Sculptures – Well Eye Never

April 2024 Favourites

Hey there, hope you’re all doing well. I’m good, although like all disabled people in the UK I feel great unease over the government’s proposed changes to our benefits. My PIP review still hasn’t been dealt with after 9 months as it is. I’m not going to rant about it here though – I’ve posted a brief thread and shared several other posts on my Twitter/X page if you want a wider sense of people’s reactions. But please do read the proposals and respond to the consultation if you can (by 22nd July), as it’s vitally important to have our voices heard at this early stage. Same goes for the separate consultation about fit notes (until 8th July) too.

But anyway, on to much nicer things, and there’s plenty that I’ve enjoyed during this past month, including a couple of exhibitions, a West End musical, a theatre workshop, stand-up gigs and other comedy shows. One of the exhibitions was a press invite for my journalist friend Emily, and I’m due to be paid for the workshop I took part in, but nothing is sponsored to be featured here and all opinions are my own as usual.

So let’s crack on with this month’s post and video, and I hope you enjoy!

Paws On The Wharf

It goes without saying really, but guide dogs are beautiful, incredible and vitally important companions to many people with sight loss. And right now there’s a sculpture trail in London dedicated to these life-changing and life-saving animals. This post isn’t a sponsored ad for it, but it’s something I think is well worth exploring if you’re in the capital.

Paws On The Wharf has been organised by the Guide Dogs charity in association with Wild In Art (who were also behind Morph’s Epic Art Adventure & Walking With The Snowman that I saw last year).

It features 25 sculptures of guide dogs decorated in a variety of ways by different artists, which will be on display until 17 May, after which they’ll be auctioned off. It’s all about raising awareness and vital funds to ensure that people with sight loss will continue to be supported by these magnificent beasts.

Against a yellow background, next to a black and white QR code with colour around its edge, is black text that says Find 25 guide dog sculptures around Canary Wharf - a fun and free art trail until 17 May 2024. Give one of our sculptures a 'furever' home and bid at our auction event. Scan the QR code or visit GuideDogs.org.uk/PawsOnTheWharf/Auction

I had fun hunting them all down, so in this post I’m going to share some of my photos of these pedigree chums, all of which I thought were beautiful, and I hope you enjoy looking through them!

Christmas 2023 Favourites – Part 1

Seasons greetings, I hope your preparations for Christmas are going well, November always feels a little bit festive, but for me it was even more so than normal this year, because I’ve already explored a variety of London’s displays, seen a bunch of snowmen on a sculpture trail, and had a free Christmas dinner courtesy of a PR invite. On top of that I’ve also seen a couple of theatre shows, while at home I’ve been enjoying some more TV and music as always.

Consequently it makes sense to treat this as a festive Favourites post and video, and spread the joy over 2 months. It’s not too early as far as I’m concerned. So with the usual disclaimer that all opinions are my own, including for the free food, let’s crack on with it, and I hope you enjoy!

Walking With The Snowman

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without The Snowman on TV. The animation, based on the book by Raymond Briggs, is such an adorable and moving story, brought to life with wonderful imagery and music, that it quickly became a perennial favourite for millions of people, and last year it celebrated its 40th anniversary.

And now you can see the iconic character in person, courtesy of a sculpture trail called Walking With The Snowman. It began in Salford in 2018, and then in every year since then (except 2020 when nobody could go anywhere) it’s been at multiple locations over the festive period. So this year the trails are taking place at Hillsborough Castle & Gardens, Knole House and the Fleet Street Quarter. And I recently explored the latter in London.

It’s been put together by Wild In Art, who were also behind Morph’s Epic Art Adventure that I enjoying looking at in the summer, and indeed 7 of the artists from that trail have contributed to this one as well, alongside a few others. So here we get a dozen snowmen, themed around the Twelve Days Of Christmas, each one painted in a beautifully distinctive and interesting way.

The sculptures will be in place until 5 January 2024, so there’s still plenty of time to see them. I went on a midweek afternoon, so it was nice and quiet, but I imagine there will be a lot of children keen to see them at weekends and during the Christmas holidays, which might make it harder to take photos of them.

There is a PDF map on the website, but it’s more about pretty design rather than accuracy, so it only gives a very rough visual sense of where each statue is. I found it a lot more reliable to use the list of statues in the bottom left corner, typing each road or place name into Google Maps to find them. And even then, there are some major roadworks going on in one particular area that added to the confusion and sent me off track slightly. But I did find them all in the end, it took me about 2 hours to do the whole trail. People with full sight would be able to do it much quicker I’m sure, but it’s very rewarding in any case, as they do look great.

So here’s a little gallery of the Snowman sculptures in central London. This isn’t sponsored or affiliated by anyone involved with the project, I just enjoyed hunting them down, and I hope you enjoy looking through them!

October 2023 Favourites

Hello again, and welcome to my latest little roundup, at a time when I know that things are far from cheerful news-wise. The war in Israel and Gaza is horrific to say the least, and like everyone else I can only pray for peace and express my solidarity with the innocent civilians affected on all sides, just as I do for the ongoing Ukraine conflict. Then there’s the Covid Inquiry, stormy weather and other stuff. But on the plus side, the plans to close railway ticket offices have just been scrapped (for now at least), which I had a little rant about in my July post, so well done to everyone who campaigned against it.

