Diary Saturday 9th July 2016

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A great day and evening out spoilt by an unpleasant homecoming. My monthly travel-card needed for work can be used for free bus and Metrolink tram travel at weekend so I planned on looking at pub signs located between Wigan and Leigh, particularly around a town area called Ashton-In-Makerfield. I woke to so much cloud cover that I thought it might still be night time at first and I was tempted to abort the trip but I decided to chance it anyway and as the rain held off for much of the day and I et off to Leigh. I’m glad I did. I got lots of photos and one landlord was so impressed by my interest in his bar that he gave me free beer as I chatted with him. In the evening I was attending a creative writing workshop in Manchester so I headed to Wigan expecting to get an easy bus ride back in plenty of time for the evening but I was shocked to find that there are no direct buses from Wigan to Manchester at all before 7pm and the event I was going to was due to start at 6pm. I got a bus to Bolton and paid for a train from there to Manchester as the bus would have made me late. I got to the writing event on time where we did several great workshop exercises. Afterwards I called to a pub for a few hours before heading home. My mum and sister were up when I arrived home where my post was accompanied by an envelope addressed to me by my Mum which seemed odd. I opened it in front of her to read how she believes that I am making no effort at all to find a new house and insisting on proof of my effort to be presented to her in the presence of my sister and my sister’s husband. My sister who hasn’t sent me a birthday card for a decade wants to have access to the house search number I have for accessing housing associations, which I see as a potential intrusion into my privacy. I told them both as much and went to bed. I expect more conflict over all this very soon. It was a wretched end to an otherwise lovely day. Arthur Chappell