Monthly Archives: December 2018

30.12.18 — Journal

Blooper Reel: 2018

So here I go with my last post of 2018, and the last post which I shall put up before my site goes down for its big revamp – an exciting time all round! As mentioned in my previous post, this is the first in what I hope will become an annual series, and something which I‘d like to call the Blooper Reel. Herein we’ll recap some of the poignant moments from this year, and take a look at some hitherto unseen photos of the many outtakes along the way. Let’s get stuck in!

January

Back to Work

A new year meant flying back to Spain from England and back to the Erretres office, and what better way to celebrate my first day back than by customising a lovely piece of headgear that I found around the office?

Braving the Cold

Being back in my Madrid flat meant washing my own clothes again, but without the luxury of a tumble dryer available, I wound up resorting to hanging everything up in the chilly 3° air. Optimism or stupidity? You decide…

 Down to Murcia

I soon wound up on a train to the south of Spain, and from the 17th – 21st of January I spent a good few days in Murcia with my parents and auntie and uncle. Whilst by the sea I took the opportunity to brush up my nautical skills, setting sail from one of the beaches…

The Family

I also never featured a photo of the family when I posted my Murcia post, so here’s one I managed to dig out of the archives, taken just before we all headed out for an evening meal.

Cake Club Unite

I mentioned in my Eating in the New Year blog post that I made plenty of lemon cake, but I never posted a photo of any such events – and now you can see why: our group selfie skills definitely left a lot to be desired!

February

Back to the Office

Back in the office, I seem to have once again found myself more fabulous headgear to try on. Where does it all keep coming from?

Ollie Watches Football

I title this section as such because it’s quite a rarity for me, but I must say that I enjoyed our silly antics more than the match itself. First up, we’ve got Loredana getting frisked at the entrance, which for some reason we all found rather hilarious…

And then, during the match, we had a chance to demonstrate our horrendous selfie skills once again as I present my favourite part of the entire football experience: the hot dogs.

March

The Parents Visit

March saw the arrival of my mum and dad in Madrid, marking their first visit together. I’m sure my mum will be rather happy as I share this sneaky shot of her exploring the Museo Cerralbo


Attack of the Water

I also mentioned in my blog post about how we would up having to move tables after a jet of water suddenly began to pour down on us from a roof above – and here’s the carnage to prove how bad it was!

Missing Homely Food

At some point I also took it upon myself to try to make a scotch egg at home, after having so sorely missed them up until this point. As you can see, however, it’s quite a messy affair…

Battling Rain in El Escorial

During my first trip up to El Escorial, what you didn’t see was that as I arrived I was battling threatening skies which blighted my ascent with the occasional downpour. I wasn’t best pleased…

April

Little April Shower

The start of the new month took me up to see Kevin in Asturias, where he took me to the gorgeous coastal village of Cudillero. Missing from the blog post, however, was this photo of me avoiding the rain as I ventured into a spooky looking drainage tunnel cut through the mountains.

Big April Shower

Less than a week later and Kevin had come down to visit me in Madrid, but once again we were attacked by sudden rain, being forced to make refuge under a bus stop…

Cake Club Frivolities

The four of us who made up Cake Club also spent many an evening messing around over in Loredana and Heidi’s flat, making the most of their roof terrace for the odd (see: frequent) tipple.

Marathon Preparations

During me and Heidi’s secret preparations creating custom t-shirts to cheer Loredana on during her marathon, things seem to have gotten a little giggly and out of hand…

Doña Croqueta

Back in the office, now, where I was told I was the spitting image of Doña Croqueta, a comedy character from old Spanish TV. Do you see the resemblance?

Champagne Party

Heading home one day, I snapped this photo of a guy with six bottles of champagne just relaxing in the park. I’m not sure what he was up to, but I felt that if I knew him then we would probably get along.

May

Moon Head

May began with a whirlwind trip across England, as I returned for a few days for some birthday celebrations. Whilst in Liverpool, Ellie presented me with my card, beautifully adorned with her artwork depicting my “massive head.” Cheers…

Drinks in London

Whilst down in London, and just before I headed off to the airport to fly back to Madrid, a good portion of the designer gang were reunited over drinks.

