Look Who's Back!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

Or should that be a welcome back to me after my week hiatus? Yup, I was on my holidays and unable to post last week, but I have now returned and posts will be back to normal again :)

If you've been following me on my twitter page, you may have seen a few of my holiday posts of amusing things I may have seen, though I went quieter towards the end of the holidays. That's mainly so I'd have stuff to actually talk about here, since I was having a short break from art as well to give my wrists a bit of a break, too. Hopefully this way I wont be repeating myself too much

So, I didn't go abroad or anything for my holiday, but rather I went to somewhere I've been quite a few times, but it's been years since I was actually there, especially in the summer months. Where? Well, I was in Blackpool. Admittedly I know most of the front of Blackpool like the back of my hand at this point, considering we used to go there almost every year to see the illuminations, but I think the last time I went during summer was.......I'm not sure. I might have still been a teenager, to be honest. Considering I turned 29 last week, that has to say something. lol. Still, even though I have been to Blackpool quite a bit, it was still interesting to see the various changes and just how it could be during summer (and for my Birthday, too!)

Also, apologies in advance for any poor quality photographs. I'm not much of a photographer, using my phone or not, but anyway!

We stayed at the Imperial Hotel, which was about ten minutes walk north of the North Pier, which prides itself on its historical roots, including famous people having used the place in the past, including presidents like Churchill and Thatcher (there were others as well, but I'll admit that my memory is pretty bad and I don't recall everyone). Several of the rooms even had names attached to them if they were used, such as the 'President Suite' or 'Princess Suite'. The hotel was even used as a kind of respite hospital at one point for soldiers who suffered shell shock. So it's got quite a bit of history behind it, which the rep was eager to tell everyone about. I probably would have minded a little less if staying after the first meal there to sing war songs I don't know the words to in a room that, while historical, had no air flow once the doors was closed wasn't compulsory.  We did end up having to leave part way through the after meal entertainment, though, unless we wanted to pass out from the heat.

Still, despite the iffy start, the rest of the time there was nice. The food was great, the rooms were nice and we didn't feel particularly rushed - which was probably a good thing, as it was fairly easy to get lost in. Thankfully, my room was on the first floor, so I only had to go around a corner and down some stairs. I did have to direct a few people in the right direction when I was crossing paths with them before. Still, I did like the hotel. There was even a pool, though I only got to use it once. I'd like to try it and the beauty treatments they had on offer there, too, should I go again. As it was, this time we were pretty busy.

On average, we walked about 9 miles a day, give or take (those fitbits are pretty helpful in figuring out that, give or take any walking up and down stairs or moving about the room). Since we went there via coach, we couldn't drive and we only went by tram one day when we were offered tickets as part of the coach holiday deal, essentially giving us a day of free tram usage. Still, it never really felt we were walking that much, if only because there was interesting things to see, but you could certainly tell you covered distance since we did on more than one occasion walk all the way to the south pier and back as well as wandering shops or stopping to watch the sea and seagulls doing silly things.

(Watching a girl teasing seagulls with crisps, only to have one swoop in and steal the lot was quite funny to see)

Speaking of funny, I did see a few amusing things, such as people not quite watching their own displays:

To takeaways either having a great sense of humour, or I'd wandered on some very strange coincidence:

(Note that these two were literally across the street from each other. Since Mario's also has the game character's image on the lower parts of the windows, I'm going to assume at least one of these two was in on the joke)

I even saw a scrolling display that was talking about a match (Rugby, maybe?) which was verses 'Wolverhampotn' instead of Wolverhampton. Unfortunately, that was on a day we were using the trams, so I couldn't get a picture of that before the tram had gone passed it. Still, I saw that quite late into the day, so it seemed no one had told them that they had a typo. Oh well.

Speaking of trams, most of them are now upgraded from the last time I went, looking more like trains than trams, though there were a few they now refer to as 'vintage', which still ran occasionally. It was nice to see them go past, if only because it wouldn't feel like Blackpool without at least one of them going by. While the vintage trams didn't run as often as the newer ones, it was nice to see them running fairly regularly, and the passes we could get could also work on the busses as well. They definitely made things seem far less run down than they had seemed when I last came to Blackpool, so that was nice. Admittedly the North Pier did look a bit on the decrepit side, but from what we could see, they're starting an overall on there, too, having already laid down some new flooring, doing paint work, updating the benches - I even noticed a helter skelter appeared there on the last day I was there. Who knows, maybe next time they'll have finished the refurbishments. It'll be nice to see that pier being used more often, to be honest. I know in more recent years they had done up the front of Blackpool, including a section of floor in front of the tower that has comedian's jokes and quotes of those who performed and modern art in different places. Stuff like this:

(I probably picked the wrong time to take these pictures for the last two. It was after I did it that a cleaner came to wash this off so it wasn't so dirty. lol, but being close to the sea and sand, it likely needs cleaning a looooot. lol)

There was lots more that I did as well, but talking about everything in one post would probably take an extremely long time. Still, I do have many unused photos as well, so I'll see about posting those on twitter or maybe even in another post, depending on how busy my schedule gets and if I get much done in way of art. It all depends on if my wrists are good to go again, or if they are still twinging a bit.

But for now, until next time!

Tara