shutter button, I concluded that I most certainly deserved a bath, and so lobbed a rather vibrant Lush Bath Bomb in the tub and clambered in. Their Intergalactic bomb was amazing – I couldn’t help myself but dash to grab my camera and take a photo. I leave you here with it’s beguiling blue and pink swirl…

And now I take a break from the usual lifestyle posts to bring you some exciting news – I have just been offered a project working with the Design Council England and Burnley Arts Centre!

This great opportunity comes after some Design Council representatives visited us to engage the whole staff cohort in a design strategy day, where we discussed and presented our opinions on our branding, the organisation’s purpose, and how we communicate our reason for being to the public.

I spent much of the day critiquing and discussing our brand, tone of voice, user experience and admitted lack of foresight when it came to the rebranding exercise of 2014. Subsequently, one of the Design Council staff got in touch and offered to work with us, with myself being singled out to lead the whole design strategy project.

I am currently beavering away at the Arts Centre (hence the lack of interesting posts), with my focus currently being on marketing the new term of youth theatre activities and professional touring productions, however my role will switch as of October 5th to Lead Design Strategist.

This is sure to prove to be an excellent opportunity both for the organisation and for myself, as I have recently begun to realise that I would much rather pursue work in design strategy and user experience in stead of typical visual design roles.

Hello there, avid blog readers, I have returned once more from a quiet stint of busy work to bring you the latest in the mischief I’ve been up to!

Just yesterday evening me and Danni headed off to Blackpool to ride along the infamous illuminations, a trip that some keen-eyed readers amongst yourselves may have noticed that we have actually done before, however one which we enjoyed so much that we thought it warranted us spending our only active day of the year participating in once more.

So, with packets of sweets and some emergency energy-packed flapjacks in tow, we lugged our bikes onto the train and headed off towards the seaside.

Upon our arrival, I spent the first ten minutes or so fighting with my bike, all in an attempt to tame my notoriously hopeless sense of balance. Once I feel sufficiently safe that I would not crash into a family tandem and cause great injury and embarrassment, we joined the masses on the closed-off promenade to see what we could see.

The views were, once again, stunning, and the weather was so courteous as to hold out for the whole time we spent panting our way up and down the sea front. Sooner or later I mustered up the courage to take a hand of the handlebar for more than one second, and so I began to take some selfies as we rode along…

This is just one of many moments in which I genuinely feared for my life.

Sooner or later though (after lots of whining and pining for a GoPro) I think I finally managed to master the art of snapping whilst cycling. No phones were destroyed nor limbs mangled, which was a downright miracle.

We were soon making good progress, passing the Pleasure Beach (our summer stomping ground), the Central Pier and sooner or later that Lancashire landmark, Blackpool Tower.

Several miles and a good few terrible selfies later (from which I shall spare you the horror), we turned around and began to head back and the sun finally set. Now it’s the real atmospheric time, where the LED fairy lights adorning people’s bikes came to life, and the illuminations really came into their own. We even saw a log flume and a couple of dodgems from the Pleasure Beach ride past us!

All too soon, however, it was time to drag our weary bodies back to the train station and await rescue from the cool coastal air (I definitely did not forget my jacket…)

In brief it was another lovely evening, one spent binging on Home Bargains sweets, laughing at old high school memories, and wearing our backsides out on the unforgiving bike saddles. As throughout knackered as I was this morning, I would once again highly recommend anyone from Lancashire to give riding the lights a bash.

You never know, you might just see us again next year!