Ollie’s Getting Old

Once back in Madrid, Luis presented me at work with a little birthday gift, featuring the lovely message “la Ollie se hace vieja” — Ollie’s getting old!

More Office Headgear

It would seem as though 2018 was basically a year for finding fun things to put on my head, putting them on my head, and then taking photos of them being on my head. Here’s me and Luis’ contribution for May.

Ollie Watches Yet More Football

This time I wasn’t at the Atlético de Madrid stadium, however, but rather supporting Loredana as she played one of the other teams in her league. As you can see, though, I still wasn’t overly keen on the whole affair…

Bun Fail

As I’d invited everyone around to my flat to watch the royal wedding, I decided to whip up some butterfly buns to mark the occasion – the only problem being that I didn’t have a moulded tray to bake them in. No worries, I though two myself, I can just emulate one using tin foil!

This did not end well.

Let Me Just Take a Photo of This Façade…

It may be said that sometimes my friends got a little fed up of me taking photos of old signage and pretty façades, and I think they made their case in this photo, posing in front of it such as to ruin my shot taken whilst we wandered the streets together.

Hyper Times

One time we all gathered in Heidi and Loredana’s flat for a cheeky tipple, and without even getting drunk we all ended up rather hyper and taking photos on my camera with a full flash. Here’s a couple of the less silly ones…

June

Time to Shape Up

June saw the departure of many a good friend from Madrid, and so I decided to pull up my bootstraps and get myself into shape, seeing as there was now no excuse left as there were less people nagging me to head out for tapas. Don’t I look happy to be heading out for my daily jog?

Fiesta Asturiana

One weekend I headed up to Asturias once again for fiesta time, and I just rediscovered this gem of a selfie of me and Kevin as we try to look sober during the carnage of the street parties.

Speaking Yorkshire

Back to the office now, where I had to explain how my Yorkshire roots mean that I have alternative words for “everything” and “nothing”…

July

God Save the Cured Ham

I particularly enjoyed this bit of street art which combines the most British of sayings with Spain’s one true love.

Wait, More Headgear?

Oh look who it is with stupid stuff on his head once again. This time I’m modelling a lovely headband which Luis had gifted me for the pride celebrations which were coming up.

Pride

I didn’t really mention what we got up to at the pride celebrations in any length on my blog post, and that’s because I didn’t doo all that much and I didn’t take all that many photos. I did head out one night with some friends, though, and at the time I was a bit too embarrassed to share this horrific selfie – enjoy.

Luisa and Woody Visit

And one of the first selfies we took during their visit somehow managed to capture the worst angle of every single one of us. Amazing!

A Spanish German Beer Festival?

During my road trip with Kevin, we accidentally wound up having a big night out (pretty standard for the two of us), drinking beer in a German-style beer festival which I talked about in one of the blog posts. What I didn’t include was this selfies, taken a couple of pints in and a little worse for wear…

The Great Blackpool Disappointment

During my summer holidays back in England, I visited Blackpool Pleasure Beach with Ellie and Johann. I didn’t include any photos of the three of us, however, so here’s a photo of Ellie looking upset that the Valhallah ride wasn’t open.

The Great English Summer

Whilst back home in Burnley, everyone had taken to sunbathing in the “heat”, whilst I still found myself quite chilly. Here I am “soaking up the rays” and looking rather happy with all of the shenanigans.

August

Street Party Time

Something I never really touched on was the many street parties which took place across Madrid in August, so here’s a photo of me and Bogar as we took to the streets and bopped along to Los Chunguitos

Politeness First

I have no idea what was going on here, but I found a post-it on the floor at work that just said ‘please’. Please what? Was someone begging for mercy? We will never know.

