I wanted to quickly scribble something as I’ve blogs describing the last three day partially written but I’m not going to finish any of them before Sunday – which will be my last lockdown blog.

From Monday ‘non-essential’ shops will reopen and lockdown really ceases to exist for most people. I’ll still be describing my experiences, but not as a daily diary. There’s so many things to blog about at the moment that I simply haven’t had time to do. I’ve a big update on the HS2 rail project that I want to pen and I’ve also got a couple of commissioned articles I need to crack on with. Oh, and there’s still the absolute shambles that passes for a Government in this country – and we’re only 200 days from crashing out of the EU and all the treaties we’ve benefitted from – with nothing to replace them. Then there’s the events of today.

There are times when I despair of this country. 60,000 deaths from Covid, an economy that’s contracted by 20%, the Tories hell bent on a no-deal Brexit – yet many of you are distracted by fighting over statues FFS!

This means you can expect a lot of blogs – but with a slightly different focus. I’ve even got a couple of ‘down memory lane’ blogs in mind, and whatever happens, there’ll always be a picture of the day. Talking of which, here’s one from the batch of slides I was scanning this morning…

Picture of the day

Anyone who’s passed through Wigan by rail has probably caught a glimpse of this advert for the towns most famous export. Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls, which is painted on the side of a building next to Wallgate station but is easily visible from the West Coast Main Line. I’ve passed it since I was a kid although it’s still there today,  but back in 2002 (when this picture was taken) I manged to get a shot of it in ideal conditions when was exploring Wigan to collect pictures for a forthcoming Lonely Planet guide to England. I’ve just started scanning the album that contains these old slides. There’s a real mix of stuff so more will turn up as pictures of the day – just to give you a bit of variety!

Right, it’s Saturday night, it’s been a busy day – so I’m off to spend some time with my wife! See you tomorrow!

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