I Will If You Will Champions Event

I was delighted when the I Will If You Will movement asked me to be one of their Champions. I'd been going to a Burlesque Class and publicising their events, mainly on Twitter @TottingtonLife. Being a Champion was great for me because whoever does the I Will If You Will marketing has got it just right.  I felt guilty if I didn't do any exercise, and even when I had to stop the Monday afternoon Burlesque classes due to work I started doing other things. My pedometer was with me at all times to monitor how far I walked (more of that later), and I even started to swim again.

I've just been to an I Will If You Will Champions event at the Elizabethan Suite in Bury Town Hall. This was held to launch the next stage of the movement and also to introduce the new celebrity I Will If You Will ambassadors. These were Tracey Neville, Jennie McAlpine and Nikki Sanderson.

The champions and ambassadors are at the heart of the IWIYW movement. They can be anyone who is

Jennie McAlpine, Tracey Neville and Nikki Sanderson

prepared to have a go and spread the word. Champions aren't told what they must do. Some might go along to all the events and try out new classes, taking new people along with them. Others (and I fall into this category I'm afraid) have no problem telling people all about it but actually attending classes is a bit hit and miss. However, to be part of IWIYW you don't have to go to an organised class or event; it is all about getting women moving.

At the moment there are five full time community activators working in different areas throughout Bury, and a sixth one is being recruited. These community activators find out what will work in the areas and where classes can be held. They will publicise events, making sure posters are up close to where classes will be held. They will go and speak to community centres, children's centre etc to find out what people would like to see happening in their locality.

The current 'push' is for people to join in #IWIYW30for10. In fact, this is stage one of the new improved IWIYW. June is committed to 'The Pledge'. The idea is to get women to commit to doing 30 minutes more exercise a week for 10 weeks. This doesn't mean 30 minutes sprinting, or at a spinning class, it is just 30 minutes extra anything. Research shows that if you do this for eight weeks it becomes a habit, so there is a good chance people will keep it up. The aim is for the women (and everyone else of course) of Bury to get fitter, more active, and try something new.

You can go to the I Will If You Will website to make your pledge, and I hope you'll think about it; one of my challenges as a champion is to recruit 10 people to make a pledge.

Stage two is 'Inspire' which will be throughout July and August. Local events will be held and you'll be seeing a lot more of the brand around Bury. An IWIYW shop has even opened up in The Millgate Centre in Bury where you can go along and see what is on offer. I popped my head in today and ended up joining in a belaerobics class, which is a cross between belly dancing and aerobics! It is absolutely brilliant fun, and honestly, if I could do it so can you.

Stage three, in September will be 'Celebration' where the movement will take stock of what has

happened over the previous months and we can get together and see what is coming next.

This movement is completely inclusive. It is for all women from the age of 14 upwards. There is something for everyone, from organised park walks, 'buggy baby bootcamp', salsa, pilates, and we even have a mobile pool at Broad Oak Sports College. This pool has ladies only swimming sessions and some women have been swimming for the first time ever since it arrived.

Since I stopped going to the Burlesque lessons I started to go to Stables Leisure at The Bolholt Hotel again. Up until now I'd been mainly swimming, as I was doing enough leg work being on the 'campaign trail'. I bought a new digital pedometer that actually seemed to work and tracked how far I walked, just while campaigning, over a six month + period. In that time I walked 527, 074 steps, which is 362.88 kms or 225.48 miles. I definitely increased my exercise by well over 30 minutes a week for a few months. Now, after having a break for a week or so I'm back on track, pedometer with me, determined to make a difference.

Please please join me!

IWIYW Champion Cllr Shaheena Haroon, Mayor of Bury Cllr Michelle Wiseman and myself.

Bury Sculpture Centre

I've just returned from the opening of the Bury Sculpture Centre.

Sculpture Centre Floor

I can honestly say, it is stunning. It is a large white space with spectacular flooring. I heard tonight that the under lit glass tiled floor, set into a parquet floor, had been discovered when the carpet had been taken up. It was covered in 10mm of screed that had to be carefully removed. The underside had been painted so it was quite a restoration job.


There has been a lot of controversy about the Sculpture Centre, as the floor space was part of the library. Changes to services had to be made due to Government cuts, and Arts Council England gave Bury a huge grant towards setting up the centre. Bury was seen to be ideally placed for such a project, not least because of its proximity to The Irwell Sculpture Trail. Tonight there were protesters outside, but I would say "give it a chance". The space was being changed anyway and I truly believe it will attract more visitors, which has to be good for the town.

Text Festival

The opening exhibition is The Text Festival. Along side this is The Drawing Shed, where visitors can use a variety of old  typewriters, with their writing later being incorporated into the exhibition space.

I listened to speakers from Arts Council England and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (one of my favourite places) speak about how they were working with The Sculpture Centre, and how the people of Bury should be proud to have such a centre on their doorstep. It may take a while, and I'm sure critics will be doubtful about the opening exhibition. However, I visited Musee du Quai Branly in Paris last October and I found The River, which was a moving display of text, amazing.

I love art and sculpture, even though I know nothing about it! For years I took Mr Tottington Life

The Drawing Shed

around fabulous art galleries wherever we visited. A turning point in our relationship came when we were coming down the steps after visiting a gallery in the centre of Cologne (I think it was Museum Ludwig). I had been in awe of the huge Andy Warhols. He declared he actually hated being taken to places like that, he always had done, and only tagged along to keep me happy! Since then I've tried to limit art gallery visits (we still go) but sculpture tends to keep us all happy because such a lot of it is outdoors.