Beach Party

During yet another Asturias trip, Kevin and I spent a long afternoon relaxing on a beach in Lastres. Here’s a selfie I omitted due to some horrific angles and lighting – call me vain if you want – but which I now find funny as you can see Kevin in the background as he panics whilst realising he has no idea where to catch the bus back to Oviedo.

Asturias, Patria Querida

This shot was originally from a video, but I am still too embarrassed to share the full shouting-singing horror with you all. Here we’re in Lugones, singing along to the anthem of Asturias at 5am after polishing off quite a few bottles of cider. This has to be one of the highlights of my entire year!

September

Ellie and Johann Visit, Are Tired

September kicked off with a visit from Ellie and Johann, who were quite tired upon their arrival, and who weren’t shy on sharing said tiredness with the rest of the city.

Ollie Versus the Spanish Healthcare System

After catching some kind of infection, I had to present myself at the medical centre for a checkup, but a confusing paperwork situation meant that I was in for a bumpy ride as I tried to see a doctor. I eventually managed to sort everything out, though, and here I am “enjoying” some time alone as a victor in the waiting room.

Typography is My Passion

Back in the office, I had made myself a sarcastic new desktop background (set in Times New Roman, no less). Here it is featuring Elena in the background, displaying what I can only assume is the face she uses when trying to attract men. Takes all sorts, I guess.

Those Northerners

Just a day later I was back up in Asturias, where Kevin had once again dragged me out for some drinks and partying in the streets. Here he is in the northern Spaniard’s natural environment: surrounded by big plastic cups full of cheap beer.

October

A Rocky Arrival in Norway

One of my favourite trips this year was to Oslo to visit Heidi, but I found that the weather’s frosty welcome nearly killed me as I wandered the streets wrapped in only a hoodie! Here’s a photo of the moment when I decided on the bright yellow coat that I haven’t really taken off since!

Our Seagull Friend

Whilst atop the Opera House in Oslo, me and Heidi made a friend called Dave, a seagull who featured in a selfie I posted. What I didn’t share, though, was this photo of Heidi getting even more up-close-and-personal that I ever dared…

Outtakes on the Ski Throne

In my Oslo blog post I did actually post a photo of Heidi sat on this so-called “ski throne”, but I found this outtake photo which I much prefer and so I have to share.

Apple Pie Heaven

Whilst up on the ski slopes, we ate at a lovely traditional restaurant, but for some reason I never shared this photo of myself with the best part of the meal – a towering slice of apple pie!

Leaving My Flat

One of the biggest moments in 2018 for me was the decision to leave Erretres and return to the UK, and a week or so before my last day in the office, I moved into a new flat temporarily. Here’s proof that I live with very little – my entire world packed into a suitcase and a little backpack.

Leaving Erretres

Late October sadly marked my last day working in the Erretres office, and this photo must be the most somber of the ones I’ve posted – my desk all cleaned away at the end of an era.

November

Chips and Curry

November saw me back in the UK, and what better way to kick things off than with this big tray of chips and curry sauce that my mum bought to make a sandwich for herself. British cuisine at its absolute finest!

December

Stuffing Myself with Pancakes

This photo comes courtesy of Luisa, who caught this snap as I shovelled Nutella-covered mini pancakes whilst at the Manchester Christmas Markets. Well, it’s not Christmas until you’ve had a tray of the sickly sweet treat.

A Fabulous End to the Year

My last photo comes from our Boxing Day walk just a few days back, and is an outtake from a session where I tried to get my sister to take a serious photo of me in front of the reservoir. She randomly shouted some random obscenity at me from behind the camera, catching what turned out to be a lovely off-guard pic.

And thus I conclude my overview of some of the highs and lows and mishaps of 2018. It’s been a year of big changes, from having good friends move to the USA to my return to the UK, but I’ve had a great time, met some wonderful people, and definitely had my best year yet.

So now, as I sit here in the short days of Burnley and count down the hours until the New Year’s Eve celebrations begin, I look forward to what 2019 might bring. Looking to the short term, I’m hoping to launch my new website over the coming weeks, and as far as long term changes are concerned, I may just have some exciting big news to share with you all very soon!