So as always I hope my posts are a pleasant distraction from things like that. And for me this has been a pretty relaxing month really. I didn’t go to any theatre shows this time, but I did revisit a couple of my favourite museums, explored a couple of sculpture trails, and had a nice Halloween tour with my friend and colleague Emily. Plus I got my Covid booster, had a few other nice walks, and went to a retirement party (all the best Pauline if you’re reading this!), but I don’t need to write about those little bits here.

So let’s crack on with this month’s post and video, in which nothing is sponsored or gifted as usual, and I hope you enjoy!

June 2023 Favourites

Half the year already gone, and what a year it’s proven to be already. My support worker job is continuing to go well, so I have a nice little update to share on that. Then there’s the usual mixture of theatre, museums, walks, TV, music, etc that I’ve been enjoying, some of which you’ll already be aware of from my posts over the last few weeks. And apart from a press trip, nothing here is gifted or sponsored. So let’s crack on with my latest roundup post and video, and I hope you enjoy it!

Morph’s Epic Art Adventure

During the past couple of weeks I’ve been exploring one of the new art trails that’s been installed in London for the summer, as it was something fun and different that caught my eye in the newsletters and social media pages I keep an eye on (so nobody’s asked or sponsored me to write about it).

It relates to Morph, a Plasticine character that I remember from my youth. He was created by Aardman Animations (best known for Wallace and Gromit & Shaun the Sheep these days), and he appeared with artist Tony Hart on some of his children’s TV programmes in the late 70s, before getting an animated show of his own.

I didn’t watch those shows much, as I wasn’t heavily into art as a kid. But I do remember Morph, as he was a popular character back then. And it seems he still is today, having continued to appear on TV over the years. He’s even got into the modern age with his own website, Youtube channel, Facebook page, Twitter feed and Instagram profile.

One of his most recent programmes is a Sky Kids show called The Epic Adventures Of Morph, which launched in 2020. And now, this summer, he’s embarking on an Epic Art Adventure in London. There are 79 sculptures to find across the city (well, 78 plus one coming soon at time of writing), all featuring Morph decorated and dressed in a myriad of creative ways by a variety of artists. 56 of them are huge 6-foot sculptures, while the rest are cute little Mini Morphs designed by school children.

It’s been organised by Aardman Animations & Wild In Art in association with Whizz-Kidz, a charity for young wheelchair users in the UK. As such, the trail is completely step-free, while also being designed to celebrate diversity and promote inclusion. The sculptures will be on display from 19 June to 20 August, and then most of them will be auctioned off to raise funds and awareness for the charity.

So I’ve been out and about recently to find all of the sculptures, which can be enjoyed by children and adults alike, as the designs are really cool. I spent a weekend finding most of them, then picked up a few others on a free weekday, followed by the final few on a visit to an art gallery. So here’s a complete list of all the sculptures and the photos I took, along with notes about how I found them, and I hope you enjoy looking through them all!

October 2021 Favourites

Finally. After all the pandemic restrictions and my recent health problems, it’s such a joyous relief to be out and about properly again, doing the things I enjoy.

So there’s quite a lot to mention in this month’s post and video, as I’ve been attending theatre shows for the first time in ages, taking nice walks, and enjoying a mixture of films, dramas, comedies and music at home. Plus I bought the new iPhone 13, which I’m very happy with as explained in my review, so the photos and videos you see going forward will be taken using that.

Apart from the theatre show States Of Mind, for which I was given complimentary tickets to go along and review, nothing else in this post involves any gifting or sponsorship. And all opinions are my own throughout. So I hope you enjoy!

July & August 2019 Favourites

Right then, I’m back. And it’s fair to say that this past month has been a bit of a write-off. A few things forced me to take a break from blogging for a little while, and prevented me from getting out and about the majority of the time. So I apologise for not posting recently, but I just haven’t been in the mindset for it.

As a result, this post covers both July and August together, as there’s very little to mention for the latter month. To put things into context I’ll start by explaining why I’ve been absent, and I’ve also posted a short video in relation to that. Then I’ll go straight on to the more cheerful stuff, and there’s still quite a lot to mention, including a musical, a movie, a comedy show, museums, walks, events, my new computer and TV shows.

So let’s crack straight on with my latest post and video recap. As always, I’m not sponsored by any of the people and companies mentioned below. I hope you enjoy my latest post and video recap!

June 2019 Favourites

We’ve reached the halfway point in the year, and summer is finally blessing us with decent weather. And I’ve had a very busy month!

Firstly, there have been some disability related developments, most of them positive. In particular, I’ve spoken at a conference, been a guest on a podcast, and I was filmed for another documentary. So my visual impairment led to a few great opportunities in quick succession, I’m happy to say.

On the downside, I’ve finally received the call-up letter to switch from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payments (PIP). This basically means I have to fill out a huge form about how my disability affects me, and then have a face-to-face assessment with a health professional, so the government can decide if I’m entitled to benefit payments. It sounds relatively simple when worded like that, but most disabled people will tell you it’s anything but. So that’s going to be on my mind a lot over the next couple of months at least, and I’m not looking forward to the process. But I’ll let you know how it goes at a later date. I’m not going to bore you with a rant about it in this post!

Thankfully, apart from that, I’ve been able to enjoy the month in many other ways. I went on a lovely weekend break with my girlfriend, I’ve been out in London for more exhibitions and walks, my girlfriend and I enjoyed a new film at the cinema, and I’ve enjoyed new TV shows and music releases at home. So there’s plenty to get through. As always, I’m not sponsored by anyone mentioned here, I’m just sharing these things because I enjoyed them. And I hope you enjoy this month’s post and video!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: