Gingerjo’s Blog

Mark very much wanted to see the Turner Prize exhibition since it’s in Liverpool for the first time so we went to the Tate Liverpool yesterday.

It’s safe to say that I’m singularly unimpressed by the video of a man in a bear suit - he looked like Bungle from Rainbow after 6 months in a POW camp. I mean why?? What’s it supposed to be saying? They may as well have shown a video of David Blaine in his perspex box.

The only shortlisted work that I did like was a series of large boxes containing mirrors, sand and lights twinkling in the darkness. You looked through a small hole and could see infinity. It was very imaginative, disorientating and ‘festive’. I couldn’t help but think of ‘We three kings of orient are’. I’m not sure that was the effect the artist was looking to achieve, but hey, he got a response, what more could he want?

Today we went to Ordsall Hall, a grand tudor house nestled between council houses and industrial buildings in the heart of Salford. It’s a bit bizarre - you’re driving along and suddenly there it is, waving at you and shouting “hey, we’re having a village fete, why don’t you pop in, buy some jam or chutney and have a game of quoits”. There isn’t a village fete, but there so easily could be. In fact, there ought to be - the grounds are perfect for it.

It’s a beautiful building, mostly brick on the side facing the road, but with lovely black and white cinqefoils on the other side. I’m not sure which side is technically the front. The grand hall is truly spectacular, and there is an authentically furnished star chamber and kitchen too. The rest of the house is currently given over to a small exhibition about the house and the history of Salford, although the first thing that strikes you as you make your way upstairs is a large wooden play boat. I think it’s something to do with being near the River Irwell. I expect it’s popular with the little ‘uns anyway.

It’s a great way to spend half an hour or a bit longer and it’s free, although donations are most welcome. I put in a couple of quid each for me and Mark. It’s also about 5 minutes from Sainsburys so we combined it with our weekly shopping trip. It was nice, I think we’ll go again.

Yesterday we went to Northwich. We found a fab farm shop just off the M56 J10 which stocks all manner of scrumptious foods including home made frozen ready meals. We bought a steak and red wine pie for tea which was absolutely yummy and not really any more expensive than M&S - we’ll definitely be going again.

We also bought bread and cheese for our lunch which we ate in the car park outside the Anderton Boat Lift. Now, it was raining, which probably didn’t endear the place to me, but the Anderton Boat Lift seems a bit overrated. Unfortuntely we’d missed all the boat trips (which I suspect is an essential part of the experience) but they still wanted £2 off each of us just to wander around the grounds. We’d already paid £2 for the car park so since we felt this was a bit of a rip off we left and went in search of the Salt Museum instead.

I don’t think Cheshire County Council rate the Salt Museum very highly as they are not big with the signage - at least not from the Boat Lift direction anyway. But we found it and for £2.50 each it was pretty good. Not as good as the Plague museum in Eyam (which is an absolute gem), but an interesting way to spend an hour or so nevertheless. Subsidence caused by salt mining (well brine extraction) was a huge problem in Cheshire in the 1800s and early 1900s with houses and shops disappearing into big holes overnight - some of the photos from the time are amazing. This is why a lot of the buildings are timber framed and look like tudor houses - they don’t collapse like brick houses and you can jack them up on stilts to keep the floors straight. So now you know.

We’ve been giving our National Trust cards some hammer this week and Friday was no exception. Mark really wanted to go see the two Beatles houses in Liverpool so we booked online and went to Speke Hall to catch the minibus.

Speke Hall itself is another fine tudor building, with a Victorian/Edwardian interior. It’s in very good condition as it was permanently occupied by a landowner or tenant since it was built. Many houses from this period were left to decay for some time before the National Trust got hold of them and are often empty (or nearly empty) shells. Apparently though custodians live in Speke Hall permanently to keep the fine and beautiful interiors safe from thieving scousers. It’s one of the NTs more expensive properties to visit as a result.

After looking around the Hall we caught the minibus - first to John Lennon’s childhood home, Mendips, and then to Paul McCartney’s old house, 20 Forthlin Road. Now, I’m not really very interested in the Beatles, however, the tour guides’ enthusiasm really grabbed you and it was actually very interesting. Yoko Ono bought Mendips when it came up for sale and gave it to the NT specifically so that it could be opened to the public. The house has been restored as best as possible to the way it was when John lived there and it’s treated very sympathetically. I expected a bit of a theme park and that I’d feel like a bit of a vulture, picking over the bones of someone’s life, but it didn’t feel like that at all. The tour guides are obviously avid fans without being obsessive and scary, and they actually live in the houses all year round, giving tours during the season and generally looking after the houses the rest of the time. I think it’s wonderful - thanks Yoko.

Paul’s house is the smaller of the two, but you can definitely sense that it was the louder with boys playing guitars, drums and pianos at all hours. The neighbours must have loved that. There’s an exhibition of Michael McCartney’s (Paul’s brother’s) spectacular photographs all around the house placed close to the spots where the photos were taken - that’s really cool. My favourite was probably the one where Paul is climbing up the drainpipe so he can sneak in the bathroom window - the drainpipe is still there.

I’m definitely glad I went.

Today we went to Hebden Bridge again and had fish and chips for lunch then went to the fantastic little sweet shop there. I bought lots of fudge. I also bought some mead and fruit wines from the wine and cheese shop. Then we went to East Riddleston Hall in Keighley. I’ve never known National Trust volunteers who were so chatty. Every room we went in we were regaled with facts and stories about the house. It was really good. It’s not a huge or especially grand house, but it was certainly one of the more interesting.

It was quite late in the afternoon when we left but we hotfooted it to Haworth for half an hour and were lucky enough not to meet the world’s most boring man. The poor shopkeeper who was having to suffer his long winded description of a ‘Carry On’ movie he’d seen the night before was not so lucky. It seemed like a regular occurence from the look on his face. I went right off the idea of every becoming a shopkeeper - there was no escape for the poor sod.