Until then, I’m now signing off my blog until the new site launches! Do be sure to read anything you’d like on here pretty soon, as I anticipate that the whole site may be down for quite a while whilst I undertake a complete overhaul of the backend – during this period you can check out my Facebook page for updates.

That just leaves me to wish you all a Happy New Year, and I hope to be back with plenty of updates and news before too long!

28.12.18 — Journal

Festive Family Fun

Unlike last Christmas, when I’d to rush through everything during a quick visit back to the UK from Spain, I had the chance to take things easier this year as the festivities began!

Things kicked off with a visit back over the county line to Yorkshire (see the end of my last blog post for my soliloquy on the county). Heading back to Leeds, this time I had to haul with me my DMX lighting desk as I headed to Izzy’s studio Atypical. I’d brought the controller along as they had a plan to utilise some DMX-enabled studio lighting to film some videos for a client, and so I was drafted in to help with the lighting side.

Working away in the studio

Drawing on my experience using lighting in strange ways, we soon wrapped the shoot up for the day and I bid Izzy farewell – but this wasn’t to be for too long, as a couple of days later we were reunited once more, but this time in Manchester!

One Saturday we, along with Rhea, Luisa and Declan, had arranged to meet up in Manchester for a quick snoop around the Christmas markets and a proper catch up coffee in the Northern Quarter. Braving the cold, we spent a good while enjoying a coffee and then a cheeky glühwein tipple on the market, before reverting back to our days as design students and winding up ordering chips in a pub. I guess some things never change…

Safe to say that my coat bought in Oslo came in pretty useful.

Arriving in a cold and windy Manchester

Once I’d caught the X43 bus back to Burnley (and enjoyed fond memories of my high school and college days doing the same), I spent a few days relaxing and attending the odd festive party. With Ellie’s return back from Sheffield for Christmas, the two of us have been making the most of our surroundings and going on the odd wander when she can allow herself a couple of hours away from revision.

Wandering through Worsthorne

Sooner or later, however, I found myself being invited back over to Leeds in order to have a pre-Christmas send-off meal at home with Em and Lincoln. After a lovely pasta dish and an evening chatting away in their cosy house in Horsforth, I made good use of being in Leeds to scoot around a few of my favourite spots and pick up a few last-minute presents.

The Corn Exchange's beautiful roof

The ceiling of the Cotton Exchange in Leeds really is gorgeous.

Once back in Burnley, it was finally time to begin settling down, as Christmas was just a few days away! My mum had been feeling under the weather for a spell, and as Christmas day approached she only seemed to be getting worse, so we all prepared ourselves for a relaxed day.

Being the strong (and very prepared) woman that she is, though, my mum wasn’t for giving in to illness! We had a lovely morning unwrapping our presents, and after we’d all had a little mid-afternoon nap to sleep off our delicious cauliflower soup lunch, she beat the odds and pulled off yet another delicious Christmas dinner with all the trimmings…

Once stuffed with stuffing, we all collapsed into the settee for an evening together playing Heads Up and other festive novelties. After a relatively early night, Boxing Day had come around, and three of us set out for a walk through the wintery chill.

I guess that the Christmas period is now winding to a close, but whilst there’s pines on our tree and leftover Christmas food in the fridge, I’m determined to carry on enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. I’ve also got an end-of-year special post coming soon which will look over a crazy fun year full of frivolities, so keep an eye out for that!

Right now I find myself sat in my room as I push ahead with the coding for my new site, a design which I hope to have launched in the coming weeks, so watch out for that too! For now, however, I’m going to head downstairs and gorge on some of those leftovers — well, we don’t want any soggy breadsticks, do we?

20.12.18 — Journal

Hebden, Rillington & Malton

As I begin the venture of coding my new site – see my overview of the design in my last blog post – I’ve been needing more than ever to get out of the house and escape the endless lines of CSS. Thankfully my parents had a week off together, and so we made a couple of trips over into Yorkshire.

