Mello Mello’s New Year plans could be best - Ropewalks Liverpool

Mello Mello’s New Year plans could be best - Ropewalks Liverpool

And that is why we are goingggggggggggg! yey!

It's nearly here!

We've been busy busy busy! Trade orders and web orders are now all packed and gone. We've had festive fun in munich, two great days at the St Georges hall winter arts Market and now just Lark Lane Christmas eve market then it's time for rest and wait for Santa and his reindeers. We've had also festive winter picnic at camp and furnace, the best venue in Liverpool, sat drinking mulled wine on hay sofas by a campfire with brass bands and fake snow. Camp and furnace rocks! More proper blogs on last few weeks along with some festive pics to follow. We are also moving premises in mid jan which has worked out well timewise after the Christmas rush. Hopefully moving along with our favourite artist, Sophie green, so we still get to admire her Beatles superlambanana art! Merry Christmas one and all. Little satsuma xx

A little (lots of) help from my friends

I had a lovely day at allerton road farmers Market. Sold lots and had a good natter to lots of people. It's what it's all about! Having spent last night in the satsuma studio from 5.30 til 11pm - packing orders and preparing for today, I have to say with Fiona dewar and mr William brown I'd have never been ready for today. Good friends are hard to find, and last night I was grateful for two smashing ones. Xx

All you need is hug....Borneo Orangutan Article...



By Fiona Rogers and Anup Shah

I often get sent links to articles on Orangutans and this one is spectacular. If ever anyone wanted to see how similar we are to them just read this article about Fiona Rogers and Anup Shah's trip to Borneo.

Orangutans will copy people washing their clothes in a river, they will take another piece of washing and start washing. They jump in canoes and head for the best fruit on the other river banks.

We should leave them be and promote eco tourism that benefits local communities. You should read about the achievements that the Sumatran Orangutan Society are making with their replanting program too - let's hope mother nature will beat the greed of these palm oil and pulp companies.

Click here to read the full Article

Festive Indoor Winter Market, Liverpool, 3rd & 4th December - come on down. ho ho ho

ST GEORGE'S HALL...CHRISTMAS SHOPPING..WINE...MINCE PIES......

If you've never been before...why not?? It's great and get's you a in real festive mood.

So why not spend some time here, amongst local makers and producers, hit the mince pies and grab a glass of red away from the commercial high street craziness on mian street.

Savvy shoppers ahoy! See you there.

Ooh and also Sophie Green, who I share an Arts studio with in Liverpool will be there too with her fabulous artwork including Prints, Original Drawings and Paintings plus the obligatory SG Cat Badges!

Paintings, photographs, prints, sculpture, textiles, knit wear, clothing, cards, vintage prints and photographs, ceramics, jewellery, glass, handmade beauty products, accessories and much more!


BUY HANDMADE - BUY LOCAL - BUY BEAUTIFUL

A café will be setup beneath the beautiful antique organ serving a range of food and drink throughout the day, and a programme of free musical performances will take place in the historic Crown Court Room, plus another little historical surprise we're not telling you about yet...

Winter Arts Market

10am - 5pm

Sat 3rd & Sun 4th December 2011

St George's Hall, Liverpool (opposite Lime Street Train Station and Queen Square Bus Station)

A modern chimney sweep's toolkit

Ok so you may have seen my post on saving the Jackdaw out of the chimney. And I was pondering on what we used to do it:

2 butterknifes - now recycled
1 mop handle - since disinfected
1 sheet (egyptian cotton) - since donated to the vicarage shed for rags

Move over Bear Grylls! :)

Sunny chops.....the new member of the satsuma family

I'm still chuckling from Saturday that Chris (my friend's husband) thought I'd named Little Satsuma as I was called Jane Satsuma....which to be fair most people tend to call me these days...amongst other things!

Anyway TJ, my house rabbit who I got in September 2010 was getting miserable, so we snippety snipped him and began a quest to find him a nice girlfriend who was about the same size as him....most rescue centres were innundated with boys...because people keep the girls for breeding, which upsets me. When you see how many of these little furry chaps are in rescue centres no-one should be breeding anymore - it's wrong.

