Things you read

I read today in the paper that a new person becomes a first time blogger every second! That's a pretty amazing number - and I would like to welcome the 42 new people who have joined since I started this sentence.

I was looking out of the window of the train this morning as I traveled into work, watching the countryside roll by, and I was struck by how much human history lies there in the ground. The land close by where I live in Wigan in South Lancashire was the heart of the Lancashire coalfields during the 19th Century and the early part of the 20th. The landscape is full of low lying, rolling hills which are the result of slag heaps and waste tips, along with hollows that are the result of subsidence. You can also see the ghosts of old railway tracks as they run arrow straight across the land. It amazes me how much lives and culture have changed over the past 200 years or so, but the clues to previous existences remain. Although we should not live in the past, it is the past that shapes us now and will affect us in the future. History, particularly local and human history is something I find very fascinating.

Loaded some more files up to my page on Flickr of Christmas last year. That was one of the best Christmas's I've had in a long time. Instead of going across to The Wirral and our parents, we decided to have Christmas at home with friends Derren and Kim. We decided to have an Italian Christmas, and we created various dishes such as risotto, spaghetti and other pasta dishes I can't really remember. What I do remember is the atmosphere, and my side aching from laughter. As much as we love our parents, Christmas with relations can be stressful for many reasons, and sharing with friends was so much more relaxing.

But the best thing about the day was that it snowed!

Not much, a couple of centimeters, but that didn't stop the kids from getting out in it. The following day, Bethen and I went for a bike ride along the canal which was almost magical. That day will live with me for a long time.

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