The first trip we made was to Hebden Bridge, a picturesque little town which pretty much neighbours Burnley. We spent a good long afternoon dipping in and out of little shops and exploring the Sunday market, and I picked up some delicious focaccia and olives to make a nice meal later in the day.

Architecture in Hebden Bridge

For a bite to eat we wandered into a lovely little café called Humblest of Pleasures, and enjoyed a lovely mid-afternoon tea consisting of coffee and a lovely stack of chocolate and fresh fruit pancakes. All of this, it turned out, was vegan, and I thought of the bliss meal that me and Ellie had enjoyed in Sheffield just a week or so earlier.

Humblest of Pleasures in Hebden Bridge

Apart from my haul of Italian food, I spent the rest of the little money I’d brought along treating myself to various books from charity shops. This comes after I made a promise to myself that I would not buy any more physical books until I had fully read the quite vast library that I’ve accumulated at home, but with some popular titles such as “Gone Girl” on offer for less than a quid, I really couldn’t help myself!

That said, I am getting into reading quite a lot, so I’m now toying with the idea of writing the occasional blog post with a little overview of what I’ve been reading. I’d say it’d be an occasional short book review, but that phrase for me brings up bad memories of being forced to write book reviews in primary school, so we shan’t call it that. Drop me a message on Facebook if you know of any good reads, or you have strong feelings about whether I should do my little book blog posts or not…

An abandoned building in Burnley

A few days later, we found ourselves driving back over the county line and into Yorkshire once again, but this time we went so far as to venture into North Yorkshire. We’d headed over to pay a visit to my grandad’s grave, lay a wreath, and visit the little village where he grew up: Rillington.

Arriving in Rillington
Rillington Post Office

It must have been a few years now since I last visited Rillington, as my memories are quite fragmented. I remembered how we’d visit my great aunt, my Grandad’s sister, and how we’d eat Parkin and drink strong tea and throw bits of paper in her open fire whilst she wasn’t looking. I remembered very clearly her house, the beautiful garden with a coal shed and a pine tree littering the lawn with cones, and the big field stretching out behind the garden. I remember being fascinated by the lightbulbs she used for the ceiling lights (“big lights” to us northerners), wondering where she sourced such strange coloured bulbs (warm cream and off-pink) in such strange shapes. I now realise that said bulbs must have been in that house since time immemorial – I doubt they make LED versions of them!

Sadly my great aunt passed away a few years ago, and since then I’ve been so busy country hopping that it must have been an equal amount of time since I had last visited. As you can see from the photos above, it is a gorgeous little place, and we had a lovely time strolling the streets in the cool breeze. We wandered down the street that I recognised so vividly from my childhood, but naturally we couldn’t snoop around her old house now that it’s home to somebody else, so I made do with a quick wander into the field behind.

Looking out into the field
Pastel coloured houses

After a look around the local church where my Grandad’s funeral had taken place before I was born, we made back to the car and drove the short distance to Malton, the nearest big town.

Inside the church
Walking into Malton
Butchers hiding under their awning

Here we began snooping around the place before the sun went down, wandering the pretty streets where I admired the hand-painted signage and insisted that my dad take a photo of me on a film camera emulator on my phone as I’d stupidly forgot to bring my actual film camera along with me.

A lovely bit of signage
A moody photo in the shambles

We ascended through the centre up through some shambles and wound up in a cattle market as it was closing shop for the day. We got chatting to a couple of guys who were loading sheep into a van for transportation, and they told us how that particular flock had ben sold and was being sent off to the slaughterhouse. It was quite a sobering moment.

A postcard picture of British life

After this, we descended back to the pastel-coloured centre of Malton and paid a visit to a lovely little tea rooms that my parents had visited on a previous visit. Whilst they tucked into a Christmas dinner, I enjoyed a big bowl of delicious creamy vegetable soup and a side of fresh-cut ham sandwiches. The ham was thick and salty, and reminded me of my childhood having lunch at my other grandparents’ house near Bradford – it was quite lovely.