Anyway so we found a little girl on RSPCA website rehoming search - she was called Lolly and was in North Wales, Bryn y Maen, and I went to see her one weekend in February. She had an awful start in life and been taken out of a house with many other animals. I don't know what had happened to her but she was very timid and very beautiful. I loved her as soon as I saw her, she was like TJ but black.

I passed all the checks and was allowed to get her two weeks later, when TJ had settled from his snip. She had been sharing with another little chap called Frankie (just paired the day before I saw her) but he has a new mate now thank goodness as I felt awful, I'd have taken him too if I hadnt had TJ.

It took 3 weeks to bond them, most of which I spent the evening in the hallway whilst they fought for domination, then one day I came home and TJ had done a super high jump over the boundary fence to go see her....and now they are inseparable.

I firmly believe that pets should not be left in the garden and forgotten about.....treat them with love and affection and you'll get hours of fun and entertainment with them.

The picture is of Lolly's first summer trip in the vicarage garden...she took a while to come out and was very scared, but half an hour later she was eating grass, throwing herself around and kicking here legs in the air. I think it was the first time she'd felt sunshine on her little chops.

All any creature needs is loving care and freedom. Mine live in little beds, well Lolly actually ate her first three beds as she destroyed everything when she first came to live with us, and they are, I hope, happy as larry...whoevere larry is! xxx

Throw those curtains wide...

I downloaded spotify again today, not had it for ages, but I heard a few bands on various radio stations to and from London, and so I'm listening to them.

One of my fave songs ever though is Elbow's 'One Day Like This' from 'The Seldom Seen Kid' album. what I love most well in fact I love lots...it's super cheery, uplifting and you can still here his accent when he sings which I love.

One to play when it's a bit pants outside and you fancy a blast of cheeriness!

Up on the roof.....the biggest clockface in UK :)

As I'm typing this my rabbit, TJ, is sat on my feet, he's come to see what I'm doing. He even managed to communicate to me he wanted more hay on Monday morning - he's very clever.

Anyway so the Liver Building was 1000 years old in July, and John William's from Royal Liver kindly agreed, as we work in there, to give us a tour....ooh it was great. We found out how the atrium was the old booking hall for the Canadian liners taking people to emigrate, we saw the commemorations to the men who had given their lives in the Wars, we went up on the roof, into the clockworks room and way way up the spiral steps into the towers where the clocks are and where the birds sit atop.

My legs were wobbling with fear at the very top, the views were amazing and John was very interesting. We also got to see the original boardroom that is untouched since it was built...It was full of ornate carvings, the seats had liver birds on them, there was gold leaf ceiling. It even had this little desk that they used to use to call the various secretaries/ tea ladies/ minute takers etc!!!

A true gem of a piece of history....and did you know there is a third liver bird hidden away in Liverpool watching over us??

Amazing to think it was built on an old dock hey! There are some great ghost stories I've been told about both the Liver and the Cunard Buildings but I shall save them for anoother day...x

Oh and we collected around £50 in donations, which was matched by DB so it raised £100 for Alder hey children's hospital. Good stuff chaps x

The Docker's Umbrella - underground in Liverpool's disused railway

It turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year when Gill Torres (DownSouth Liverpool magazine) and I met our tour guides for our planned afternooon 'Ghost Hunting' in Dingle disused railway terminus. It was the last station of the Old Overhead railway or as the scousers know it 'The Docker's Umbrella'.

Totally and utterly fascinating. There are loads of vintage cars down there just left to rot, like and old Liverpool corporation van, there is rope everywhere (some made and some not) this would all have been used on the docks – the roper maker died and all his stuff was just left there. The actual station platform is now a car mechanics garage. There was a fire here in early 1901 when a train caught fire and as it entered tunnel it met with lots of flammable stuff – 8 people died so it’s abit eerie being down there thinking of that.


