Here comes the son

When I was swapping from thick winter duvet to much thinner summer duvet last night I found a pair of pink fluffy socks under a pillow. This must mean that at some time since I changed the sheets last Sunday I must have gone to bed wearing socks due to the cold. It's inconceivable after a weekend of glorious sun that this could be, but apparently so.

I've spent the weekend with my son. The last couple of weeks he's been at Cub camp and at his Dad's so it's great to have him to myself.

Saturday started with a trip to his school spring fête. Then we went to Armley Mills where his Dad had an art exhibition opening.

These are some of his Dad's works:









The rest of Armley Mills is well worth a visit, showcasing Leeds' industrial heritage




Interspersed with some quirky artworks like these wax shoes




Afterwards we headed to Headingley for our first visit to Shaky Jakes which makes amazing milkshake. He had aero mint and I had Dime bar. They were incredible







Sunday dawned blazing hot so we headed to Nostell Priory which is a lovely National Trust property. I am trying to save money for the next few months so we made a picnic




Before visiting the beautiful Palladian house and gardens.










My favourite part of the day was when we both lay in dappled shade reading Dodie Smith novels: me, 'I Capture the Castle', him 'The Starlight Barking'.

His favourite part of the afternoon was doing a Deadly 60 wildlife CSI trail to work out the clues as to which animal had raided a nest




Little darling, I'm glad the ice has melted. Here comes the son.

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Overworlds Underworlds

Over the next few months I'll be writing about the Olympics a lot. I'm one of the people who is totally over-excited about them being held in my country. When we were awarded them years ago I swore I'd do everything I could to take my son. What I didn't realise is just how great the Olympics will be culturally and for communities.

Yesterday, my son and I went to Overworlds Underworlds which is an art installation festival funded via the Cultural Olympiad. It was on all weekend but I only got to attend the final day. It was a really absorbing and engaging mixture of music, dance and visual art.

Recently the first exhibit has caused some controversy in Leeds with one lady on the local news memorably saying she might like it when it was finished. It is finished. It's meant to look like that.





I was far less convinced by the statue than by the brilliant street dance that this company presented without warning in Leeds' main shopping street








The highlight of the afternoon for me was Harrogate Brass band doing a flash mob performance of Lionel Ritchie's 'Dancing on the Ceiling' outside WH Smith before leading a huge smiling crowd through the shopping streets like a modern day set of Pied Pipers




And we were corralled by a bunch of steam punk types:


The feeling of marching through a town full of confused Sunday shoppers was great as we were led from the Overworld of Leeds city centre to the Underworld of the Dark Arches.

There were a variety of art installations and performance pieces in the suitably gloomy Dark Arches including a ghostly cabaret




And some sculptures that were very reminiscent of scary mid-80s dark stop animation cartoons







One of the most visually arresting pieces was a lighting show which illuminated the River Aire as it surged under the Victorian railway arches. My son felt it represented the River Styx and it was certainly a new perspective on a familiar sight





Outside in the sun was a gothic band of skeletal musicians and some fire breathers adding spectacle and entertaining the slightly freaked kiddies.












A great afternoon out for my son and I and, as I noted on my timeline, for practically the entire twitterati of Leeds.


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Dallas does Sheffield

Today was bank holiday Monday. Cleverly socialism gives us this day off to nurse hangovers. As someone who has never ever had a hangover ever, not even a weeny one, I knew that I'd be fresh and able to have an enjoyable day with my son and friends. We applied for tickets for BBC Bang Goes the Theory live which was being held in Sheffield.




The stage show was great: lots of groany jokes and some fairly stupendous explosions. We had seen a few of the experiments when we went in Manchester before Christmas but a big rocket is going to be a hit with a 9 year old boy (and a 40 year old Mum) whatever. This time nearly the whole team were there: Jem Stansfield, Dallas Campbell and Dr Yan.








The real strength of these BBC roadshows is that they let kids learn complicated scientific concepts in a fun interactive way. Afterwards my son got to learn the basics of jet propulsion by playing with a beach ball




And how our optic nerves and brains process information via the use of some 3D glasses with a missing lens and a pendulum




There was also a free site outside where you got to make your own electricity via pedal power and deep freeze bubbles on dry ice.








Also there were a lot of sports science experiments. I can stay in the air during a jump for .365 seconds. I'm 40. I think that's pretty good. My son was better.




Oh, we got to meet Dallas Campbell too. Something for the kids, something for the mums...




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