Afternoon tea

After a cheeky dessert of Christmas cake in brandy sauce (also delicious), we retreated back to the car as the cold weather began worsening, and headed back over the county line into Lancashire. I may have been born and raised here in Lancashire, but with my entire family hailing from across the border and Burnley sitting perilously close to it, I feel a strong affinity with Yorkshire which will always keep me keen to return – even if just for the occasional day trip!

13.12.18 — Design

My New Website

I recently looked back on a blog entry from two years ago, a post which discussed the process of creating what was to be the new-look design for my website, by now rather familiar as the design you are currently looking at. Although novel at the time, I did recognise that it wouldn’t be a design which stuck around forever, as I did end this post with: “here’s to the next two and a half years!”

I may have been somewhat optimistic in making said statement, as I’m here today just two years later discussing the impending launch of a new design. If you take a moment to re-read, you’ll see that I outlined how I had learned a lot since the previous design had been launched, and I have to repeat myself heren as I say that the same is true once again.

I might lose some of you here in the boredom of wittering on about design, and so if you do find yourself dozing off, scroll down a little further in order to pore over some rough previews of what the new site will look like. If you’ve decided to stay with me, let’s have a quick look over the past two iterations of my website’s design.

The first I like to call “the green design” because quite literally everything was green. Titles were green, links were green, and even the preview images for projects had been run through a green filter. The layout was also very square and rigid, making the whole design great for ensuring optimum text legibility and cementing my personal brand, but not much else. The single-column structure didn’t allow for any kind of dynamic layout, and the green smothered the unique look of each individual project.

The green design
The green design

The second and current iteration, then, was a much-needed improvement over the first, and I call it the “grey design” due to – you guessed it – an overuse of grey. The green was relegated to the ‘Home’ and ‘About’ pages of the site, and there were opportunities to have wider and even full-width images peppered in amongst the text.

The grey design
The grey design

With time, however, I begun to realise that the new design had been merely a lick of paint instead of the more thorough re-thinking that the site really needed. I had tinkered with typefaces, image widths, and colours, but I hadn’t really made any significant layout or functionality changes. I was still using the same basic ideas which date back to ancient sketches I made way back in 2012, which you can see as you compare the old design files below.

So what’s next for my site?

This time I have started from the ground up, trying my best to not default to doing things as I have done them in the past, but rather fully examining whether they should be changed. It just so happens that the structure, the first step in developing how the site will work, did not end up getting modified all that much. The familiar three menu items have been joined by a new one, even though it is not actually a new page – just one that has always existed but has had to be accessed from elsewhere. All four options will now be quickly accessible from the redesigned menu bar:

  • Home
  • Work
  • Blog
  • About

The main structural change comes in the breaking down of the content of the ‘Work’ and ‘Blog’ areas of the site. An attempt has already been made at doing this on my current blog, with an easily-missable link to the travel section barely visible in a column to the right of the content. This puny content-sorting menu will be replaced by a much more visible one in the new design, with the two areas now to be broken down as such:

  • Work
    • Featured
    • Typefaces
    • Miscellaneous
  • Blog
    • Everything
    • Travel
    • Design Writing

The minimal and bold style is one I’ve always tried to maintain, and the new design should advance it even further. Gone are the shadows and shades of grey, they’ve given way to a simple black and white colour scheme which should let the content shine through. Of course my trademark green hasn’t been lost, but I’ve changed it to a full neon green – I thought that if I’m going to do green, I might as well go all in! Don’t fear for your retinas just yet, though, as it will be reserved as an accent colour for smaller elements and highlights.

The start of my new blog
Part of the homepage

If you’re reading this then I’ll go and assume that you’re most concerned about what will become of my blog, as it will be undergoing some major design changes. Let’s cut straight to the chase and see what’s going to happen:

Larger images

Images will now take up even more space, with captions hidden away unless they’re particularly useful.

A more varied layout

It’ll be possible to place these larger images in different layouts and at different widths, so I’ll be able to tailor the look of each post as I go.