Well worth going on I'd say but take your wellies and a woolly hat as it's freeezing down there! xxx

Enter your Huckleberry Finn....What??? Cockney Cashpoint :)

I was making my way to London City along the Hackney Road on Tuesday morning this week. I stopped to get out £10 (or as I now know it a 'Speckled Hen').....I put my card in and it asked what language did I want....'English or Cockney'.....it made me chuckle all the way to London Wall!

Huckleberry Finn =  rather than their Pin
Sausage and mash = cash
Speckled hen = £10
Rattle and tank = bank

Very amusing! My Gran was a Cockney and would have loved this. We used to sit and sing all the old London songs together...my old man said follow the van, any time you're lambeth way, knees up mother brown....good times, good granny xx

The most clever lift in London

I drove to London on Monday night. I stayed in the hotel near Shoreditch and I was amazed to hear that the lift (elevator) had learnt french in the last 6 weeks. She can tell you which floor you are on, that you are going up, that the doors are closing. I said hello to her in french to mark the occasion "Bonjour ascenseur, ca va?" Sadly she must have gone shy as she didn't reply. So we headed up from the rez de chaussee to my bedroom for the night and I trotted off merrily to meet my complimentary slippers!

I hope she doesn't learn too many more languages as it might make using the lift a rather long process!

Days off....daydreaming

Ok so i am off today after a late drive back from London last night. I have a to-do list made, but I'm going a bit Shakespeare on it right now....as in "to do or not to do". I have been playing with TJ and Lolly my house rabbits and doing some jpegs of the flyer for this Saturday's new Allerton Road Farmers and Producers market.
And I have so many things I want to write about I could be here allllll day!

I want to write about:
St George's Hall Winter Arts Market on 3rd and 4th December
My Pet rabbits and their story...from Leeds via Wales to a Liverpool vicarage
Allerton Road farmers and producers market
The funny cashpoint and the lift that learnt to speak french
and ooh just allsorts .................

Free as a bird...

The day: before halloween, a Sunday. Background: I had just re-arranged my room the night before and I was relishing the rare lie-in that awaited me!

My bed was right by the sealed fireplace....and so I was peacefully asleep, when around 8.30am I was awoken by an almighty squawking and what sounded like flapping by my head. I'll admit I freaked out and started crying (this doens't bode well for me wanting to change career and become a vet!). I rang the caretaker, who looks after the vicarage where I live. So he said if i wanted to save whatever was there I had to unblock the chimney. So after a bit more crying, I called Dick Van Dyke and he wasn't free...so I rang Will and Matt.

After taking off the fascia board we unveiled an amazing original fireplace from the 1800's and a bird's leg poking out of it, at which point I screamed and ran out (vet...no...). Matt then unblocked the chimney, which unveiled a rather big shock.....one big, live and breathing, fat, scared, stuck..Jackdaw. And then a dead bird fell out. Cue more screams. So aided by the mop handle I had gone to get Matt got him to move...and then he flew out the fireplace into my room! holy moly....he ended up flapping at the window but he was safe and he was free. Matt calmed him down and we used a sheet to wrap him up. Matt took him downstairs and as soon as we got outside the fat jackdaw flew off, giving Matt a thumbs up as he left (that bits clearly me being stupid as birds don't have fingers and thumbs). We found 7 dead birds and I feel awful they may have died and they were just a few metres away from me and if I'd known I could've saved them.

But anyway why I'm writing this is to say if you have chimneys, if you live in an old house...get them covered. You could save a few of our feathered friends....I am now going to try and convince our landlords to net them off or see if I can get someone to come and do it.

Watching that little (fat) chap fly off it made me think that freedom is the most important thing any creature can have. Freedom to be, freedom to move, freedom to choose, freedom to fly away.

"Curiouser and Curiouser" said Alice

Thursday 3rd November - Whilst not a great 'art buff' I do appreciate Art and if I have an opportunity to go see some, then I'll take it!


