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!
It’s been a week since I landed back in the UK but with commitments such as working for Burnley Arts Centre and organising some Scholarship Project work, I’ve only just got round to piecing this post together! Blatantly obvious is the location which I visited: Lagos, in the glorious country of Portugal.
This post has a soundtrack, click here before you continue. Ears full of cheesy Portuguese club music? Good. Continue.
Lagos is a beautiful town in the Algarve region of Portugal, boasting a tonne of shops and restaurants in it’s old walled town centre, as well as a marina and a smattering of coves and beaches. Spending two weeks there was bliss, which began with the nightly trips out to eat and browse the local shops. Even on holiday, though, this universally recognisable graphic term didn’t pass me by…
I spent a good amount of time wandering around one of my favourite spots in the town, an old fortress forming one of the main entrances to the walled centre…
After a few days lounging around the pool of the lovely Aqualuz apartments we were staying in, my dad and I got somewhat restless and grabbed our cameras for a snoop along the coast. We first chanced across this abandoned hotel which I’d taken interest in on our last visit a few years ago, but this time we ventured slightly further into the complex…
I have posted the photos from our snooping around the abandoned hotel, the Hotel Golfinho, in another blog post which you can read here! Anyway, after a quick snoop around it’s peeling exterior, we continued heading towards the coves.
The views from the Algarve are breathtaking, and needless to say we spent quite a while wandering up and down the coastline to take enough photos to all but fill my 64GB memory card. Here’s a few of the best…
As we hit the edge of the coastline, where Lagos bends towards an area known as Luz, the most breathtaking part of the coastline was to be found: the grottos. We had already booked a boat tour of the grottos, but took the time to descend an unforgiving number of steps to take a few photos. Here’s a lovely panorama I managed to take on my phone:
As I said, however, most of our time was spent wandering through the centre of the town, where I took the following snaps. Do forgive my expression on the one of me down there. It’s the best of a bad bunch.
Anyway, back to that boat trip that we had booked. To begin, we headed down to Lagos Marina and boarded a big orange boat before heading off out into the Mediterranean Sea, never straying to far from the looming stacks and arches of the coastline, however…
After a little while, and many photos of the coastline (with which I shall burden you not), we dropped anchor and were invited to jump into the freezing ocean (we’d discovered how damn cold it is on a trip to the beach one day). Ellie, fearing not the cold, clambered straight up onto the roof of the boat and threw herself into the water.
Then it was time for part of the trip I’d been waiting for, a chance to have a ride on a modified ‘banana boat’ which had been designed not to tip over. Naturally, of course, I managed to get thrown off it after only a couple of minutes, and then my useless bobbing life-jacked-adorned self had to be unceremoniously rescued from the freezing water. I was not impressed.
The next day, fancying some time away from the sea, my dad and I ventured out once more with our cameras slung over our shoulders. This time we encircled the outer limits of the walled town centre, before dipping in to meander up and down the steep streets. Here’s a couple of photos from our journey…
On our final full day in Portugal, my dad and I once more decided to give the pool a miss and found something else to do: ride Segways around the town! Picking them up from a lovely Portuguese gentleman in the town square, we zipped around the marina before daring to head into the busy commercial areas of the town.
The Segways were so much fun, both me and my dad agreed that we wanted one – and if it weren’t for the UK laws restricting their use, would probably look into getting one. However after this it was time for one last Italian meal and then back to the apartment to pack up, ready for our transfer the next morning.
I loved my time in Lagos, and would very much recommend that anyone thinking of a holiday on the continent doesn’t forget about Portugal. It’s lovely people, old charm, brilliant food and cool sea breeze are not to be missed. If you’d like some recommendations of places to go in Lagos, feel free to get in touch.
You may now end the cheesy Portuguese music (if you bothered to play it). If you want more, try this. Até logo!
It’s been well over a week since I landed back in the UK, but here’s a belated post on my eight day trip to Germany with Rhea and Izzy to visit Luisa and her lovely family in their house down in Bavaria.
Naturally, when me and Rhea landed we headed straight to the Smith family house in Herzogenaurach, where made a beeline for the local Eiscafé (ice cream cafe) after Luisa had been gushing over Spaghettieis (spaghetti ice cream). Here was mine – it was delicious!
Later that evening we picked up Izzy, who had flown into Nürnberg airport separately, and headed for the part of the trip I had been most excited for – the local Sommerkirchweih or Bierfestival (beer festival). It was an amazing evening of beer drinking, music, and tipsy dancing on benches. It was lovely to see that nobody there was too drunk or aggressive – it was just a lot of fun for all the townspeople.
We returned to the Kerwa for a second evening of festivities the day after, where I cracked out the tackiest shirt I could find and me and Iz treated ourselves to the biggest pretzel I have ever seen…
The day after, still in Herzogenaurach, we headed for the Freibad. The Freibad (literally ‘free pool’) is a huge open-air pool, complete with a trio of diving boards and a waterslide, which cost about 3€ for all-day entry. With an entry free equivalent to £2.50 or so, I did not expect the place to be so beautiful, clean and well-equipt! We spent most of the morning there making a nuisance of ourselves, splashing around and trying to re-enact Dirty Dancing…
That evening we headed out into the centre of Herzogenaurach for more ice cream and some tea, and found ourselves in a lovely little Italian Restaurant, where I had a delicious pizza. We then headed back for an early night for an early start – for we were travelling up to Berlin for four days!