Highlighted quotes

To break up monotonous text, or as an overview for those of who you prefer to look at the photos and skim read, interesting quotes will now be blown up much larger.

Background colours

A subtle detail, but each post will now have a pastel background colour derived from the colours of the images it contains.

Mobile optimisation

Usage data shows that lots of you read my blog on your phone, so the new mobile version has been especially considered. Full width images, clearer text, and a more spacious layout should make for much easier reading on the go.

You’ll notice that I haven’t posted any full screenshots, and that’s because I’m still fussing over final details and the text hasn’t been written yet. I’ll soon have the completed designs soon, but I think I’ll wait for it to be coded and launched live for you all to check it out in full!

If you’d like to be a beta tester, though, please do get in touch! I’ll need some people to check out the code once I start the development. Cheers!

12.12.18 — Journal

Manchester & Sheffield

It’s been a while since I updated my blog, I know, but I’m back and as confused as ever. Said confusion is due to the fact that I’ve now to try and recount two trips to Manchester from two weeks ago and not mix the details of the two up. I probably will either way, so I’ll keep everything short and sweet as damage control, and also because I’ve to get this post out quickly in order to start on the backlog of updates I’ve not posted yet…

In between toiling away on my new website (it’s nearly finished I promise) and my portfolio, I’ve also had the pleasure of heading out to spend time with my parents in a few places in and around Burnley. About a fortnight ago we found ourselves in Manchester once again (after I covered our market trip in my last post), this time for a spot of shopping and to check out the city’s creative district, the Northern Quarter.

Clark Brothers
A music shop

As I’d enjoyed visiting the crafts shop Fred Aldous so much during my time as a design student in Leeds, I dragged my mum into their original shop in Manchester. There we decided to have a go in their traditional photo booth in a moment of madness, and had a good laugh when the machine spat out the results, still covered in the photographic chemicals.

A bit of spontaneous madness
Stopping for coffee

After stopping for coffee and a bite to eat in a lovely coffee shop along the way, we headed back home, but before three days had gone by I found myself Manchester-bound once more! This time I hitched a lift over with Abi and Danni, as the three of us were due a long-awaited catch up over some bratwurst and glühwein on the markets. That we did with great gusto, all before stumbling upon a little photo booth van amongst the market stalls. With it being free, we decided that we had to give it a twirl, and the props provided led to a hilarious quartet of photos!

The three of us on the market
A cheeky sausage
My favourite of the photos

That evening the three of us headed back to Danni’s for a few cheeky drinks, which soon got suitably out of hand – but one has to have a proper drunken catch-up every now and then, no?

Anyway, after taking the Sunday off to recover from this, on the Monday morning I found myself once again on the move, only this time back over the border into Yorkshire. I’d arranged to spend a couple of nights at my sister’s student house over in Sheffield, and she’d kindly offered to show me around her city as she’d a couple of days to spare in between her busy uni schedule.

Changing trains in Leeds

To say that me and Ellie crammed a lot in during my visit would be an understatement, as it felt like we were constantly on the move, eating and drinking our way around the place non-stop!

Explorations began the moment I arrived, as she gave me a quick tour of the city by night, including the gorgeous Winter Gardens and the festive street markets. It was here that we stopped for a Christmas tipple, before I decided I’d brave trying out poutine, a Canadian dish which is basically chips and gravy with the addition of cheese curds.

Being a northerner, I am naturally a huge fan of the humble chips and gravy, but it was the cheese curds that had me on high alert. Anyone who knows me will know that I am picky about cheese at the best of times, and the word ‘curd’ cannot be said to be all that appetising. I was, then, quite delighted as I discovered that the Quebec folk have come up with a winner here, as I did indeed enjoy the glorified chips and gravy.

After this we wandered back to Ellie’s house to drop off our stuff, and then headed pretty much straight back out in order to let our hair down with a few cheeky pints and some spontaneous bingo and karaoke in some bars along the way. After a chance encounter with a takeaway guy who used to serve Ellie her preferred end-of-night dish (cheesy garlic bread) in one of the clubs, we decided it might be time to head homebound, and so I slept my Guinness off in preparation for an early morning.