Nearly 2 weeks ago I went to the private view of the Alice in Wonderland at the Liverpool Tate. I got there late...as usual...so I headed up to find Di & Lorraine. I really enjoyed it..all the old manuscripts and the first presses of the book. And these amazing little tea sets - so cute.

I never knew that Lewis Carroll was his pen name and he was really called Charles Dodgson and Alice was based on the daughter of a vicar from Oxford from the Lidell family; Alice Liddell.

It seems from what I've read since that Charles has great affection for Alice Liddell and so I wondered where they both ended up; I found this info on another website (incompetech.com) Charles lived to see Alice in Wonderland become one of the most translated and beloved children's stories ever. He saw the first stage version in 1886, and saw edition after edition sell out. Charles died on 14 January 1898 of a severe bronchial infection, possibly aggravated by the newfangled asbestos fires he had had installed in his rooms to replace the unsafe coal fires. As for Alice, she eventually married one Reginald Hargreaves and sometimes toured to speak in celebration of one Lewis Carroll anniversary or another.

The Tate takes you through a little journey, of a book you remember from long ago, and I imagine many will wish to re-read after attending. I loved it as I love all the animals in it, and the crazy creatures he created. And it may be one of the reasons I have always loved animals. That along with Gerald Durrell's books!

So do go and see it if you get chance, it's on until 29th January 2012. Personally I wasn't keen on the contemporary art section that made up the second part of it - but it's all about personal taste, and I guess Art is there to evoke feelings of any kind.

Worth a trip....don't forget you looking glasses hehe!....x

Just a few more things....

I have a lot more I want to achieve and I sat thinking about them earlier...

DJin a superclub, I already know what I will play. Failing that I will hire a villa in Ibiza overlooking the sea and as the sunsets - away from any other people so as not to disturb them -I will dance with my good friends. My friend Helen G and I, I think may be some of the only people who've ever been to Ibiza who don't take drugs and who danced longer than everyone else. I adore music, it's up there with my two pet bunnies for things I love the most.

Be bigger than the BodyShop one day

Run a successful events company

Get a Zoology Degree

Own a massive swathe of Protected Rainforest

Be a succesful Vegetable Grower

Win Strictly Come Dancing

Become a Wildlife Presenter

Alot of things I have done people said I wouldn't or that I'd fail...and to date I've not proved them right :))))

Thankyou Florence! Liverpool Marathon done :))

The range of emotions experienced training for and running a marthon are really quite something that take you from sheer fear and self doubt to utter elation.

The greatest thing to me is that it restores or bolsters your faith in human beings. I have run two marathons now and there is always a point just prior to, during or just after that I have a massive surge of emotion and want to cry. Actually usually it's before when I think about the 26.2 miles ahead!!!!

I found a new fave running song, courtesy of my friend Emma's sister, Claire, that I put on my ipod the day before. Florence and the Machine's "Shake it out" Benny Bennassi remix - immense. Followed by Emeli Sandé's "Heaven" - kept me running the whole way!

4 hrs 50 mins I finished in, all the super duper runners said it was v hard course and they all came around 15-20 minutes later than expected. So know I'm thinking ooh should I find a flatter marathon (Berlin) and get my golden 4 1/2 hours........just one more "Jim'll Fix it" medal!

Still got offline donations coming in, should be ready to go to Healing Hands Network to go with the online donations. Total donations so far £951.18, plus £236.00 of Gift Aid and then work matched funding of £951.18 is total of £2,138.36 so thanks for everyone who has supported me through this and egged me on when I was despondent at times before massive training runs of 15 and 18 miles! Thanks Gill Torres for dragging my ass from town to Liverpool Airport and back for an 18 miler!

I am going to Healing Hands AGM in the Midlands on 6th November so look forward to meeting some other members and hearing about their plans for launching and promoting their services to Armed Forces chaps with PTSD coming back from war zones. The £1,388 I've raised, on top of the £750 that was needed for my Bosnia trip, will be going to help launch and fund this service.

xxxxx

Bite sized Bard

I spent the day (after a hugely hectic morning) at Heswall Arts Festival's 'Makers and Designers Market". It was fab, they had "Bite Sized Bard" company there too doing some shakespeare and making us all jump out of our skin. Susan Lee-Brown was one of the organisers - she is a fellow resident of the same art studio space that is home to some of Little Satsuma's creative space for making candles and various other Harry Potter-esque endeavours!

