Saturday 14 October - Harrogate


Heading towards the east coast and Hull. Hope to visit the Deep, their museum of the sea and then southwards. Only a few more days of travelling before I have to go back to London and get back into the swing of work once more.

posted at 08:37 in /where (permanent link)

Friday 13th October - Blackburn


No signal last night, now in Blackburn and a signal. Heading eastwards now, Burnley next, Bradford , Leeds and if all goes according to plan by the end of the day I will be back where I was yesterday afternoon.

posted at 08:37 in /where (permanent link)

Friday 13 October - Harrogate


Started in the Dales, in fog but this soon lifted. Headed first to Blackburn, had meant to visit a couple of weeks ago on my journey north but even then was running late. Since then Jack Straw has written his piece about the veil, so everyone is talking about Blackburn now. Seems a nice enough town, lots of regeneration going on around the town. The high street is still there which is always a good sign. Some places the high street has been drowned by the shopping centre which makes it feel very spooky after the shops have shut and the shutters are down. Wander around the town. Some women are wearing veils, they seem to be young women; often out shopping with their mothers, who are not wearing either the veil or the hijab.

They have a very nice visitors' centre with shop and cafe attached and is constantly full of people. Wander back through town and realise there is a crowd around the town hall. The media are there, vans and satellite dishes, journalists and cameramen and lots of people waiting to see what is going on. It is the first time Jack Straw has been back in his constituency since the article. Young women in the hijab are being interviewed, not sure there are any wearing veils in the crowd. The crowd is mixed, young and old, male and female, it is a sunny day and the perfect weather to be waiting and chatting.

I go and do some more wandering around the town and when I get back there is still a crowd. Sit on the wall and make some calls as I have a signal for once. Just as I finish Jack Straw comes out of the town hall and I end up in the background on the news. There seem to be lots of security men around but the crowd all seem very good humoured, more interested in being on the telly than in the issue (but I wasn't in the town hall where the meeting was being held). There is one Iraq war protester who tries to do a bit of heckling. The cameras rush to cluster around him. The youth then cluster the other side of him, keen to be on the telly. There is a bit of jostling and some jokey heckling, but it is all about entering in to the spirit of things rather than anything serious. The lads all want to be at the centre of this, they cluster, eyes lit up with the entertainment of it all.

I go on to Burnley, the mills and their chimneys more in evidence here and still empty and boarded up. Not yet turned into luxury lofts and little sign of it happening soon. There is the high street, the shopping centre attached and a covered market. It is busy with people shopping and chatting and sitting in the sunshine. The usual collection of pushchairs and mobility scooters. A few young women veiled (and also with very funky, sparkly bags and shoes), more in pink and white tracksuits and stomachs on show, young men in their uniform tracksuits and jeans. So much sportswear, so little evidence of sports being played.

Then head to Bradford along the A646 through Todmorden, Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd. It is a fantastic road, through the smaller mill towns, houses clinging to the hills, mills still in evidence, though often empty, fields as well as towns and it is the perfect autumn day. Kids are coming out of school, wandering to the shop - clustering outside as the shops usually only allow 1 or 2 school children in at a time, waiting up for buses, being met by parents, wandering off with groups of mates. Friday afternoon and the next week half term.

posted at 08:36 in /travel (permanent link)