We came back via Ramsbottom and my sister’s house but she wasn’t in so we helped ourselves to a cup of tea and left her some fudge as a pressie. We then went off to the Red Lion in Hawkshaw for a meal but to be honest it was a bit dissapointing, compared to the food the pub used to do. It was alright, but the food there used to be really good. Generous portions though, I can’t fault them on that.

On Sunday we took it easy and devoted the day to cinema. First off we saw the Seamonsters 3D IMAX movie which was very impressive and then Resident Evil: Extinction which was OK, but was a bit of a montage of end-of-the-world movies, particularly Mad Max (the one with the bus). It didn’t help that watching an ordinary cinema screen straight after IMAX is a bit like going from a 50 inch flat screen HD TV to a 14 inch black and white. I don’t think we’ll be making that mistake again. We also went on the big wheel in Manchester city centre which was fab - it’s huge!! We had a great view over the city and I’d love to go back in the dark. I reckon it would be spectacular on bonfire night.

Yesterday was given over to serious things like studying my course and Mark was setting up new study materials for his students on Moodle. I learned a lot about marketing yesterday. I read most of the basic textbook that I bought to ’scene-set’ for the rest of the course. It’s a great book actually - I can’t fault it. It’s very easy to read and covers everything in enough detail to be meaningful but not so much that you yawn and fall asleep.

Fab, I’m on holiday. I really need it too - I’ve been working so hard that I was about to collapse. Mark’s on holiday too, and because we’re skint and it’s October we decided to make like tourists in the local area.

On Saturday we went to see the Nine Ladies on Stanton Moor in Derbyshire. We parked in a village called Birchover, where the people were very friendly and helpful. We asked a farmer for directions and he jumped out of his van, whipped out an ordinance survey map and proceeded to explain the route we needed to take in detail. You wouldn’t get that in many places these days. It turns out that it’s a very undemanding walk and that pretty much all the paths over the moor take you to the Nice Ladies so we needn’t have worried. The stones are set in a very picturesque woodland clearing surrounded by silver birch trees. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and the circle was surprisingly busy with various groups of visitors, most of whom we also spotted in the pub about an hour later. It’s well worth a visit, but I warn you, the circle was created by hobbits. Few if any of the stones reach more than waist height. It’s quite charming in it’s titchiness though. We would have stayed in the pub in Birchover for a meal but it was too early so we set off for Ashford in the Water - a village we’d passed on the way down and which looked nice. Mark then remembered he’d been there before and visited to a really great pub out on the moor near the village so we went in search of it. It was surprisingly easy to find - it’s called the Monsel Head Hotel, and the food is excellent.

Even though I was really tired from too much work and stress I asked Mark to take me up to Hardcastle Crags near Hebden Bridge last Saturday. I wanted to go somewhere beautiful and peaceful where I could stretch my legs.

And it was truly lovely. The trees were just turning orange and gold, and the river was busy with all the rain we’ve had recently. Because we’d got there quite late (mid-afternoon) it was quiet too. We parked in the National Trust car park and walked along with river towards the mill. I was annoyed that I’d forgotten to take anything to drink as I was thirsty - but there it was, the mill, with a small cafe serving lovely fruit squash. We then continued along the walk to the crags and the wooden bridges crossing the river - the sort of river crossings you see on TV, but never in real life. The early evening light was cascading through the autumn trees and bouncing off the river rapids. Truly idyllic. I took lots of photos, but none of them come even close to doing the scene justice.

Mark suggested we get the tent and live in the forest but I think he’s been watching too much Robin Hood. A log cabin though - now that would be a way forward.

It was a late decision, but we set off for Tatton Park on Saturday afternoon for a bit of a mooch around the gardens. We were a bit surprised to find a fun day with fairground rides etc, but that was nice. It’s always a pleasure to see the old fashioned fairground rides. Mark was getting a bit broody I think watching the kiddies on the carousel and wishing he could be the proud daddy waving each time they went past. Maybe, but not just yet…

There’s lots to see - the mansion, a rare breeds farm, an old hall, the grounds generally, but we’d gone for the gardens - National Trust cards in hand. They are huge with lots of small feature gardens woven into the park - it’s nice just to wander around and see what you find. I could have lived without the Crazy Frog revurberating through the trees from the bouncy castle, and it’s a shame the park is directly underneath the Manchester Airport flightpath, but it was still lovely.

Best of all though the farm shop sells fruit wines and meads so I’ve finally found somewhere close by where I can buy them, but not so close that I will become a raving alcoholic and bankrupt myself.

For ages I’ve been wanting to visit the beach where 100 cast iron, life-size figures stand looking out to sea. We had a false start earlier this year when we visited Formby instead of Crosby, but that was OK, because Formby offered red squirrels as compensation. Today we finally made it to Blundellsands in Crosby.

We drove around Crosby for quite a while because Sefton Council seems to feel that signposts are a distraction to drivers who should obviously be concentrating on the road. However, some friendly locals pointed us in the right direction so we found the beach in the end. The weather was warm and sunny, but with a good strong breeze coming off the sea making it pleasant to move around instead of warm and sticky.

It was worth the drive. The figures are, for want of four years in art school learning how to describe these things, really cool! Apparently they are made from casts of Antony Gormley’s own body - he seems to be of average height with a slim build. Those near the dunes seem unfinished - like half grown clones. They are a bit rusty, but otherwise lack any individuality. In contrast, those that spend much of their time submerged in the sea are covered in barnacles and seaweed and seem to have each developed their own character and claimed their place in the world. I think they are a spectacular piece of public art. But then the same is true of the Angel of the North in Gateshead.