So for the next few days we took a bus ride up to Berlin, where we’d booked a hostel, and spent the time exploring the cosmopolitan city. Signing up for the Alternative Berlin Tour, we spent time poking around the city’s thriving urban art and graffiti scene, as well as visiting some more kooky spots.
The tour ended in a place called Urban Spree, a huge outdoor art/club venue set in an abandoned railway hangar. We took a peek around their art gallery, and stopped for a burrito, but spent most of our time just taking in the endless street art. We even returned to Urban Spree in the evening for a night out organised by Alternative Berlin. It was awesome!
On our tour we also visited the Kunstraum Kreuzberg, an ex-hospital which is now an exhibition space and music school, where we spent some time looking at various projects, including one where the artist had activated spray cans and let them whizz around the room of their own accord. Another one which caught me off guard was installed in the actual toilet facilities – one of the sinks was continually spouting deep blue water. Being the fool that I am, I put my hands in it and ended up parading my blue-tinted digits around for the rest of the day. Nice work, Briggs.
One morning we took a trip to the Bauhaus Archives, where I was in my element – the Bauhaus philosophy and the whole modernism movement in general are of great interest to me (check out this project I completed on Online Typography and Modernism). Unfortunately photography was forbidden within the archive, but the building alone made a striking statement…
After this we headed on down to the East Side Gallery, a graffiti/street art gallery set on the remnants of the Berlin Wall through the centre of the city. There we spent a while admiring the work, and then ended up being offered free beer and a space to drink it right on the street! Only in Germany…
Sadly though, before long it was time to leave Berlin, but all was not lost as we headed back to Bavaria to visit Nürnberg (Nuremberg, as we English like to call it), spending a day wandering round the beautiful old city. The most breathtaking views could be found from the castle atop the hill, where we enjoyed the gorgeous architecture as well as panoramic views of the city.
After time spent lounging and napping on a man-made beach, and a mouthful of chilli chocolate Mexican ice cream, it was time to head back to Herzogernaurach – but all was not lost, as we had time to head out for one last night at the bierfestival!
Overall my time in Germany was amazing – from the traditional beer festivals of Bavaria to the cosmopolitan and liberal Berlin, it’s a country I severely underestimated and am very keen to visit again. Having been inspired and having already started learning German, who knows – maybe I’ll try and spend some significant time there one day!
Update:I’ve added some extra photos which were taken on my old film camera in a new post, Film Aus Deutschland, which can be found here.
As part of my scholarship training, the lovely people at the University decided to send us on a three day outward bound trip off into the Yorkshire Dales, to spend some time engaging in various outdoorsy team-building activities based around a hut in a field called Selside. All first year scholars plus some second years (including me) were invited to tag along and enjoy caving, climbing, ambling, marshmallow-roasting, and more…
On the first day we arrived (just about) in the blue rust bucket that was our designated minibus, and after claiming a bed and a pair of indoor Crocs each, were sent straight into the adjoining field for some challenges. These involved walking on planks, building plank bridges across barrels, transporting ‘radioactive waste’, and communicating directions to others whilst blindfolded – all of which we managed successfully! This meant that our lunch was made for us – best prize ever.
In the afternoon I took charge in deciding what activities we should go out and enjoy, with the general consensus being that people either wanted to go caving or go climbing. We split into two groups, and I joined the caving team for a trip under the Dales. The cave we had been assigned, it turned out, I had taken on exactly ten years ago when I was in Year 5 of primary school! I was pretty impressed when I could remember most of the layout.
Anyway, after peeling off our waterlogged clothes, roasting marshmallows over a BBQ, and accidentally sitting on the lid of Selside’s septic tank, we all headed off to bed.
Day two began as actively as the first day had ended, with us bumbling back through the deadly roads of the Dales for a spot of Ghyll Scrambling. This involved climbing up the riverbed of a river which ran down the side of a hill – however we got off lightly as the dry conditions meant there was little to no water flow – ideal for someone like me who had been moaning about being cold all morning. The midges, however, did not let us off lightly – we were bitten to death whilst trying to pass various scholars through a rope web at various heights as part of a quick team-building exercise.
In the afternoon I decided to push myself and volunteered, along with Adam, to co-lead the next expedition down the cave with the second set of scholars who had arrived. With my caving experience limited to the previous day’s efforts and my primary school trip a decade ago, I was very worried about getting the whole team lost for all eternity in the black caverns under Selside. I learned, however, that to be a respected leader one must carry on with false conviction in order to create the illusion that you know what you are doing – and if it turns out that you got it wrong, you have to know when to throw your hands up and admit that you screwed up.
Happily, however, I managed to successfully lead the rest of the scholars through the cave, and we resurfaced with the same number which we descended with. We did, however, return to Selside to the news that Pippa had been stretchered down the hillside from a walk she’d been on – an injury which ended with her in Leeds General Infirmary for the night! I am please to report that she has since recovered.
Day three began with just the second group around, all of whom went Ghyll Scrambling – however with me having already done it, I opted to stay indoors and help cook up some lunch for the returning scholars. After whipping up some stuffed potato skins, soups, sandwiches, and a ridiculous number of apple pies, the scholars returned to feast and then end the outward bound with some indoor team-building activities.
The outward bound residential, in brief, was a whole lot of fun concealing a whole lot of learning. It was a lovely opportunity to get to know the scholars, try new activities, and build on our leadership and organisational skills. Thank you to all involved in making it happen!
Image Credit: All photos in this blog post, unless otherwise stated, are property of Damian McDonald / The University of Leeds.