I sat next to Tricia and her Dad, eating rather alot of the amazing cakes and fugde they were selling, chatting about Abu Dhabi grand prix, Egyptian history and various other things - I love having chats with people you've never met before.

So Thanks Susan for inviting us along and thanks Tricia for the Halloween cakes you gave me at the end - that I am just about to eat - yes I know it's only 10.40am, but hey it's lunchtime somewhere in the world. There's always time for cake. Ooh and I'm listening to Lana del rey's 'Video Games' whilst typing this - just utterly love it!! :)

A satsuma Monkey! We love gingers!

Did you see this picture of the baby Francois langurs monkey born in London Zoo last week?

Click here to read - he's a little ginger chap (so his mum can spot him when he's little) but he'll turn black as he grows up.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043330/Rare-monkey-gives-birth-ginger-baby-London-Zoo.html

Pictures like this often make me wonder how anyone could ever think the animal kingdom don't have feelings like we do - look at the little chap holding on to his old Mum!

Great! love it! I will post pictures soon of my gibbon and siamang in Borneo. My Siamang Chikih is on great form now, she had been really ill and i think that was why no-one adopted her - so I did!

I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining

This 'quote' was found, scrawled on the wall below a Star of David, by American soldiers searching a cellar of a Jewish ghetto that had been cleared in one of the war-torn cities of Germany. I always think of this when ever things go a bit pear shaped or when I'm struggling on a long run.

"I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining.
I believe in love, even when I do not feel it.
I believe in God, even when He is silent."

And I always wish peace to whomever scrawled this.

A quote from Sarajevo to Healing Hands

“Your treatments give our members a reason for living”

Muzafer Teskeredzic, Secretary, Association of Civil Victims of War, Sarajevo

Liverpool to Bosnia....a marathon and a journey

Raising money for Healing Hands to help fund volunteers offering holistic therapies, working in Bosnia with civil war victims and also now offering treatments to Armed Forces returning from duty

So by running this marathon I am aiming to raise £750 so I can go to Bosnia in Spring/ Summer 2012 for two weeks to volunteer with Healing Hands. My employer, Deutsche Bank, match all funding by DB employees and up to £1000 from family and friends so I may raise enough to get another scouser massage therapist on board.

Just 3 hours away on a plane from the UK, in the early 1990s, generations of people in Bosnia had their lives changed forever. I cannot think of any worse pain than a mother or father losing their ability to protect their children and knowing that, in that moment, nothing will ever be the same again. How anyone can ever find peace again not knowing the fate of their most dearest loved ones, the people they have nurtured and protected thus far, is quite simply beyond my comprehension.

The images from the tv at the time are haunting, and there is one in particular of a little boy with his pet rabbit in Srebenica with all the other people seeking protection from the UN, thinking they’d be protected by the Dutch as the Serbians came in led by Ratko Mladic; I often wonder what happened to him as the massacre (Srebrenica genocide in which over 8000 people lost their lives) began not long after. The little lad just wanted his mum and dad – it’s so sad to think this was his experience of childhood.

I have read many books on World War 2, and indeed wrote all my French coursework on the Holocaust, the French Resistance and life under Nazi rule. I have read many books on Rwanda, Cambodia, Kosovo, Bosnia and the inescapable sense I always get from them all is the utter sense of despair and indescribable emotional pain of the protectors/ the adults at being stripped of their basic instinct to protect their vulnerable, their elderly and their children

And so whilst nothing can undo this, it cannot bring men back out of mass, shallow graves in Srebrenica and repatriate them for one last loving hug with their families, it cannot bring a glisten to the hollow eyes of the mother who sits staring at the wall every day in a refugee centre, wanting for a time that will never come again; something can be done to try and remind them that we care.

