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…
As you may have seen, a while back I jetted off with Izzy and Rhea to visit Luisa in her homeland of Germany! You can, of course, head back to have a nosey at the link above, but I’ve just got round to scanning some film photos we took whilst traversing Berlin and dancing away at the Bierfestivals – just keep on scrolling…
First up we’ve got some photos from Luisa’s hometown of Herzogenaurach, where I made good and proper use of my German-made Praktica MTL50 which I picked up in Leeds for a mere £25.
Before long, however, we’d wound up at the Kerwa beer festival, where I summoned upon the trusty Boots Disposable camera to take some snaps…
We then, as per my older blog post, bundled ourselves onto a coach up to Berlin, where I took the next round of photos. These, again, are on my trusty Praktica.
And so concludes my collection of Film Aus Deutschland (film photos from Germany). As I mentioned before, you can check out the original post here for a more in-depth rundown of what we got up to. Tschüß!
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!