Street art on campus

Ellie had plenty planned for my first foray into Sheffield by daylight, staring with a biology museum that she’d been wittering on about since my arrival. Ellie’s a biology student you see, and, as you may have gauged, I wasn’t really expecting to enjoy said museum as much as I thought that she thought that I would. I won’t judge if you have to re-read that sentence to make sense of it.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised at the kooky little converted laboratory that Ellie whisked me off to in the University of Sheffield Biology Building! The relatively small museum was packed to the rafters with curious specimens and artefacts, and I followed intrigued as she led me through the different complexities of life form. We spent quite a while in there before heading to our next stop: the lift in the Arts Tower.

Inside the museum

I know what you’re probably thinking: what’s so interesting about a lift (an elevator, for international readers) anyway? Well, this lift is unlike most others, as it’s a non-stop step-on/step-off system! They’re called paternosters, and I found the whole affair rather interesting, so you should go and read more about the thing or check out a video of how it works below – the shoddy photos I took just can’t do the thing any justice!

After surviving a trip in the thing, we hopped (literally had to) off back on ground level and took a stroll upwards through the campus. Ellie had decided we’d have a pizza lunch at Proove, a wood-fired pizza place near her house, as she’d had the place recommended to her time and time again but had never caught a chance to visit. We grabbed the £7.20 lunch menu, and it did not disappoint! It was once of the nicest pizzas I think I’ve ever had, and we followed it up with a delicious dessert consisting of the stretch pizza dough filled with banana, pistachio and Nutella – bliss!

Wandering through the University of Sheffield
A view over Sheffield

After lunch, Ellie had to nip in for a short lecture, so I plonked myself down in the University Union’s little café and worked on my new website for a while. When she returned, we nipped back to her house once again to drop off our bags, and then started up a rather steep incline to visit one of her favourite spots, Bole Hill.

Looking out from Bole Hill
A nice piece of ironwork signage

After a while putting the world to rights up atop the breezy hill, the cold soon got the better of us and we descended back into the centre of Sheffield. For tea that night I was whisked along to a place called Church in the Kelham Island area of the city, as Ellie had been told that they offered a mean vegetarian donner kebab.

At first the menu had the two of us rather confused, as there wasn’t a vegetarian symbol in sight, and most of the menu seemed to be taken up by chicken wings and pulled pork and the like. When we asked the bar staff, however, we were surprised to learn that everything on the menu was in fact vegan, and so we chose four of their dishes to share at, wondering how on earth they were going to serve us vegan BBQ ribs – I was rather dubious!

Any doubts were cast astray when the food arrived and we got stuck in, however, as everything was absolutely delicious! Helping ourselves to pulled pork and cheese fries, a plate piled high with ribs, a quinoa salad and a donner kebab, I proclaimed that it was nothing short of witchcraft that the whole affair had been totally vegan. After a cheeky margarita at a Mexican bar nearby, we grabbed a taxi home, making a mental note to pay Kelham Island a visit again in the future.

The next day began rather slowly, as we headed into the city once more in order to grab some breakfast. Ellie had once again found a lovely little independent coffee shop famed for its delicious banana bread, which was served toasted with a little bit of butter, and was absolutely delicious and undoubtedly one of the best breakfasts I’ve had in quite some time. I don’t recall its name, but I’ll ask Ellie to let me know and edit it into this post once I find out. It was at Tamper Coffee!

All too soon it was time for me to head back to the station to catch my train back to Lancashire, but Ellie will be back home for Christmas soon, so it wasn’t such a huge goodbye as I’d become accustomed to whilst living abroad! Since this visit to Sheffield, I’ve been up to even more, but I’m afraid that I’ll have to leave that until another blog post. I’ll leave you, then, with the mental image of me waving Ellie out of Sheffield train station with a mouth full of Tesco’s festive turkey and stuffing sandwich – nothing says a British Christmas more than that!