We are so, so fortunate to not have experienced what they have gone through, so I wanted to be part of the good work that the Healing Hands Network does, and that they have been doing in Bosnia for over 14 years. I will be working as a Holistic Therapist in their Sarajevo clinic and in their mobile outreach clinics with people who remain displaced over a decade on.

My last marathon was somewhat of a baptism of fire, running on a day when it was hotter than in Athens and watching someone lose his life on a pavement. I'm hoping this one will be calmer and who knows even I might enjoy this one.

I've done it!! Mission Fundraising accomplished

We counted the pot of money we've been collecting and it's meant I've reached my target for Marathon fundraising!! Woo hoo!!!

I have to raise £750 to go to Bosnia next year and work as a volunteer therapist.

As my employer also will match some (or most of it in fact) this is taking me well over the £1000 mark.

I can't thank the people who've supported me enough, we've been on this running and fundriaising since May and at times it feels like it will never end. Only 1% of people on this earth have ever run a marathon, and it's hard to explain how 'up and down' it can make you, but also how exhilarating it can be to acheive running distances you didnt think you could. It's not even about the distance to me it's about the mental strength and will power that we all have in us and often don't use!

I am going to Bosnia with Healing Hands Network, Sandra who heads it up was good enough to put an article in the charity newsletter this week to rally supporters to come and cheer me on.

In my next post I'm going to post the few words I wrote a while ago about why I wanted to do it: (also on my web link to the sponsorship page http://www.liverpool2bosnia.co.uk)

Happy 18th...mile :)

Last Sunday, well in fact the one before (18th September) i set out with my co-pilot Gill Torres on our biggest running test so far..18 miles from not far off Liverpool city centre to Liverpool airport and back.

The highlight humour-wise was me running into MacDonalds (havent been in one for decades) in full runninge gear, a belt full of running gels and the whole place just starred at me from behind their big macs; i felt like an utter idiot but I was glad for the bottle of water (and the wee!).

The biggest thing to spur me on was meeting James and John along Menlove Avenue (where John lennon lived) - from a distance I realised it was them as James taps his dad on the shoulder whilst running because James is blind. And he is running Liverpool marathon - it will be his 41st marathon. And his Dad is 73 and looking great on it. He doesn't run with a tether like other blind runners, he runs behind his dad and taps his shoulder. So we had a really good natter and found out we are all in the same starting pen on Oct 9th for Liverpool marathon.

They overtook me a few years ago in the Liverpool Half marathon and I remember being in awe of James then. And so as we went our separate running ways I had a spring in my step I hadn't had before as the two of them are a total inspiration and I can't wait to meet them again on the big day.

Here is an article about the pair of them in the Liverpool Daily Post:

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/09/03/inspirational-blind-runner-to-run-liverpool-marathon-his-41st-26-miler-alongside-his-73-year-old-dad-100252-29353404/

DIY SOS Day with Nick Knowles

Last Wednesday (September 14th) I went with some workmates and 2 friends (Kate and Soraya)to work on a Children in Need Special DIY SOS Norris Green Youth Centre. It was a ten day project to rebuild and refurbishment of their building. This was 10 times larger than any of the building projects undertaken by the DIY SOS team in their previous series.

We joined in to help paint, dig, construct fences, clean, move vast amounts of building material and generally get covered in wet plaster (which then set on my knees) and window foam and dust.

The food they made us was immense, and we sat next to Billy from DIY SOS for our dinner. The spirit and atmosphere was really cracking to see everyone there giving up there time to help a place which has become " a beacon of hope within the community, committed to offering young people from the area an equal chance to achieve and gain positive life experiences".

It will be shown during Children in Need, and as I couldn't go back for the reveal day I am really looking forward to watching the show to see what it looked like finished.

We then had a couple of drinks down at Rigbys, 3 girls - looking like a bunch of dusty builders - we got some hilarious looks from people - mainly men!

As they say you have to be the change you want to see in the world. Simple.

Free as a bird....

