Christmas Evening at Gladstone Pottery Museum

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When we visited Gladstone Pottery Museum earlier in the year, one of the free hand painters we were talking to suggested that we revisit during the Christmas season as she found it quite a magical time to be there.

We took her advice and visited for a Christmas carols evening. It did look quite magical as the Victorian pottery was lit up with Christmas lights and oil lamps. There were some demonstrations of pottery making going on, also by lamp light, and the staff were dressed in Victorian style outfits.

It looked very pretty but I can imagine that it was quite difficult for Victorian workers to work by lamplight as the light wasn’t that good. For example, for the free hand painters, with some colours it was difficult to tell what the colour was because of the poor light.

Once we’d had a look around inside, we went back out side to the (cold!) courtyard to listen to the brass band that was playing and to wait for the carol singing to start. There were three fires blazing in the courtyard, with a group of people crowded around each one for warmth. There was also mulled wine and spicy nuts provided for us to enjoy.

Unfortunately, we only managed to stay for two carols as by this point I couldn’t feel my fingers and toes. I think next time, I’d wear two pairs of gloves and an extra pair of socks!

We’d definitely go again, as it was very enjoyable and very Christmassy.

This is our last blog before Christmas, so we shall wish you all a Merry Christmas, and hope you enjoy the video below.

Christmas Through Time at BCLM

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This week we made a return visit to the Black Country Living Museum. They’ve got quite a few things going on over the Christmas season, but we went specifically to look at Christmas through Time.

All the houses were decorated as they would have been in the time period they were from. For example, the 1940s prefab house had a Christmas tree that was a small branch from a tree, which was painted white, and had homemade decorations on it. There were also paper chains hanging up that were made from newspaper, as this was a time of rationing.

The one thing all the houses had in common was that they all had a fire roaring in the grate, which made that particular room where the fire was, nice and toasty warm. We definitely appreciated that as it was a chilly day!

We had the obligatory fish & chips fried in beef dripping while we were there. We cannot visit BCLM without having fish & chips! We certainly appreciated having them as they were nice and warm 🙂

In addition, there was also mulled wine available for the adults, from the pub, to also warm you up.

This was the first time we had visited BCLM around Christmas time and it’s something we’d definitely do again. Another visitor told us that it’s especially magical to visit there if it’s been snowing. That’s something to bear in mind for future visits too.

John Goes Driving!

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John has been driving! Obviously not in our car but on a driving experience that’s specifically for visually impaired people.

This was organised by a group called Racecar Assistive Techonology. They can be found on Facebook by searching for The Blind Racer.

John drove two cars: the first a Ford Mondeo and the second a more sporty Honda (sorry I’m not sure of the exact model.) Both cars have duel controls in them, in the same way that driving school cars have duel controls. In fact, the dual controls were fitted by a company that fits them in driving school cars.

There were two sighted instructors, or navigators as they call themselves, and they sat in the car while John was driving. Each instructor drove the car around the track, with John as a passenger, before John had his go.

Unfortunately for John it was raining that day, so the track was wet, which meant that John couldn’t go as fast as he would have liked to go. He had a really good time nonetheless and found the instructors really helpful and friendly.

It’s definitely something that John would like to do again, however, he also has plans to fly a plane next!

Check out his driving experience in the video below.