The endless stream of hot weather and the World Cup are giving me no option but to visit the supermarkets of the North West to buy Ice Pops and check up on any lists dropped in a frantic scurry to get the charcoal for another BBQ you just have to have.

Back in 2017, Sarah and I visited Hull. It had UK City of Culture status, promised big things and delivered, has a William Mitchell mural and it did us very proud.  As we like 8 hour day trips with sightseeing then retiring to our dormitories to watch evening regional TV we decided to revisit the San Francisco of the north but this time go to the parts our eyes hadn't before seen and almost a year to the day since our last visit. As David, my beautiful car dumped me and then died our travel arrangements were to be the train trip of a lifetime. The trainline website promised we would stop in exotic places like Stalybridge, Leeds and Brough. I wanted to see them, to become the train trip and eat pocket snacks with wonder and awe. With our tickets booked and the WhatsApp hotline in meltdown we decided to live at Lenny's again as he was good to us last time and his breakfast was pleasing to our palettes.  What we didn’t plan for was 72ft of snow being dropped the day before embarkatio…

On turning 36 I thought the best way to celebrate would be to walk 5 miles in 32 degree heat to somewhere nice and eat crisps and drink lager. I like this part of the world, it is very scenic and quiet and quite a few treasures can be found on the shoreline, which we found the night before. The walk Dan and I did is HERE  but we didn't walk along the field part as hunger dictated to my brain that we might get ticks on our legs. We didn't get ticks and walked further around the shoreline eventually arriving very soggy and needing crisps around 2 hours later. The pictures from the day seem to descend into sights of interest such as friends we made in a field, a car park sign and a lovely set of carpet samples. I was very interested in the Design Award plaque and the very nice mixture of fonts in and around the village.