I watched this during my late lunch. Sent by Ms Torres who knew I'd love it.
A young whale, trapped in nets is happened upon and saved. You should see his reaction when he is freed - it's totally amazing and very uplifting.

Croatian Lavender Ice Cream, Hvar 2011

Ok so I ordered the usual Caramel sort of ice cream at the little ice cream shop at the harbour. And then I noticed a sign on one saying 'lavande' so I explained to the guy that I sell Croatian Lavender on my website and I love it as it's sweeter than french lavender, and asked was this really ice cream made from lavender. Wow-wee it was! and he gave me some for free and I loved it!

I was also massivley laid back for the next couple of hours. This soon disappeared though once I had fed (the contents of the local supermarket shelf of dog food) to all the dogs from the mad house down the road from our apartment at Luka's hostel, and they followed me home like the pied piper - I secretly wanted to let them all in to come and play but suspected Helen and Gill wouldn't see the funny side of it. And indeed nor would Nicky the apartment owner who lived in the house next door!

Nicky was telling me how he once had lavender fields but they all burnt in a very harsh summer, but that we had just missed the 3 day lavender festival in his village, I think when they harvest all the fields and began to make the oils. How lovely that people still do such nice things. It reminded me of some good festivals I have been too - one in Figline Val d'Arno where I worked in Florence, at the local village oh my it was such good fun with jousting and all kinds in the middle of the night. And then one in Cyprus, when we went for the Christening of my cousins there, and we took the babies to a night time festival where all the locals gathered and nattered and ate.

I really do love the continent for the family and community values they still retain. Ooh which also reminds me of another festival we (me and my friend Helen) happened upon in Monterosso in the Ligurian Cinque Terre. It was a religious festival with statues carried through the tiny cobbled streets and lots of candles. We met lots of locals and had great fun!

Goths, Ghosts & Vampires on the fundraising trail :) April 2010

When Laura and I were trying to raise a minimum of £1600 for Sumatran Orangutan Society (in memory of their founder Lucy Wisdom who had died of Breast Cancer in the previous December) and £500 for Breast Cancer Care, I have to say we had to pull everything out the bag to get there.....one of our more creative was to do our own ghost tour of Liverpool. With help from Nico and Trevor, who can often be seen at Mello Mello and the Kazimier, and a heap of Tom Slemen books that my mum had won at some raffle somewhere, a ghost trail in the Liverpool Georgian quarter was created and it led us all the way though the night into the Cathedral gardens.

Now we had a great night, and we raised a good amount of money, in fact it was such a good mix of humour and 'scariness' I have recently been asked to run another one. I actually like to think it was down to the secret special effort I made on the night. Now I know that I am over 30 and should be more grown up, but I secretly gathered a costume and make up and on the night ( we congregated at the ye Cracke pub) I sneaked off to the toilets and turned myself into a vampire goth. The faces of the whole pub when I emerged were just priceless.

After the ghost tour I actually went out with friends to the Kazimier, still dressed as a goth vampire tour guide, with black cape and geisha face, to watch a hip hop/ skater punk brass band 'La Brass Banda from Bavaria' and I had an amazing time, they are just so full of beans you cannot believe it. And it's such an exciting place to be as it attracts so many creatives and interesting people - not one person batted an eyelid that I was dressed so bizarrely!!

Sky New Article - Freed Chimps - Get tissues ready! I cried!

SKY NEWS: Lab Chimps Laugh And Hug At Taste Of Freedom (Image: Sky News.com)

My friend just sent me this link, omg I love it...it's just so so lovely. These guys had spent their whole lives never seeing light or feeling any love from us mean old humans and then they were rescued.They smile and hug...their expressions are just immense as they feel sunlight on their chops for the first time!

Click Here to read the story at Sky News..

QE2, QE and tears before teatime

I am a writing this to delay having to go out and do my training run (marathon 4 weeks sunday). I drove to work today and the new QE2 (or is it 3??) was in - and then I read a financial headline about how Bank of England were debating QE2 today and I was so confused by 11am at why the B of E were debating the arrival of a cruiseliner in Liverpool I had to research and realised it was Quanititve Easing discussions in light of current economic conditions! Mystery solved Watson!

