The travels I reported in my last blog seem a decade ago now, but actually I only returned to base ten days ago. Following my visits to 4N Didsbury lunch and 4N Tranmere evening, I spent a lovely two days with my good friends, James and Carla Hutchison of UKPrint.Biz. It’s rare that we have the opportunity to spend time together (for various reasons, not least the distance between our respective homes) and it was great to just fit into one another’s lives for almost 48 hours.
In planning my trip away, I had a ‘day in limbo‘ and so, decided to go to Blackpool, for no obvious reason at all! On arrival, it was dark and dreary and not particularly inspiring. However, I wandered out of my hotel for the night to The Velvet Coaster for a bite to eat and met with a lovely bunch of people who invited me to share their table for dinner. Lots of family history and heir tracing stories later, they went on their pub crawl and I wended my merry way back to the hotel.
Blackpool on a sunny day is far more inspiring. A 10K fun run was taking place along the promenade and so, I took a lovely relaxing walk along the seafront with all the rides, ice-cream vendors, fish and chip shops and donkeys surrounding me, before heading onward to Keighley (the home of FWL Northern Office). Back to research …. yey!
Having heard so much about the neighbours surrounding the Northern Office, I was cordially invited to meet one of them (on a Sunday!) and what a lovely lady too. @HistoryLady2013 and I had a day of work on the Monday before I regaled the local family history society with my Searching for Surnames talk, down at Keighley Library, with visitors from afar to hear me blather on!
Returning to base on Tuesday (a little too swiftly, so Gloucestershire Constabulary have informed me – oops!), a pile of paperwork of rather epic proportions was awaiting me. Most items were attended to before the weekend, with only a few non-urgent items remaining. This past week has been interesting with other companies getting on their high horses and being rather uncordial in their liaisons as well as one “gentleman”, who we are trying to help to deal with an estate, hanging up the ‘phone with two different members of staff and telling one to ‘piss off’. Never a dull moment, as we often say!
The future looks interesting for me (MD@FWL) with travels afoot in just a few weeks. I will be heading to Canada to speak mainly at the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) Conference 2017 but also to the Niagara Branch of OGS. Having studied in Ottawa (back in the day), I am really pleased to have several ‘catch ups’ on the cards with friends from yesteryear in Niagara, Toronto and Ottawa. Teaching? Sorry, pardon? Oh yes…. ! I will still be supporting my students whilst I am away as their final exam is during my time abroad. Support, until the very last minute…..
[More on the conference, travels etc. to follow, of course!]