And anyway now I am hear, in the hallway a broken woman - it's finally got me - heaps of running clothes to wash, running in the rain and dark...and I'm not ashamed to say I cried because 9th October seems so fara away still and I, and my fellow buddies, are all facing the fear that we will fail. And it's a horrible feeling. People have sponsored you, people are coming to see you, the printers is doing my running vest tomorrow for the big day and I'm really scared. It's irrational really but that's us humans for you!

On a grand old note I've now raised £500 which Deutsche Bank will match so that's £1000 quid with still lots of sponsorship yet to come in! It will make a difference in Bosnia and that is what I think of on these dark days. I'm healthy, I'm safe, I've a home and my family and friends. I'm lucky. So I'm going to kick my sorry ass into touch and get out there! Vive la nuit! Vive la pluie! Vive well vive getting home into a hot bath and snoozing into a rather dreary Thursday evening.

A beautiful mind...?

I sat down today at lunchtime and thought about what had happened in the 2 years since I have blogged and what, indeed, would I have blogged about in that time. Now there is so much stuff I can't begin to put it all down and in fact I cannot remember it chronologically!
This photo is from a great art performance piece called 'And the World Tipped' which was shown at Liverpool Cathedral a few weeks ago. It was very cleverly done, it made me at once both sad and hopeful.
To anyone who knows me well, they know I have one of the most over-active brains and minds, that rarely switches off and causes me no end of trouble..but can come up also with great ideas! (and some rubbish ones!)
Blogs I should have written but didn't, but will in this next week:

• Brick Lane markets with Miss Gower


• Into the Williamson tunnels - Liverpool from below


• The 4th Plinth, stopthechop and my chicken wire dress


• Joining the RSA - Scouser on the Strand


• Edinburgh marathon, hope, life and death in a day, RIP Doug Mcfarlane


• Santa Dash


• Last flickers of youth in Ibiza - no drugs and 2 glasses of champagne


• Skiiing and amaretto with snow angels and gazing upon glaciers from a hot tub


• Ramadan in deepest Morocco


• Football matches in Morocco - the only 3 women in the crowd of 500+


• Property Guardianship


• My lovely plants lived, despite the vandals


• Croatian Lavender Ice Cream


• RSPCA volunteering - my new bunnies and fresh air and freedom


• Liverpool overhead railway - disused tunnels and ghost hunting through history


• Munich Christmas markets 2009


• Snow at the Vicarage and the mysterious snowman in the middle of the night


• the first church bombed in UK in WW2


• Meeting Antony Gormley and my fellow plinthers


• Meeting Gordon Burns on a cold night in Mossley Hill


• City Living is not for me anymore - La'go nights and Dizzy Rascal


• My chest of drawers in the jazz club at 4pm....


• hope4apes - nearly fainting seeing David Attenborough


• DIY SOS in Norris Green


• Building a sensory garden in Fazakerley


• Liver Building - Happy 100th birthday and our special tour = tooooo high, I'm scared!


• And the World Tipped....

And so I bid you goodnight...x

To the end of the rainbow x

Alot has happened in the 2 years I haven't blogged, I've been wasting my creative juices updating facebook and the like!

And so back to basics, here we are. And appropriately I awoke this morning to see a rainbow through my window! A new start!

I've run the Edinburgh marathon (May 2010) and raised about £3,000 for Sumatran Orangutan Society, I have been invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Commerce and Drama in London (and accepted of course) and I am in training for the Liverpool Marathon in October so I can go to Bosnia next year and work in a holistic therapy clinic.

I'm going to do some re-cap blogs with pics and so forth, of markets on Brick Lane, time out in Morocco, new products from Little Satsuma, the lovely people we share our studio space with...ooh and allsorts.

There is so much out there to enjoy and behold, sometimes we just don't see it so readily! I'm glad we're back! Watch this space! xxx