I really hope The Sculpture Centre is a huge success. People don't realise that this isn't the first innovative art idea for Bury. For over a year art has been taken to exhibitions as far away as China. The people at tonight's opening show that there is interest and Bury is being taken seriously. This is this week's article in the Manchester Evening News.

I Will If You Will

In January, during a visit to the new Children's Centre in Tottington, I saw a poster for an I Will If You Will Burlesque class.

In May 2013, Bury was named by Sport England as the location for an intensive year-long sporting experiment to get more women and girls active and tackle the gender gap in sport. £2,383,778 of National Lottery funding was secured, with the council beating competition from other towns. I'd seen a few changes being made throughout the borough. Outdoor gyms were being built in some areas, but unfortunately not in Tottington. However, Tottington did have an outdoor table tennis table constructed in Town Meadow playground.

I thought it was all a great idea, but I never thought to give any of it a go. Seeing the burlesque class advertised though changed all that, and I turned up for the first lesson in January, dragging a neighbour along with me! It was brilliant. Great fun, good company, and good exercise thrown in too. The Bury Times even came along and wrote an article on the class (here is the article). I publicised the classes on Twitter and more people did start to turn up. I was delighted when I was asked to be an I Will If You Will Champion, to encourage others to join in and become more active. Here is a link to my webpage on the I Will If You Will website.

Unfortunately I haven't been to burlesque for a few weeks as my job changed, meaning I wasn't at home as much during the day when the class was on. I already had the bug by then though. I can honestly say that whoever does the I Will If You Will PR is doing an amazing job. I invested in a super duper pedometer that I always have with me. If I've had a particularly sedate day I'm much more likely to go out for a walk later on to get my steps up. I get a big thrill from hitting the sought after 10,000 steps during a day.

The biggest change was that I re-joined the gym. It took me a few weeks to take the plunge, but I haven't looked back. I haven't lost even a pound, but I have re-discovered cross trainers and exercise bikes. I have also progressed from the small, lovely and warm leisure pool to the 23 metre proper pool and regularly have 25 minutes in there. The gym has better showers than my home one so that is an extra reason for me to go!

I'd encourage anyone to give it a go and attend one of the I Will If You Will sessions. There is something for everyone, from walks, jogs, pilates, boxercise, yoga; all levels of fitness are catered for. A mobile pool has even opened at Broad Oak Sports College, with women-only sessions and swimming lessons.

On the 12th and 13th April, there was a fitness party at the Castle Leisure Centre. There were free events for people to try, and even a crèche to give people the chance to join in. For more information click here.

The next Fitness Party is at the Longfield Suite on Fairfax Road, Prestwich on Sunday 11th May 1pm-3pm.

Have a look and see what you fancy. It can't do any harm, and I can assure you it is great fun!

Fuerteventura sculptures

I'm just back from a week in Fuerteventura. We always have our family holiday in February as that is when Paul (a gardener) has his quietest time and can relax. Unfortunately we can't have a fortnight though as we have to fit in with the half term holiday. When I say 'we' I mean 'we' as a family. This year Paul had a week in Lanzarote first, staying with a neighbour in their apartment. He then caught the ferry to meet us.

We booked the hotel and flights separately. The hotel had a few
rough reviews, but it was such an absolute bargain we couldn't resist it! We had a great apartment in the hotel; a quiet spot, with a sunny balcony as requested. H and I arrived just in time to catch dinner, and I can honestly say it was the worst hotel food I have ever had, both for choice and quality. It was edible, but it wasn't a good mealtime experience!

The two pools were lovely. We avoided the pool where the 'animation team' spent the day. We could still hear them though and they were quite funny (I don't think intentionally). They had a really bad bingo caller. There were no 'quack quacks' or 'two fat ladies', just the number. That was except for one number that got smutty comments each time. They had a quiz one day and we heard the 'quiz master' asking where Lake BarLar was. I went to Lake Bala in Wales at east once a year for the first 20+ years of my life, but I had no idea he was speaking about the same lake.

There was a bar with 'entertainment' at night, but we didn't bother with that. We had a good walk each day, called in the supermarket for wine (at €1.09 a litre it was cheaper than the €1.29 milk), and spent lots of time catching up on reading and relaxing.

Trips were quite expensive so we had the 'Judith Kelly Special Mystery Tours'. These were great, and we got to see the sculptures of the island. I absolutely love anything like that. As well as a few we found around the place I found the Puerto del Rosario sculpture park/trail. I found it on an overcast day so it wasn't too hot walking round. They were quite spread out too so it was a good day out with a great walk, all on the coast.

Tribute to Suso Machin

We had a great time. We got back about noon on Sunday, and by 1pm I was out in Ramsbottom campaigning for the by-election on 6 March. I've been out in Tottington today on the Labour Doorstep. I didn't expect such a good response on a weekday but we were lucky and spoke with lots of people. Some I recognised and some recognised me, so it was good to have a bit of a catch up. There were lots of positive comments and I cam home quite pleased. I then had to whizz of to the I Will If You Will burlesque class! I'm loving it, and the instructor is starting 'bellrobic' classes. These are a cross between belly dancing and aerobics, and my sneaky preview made me want to go!

Miguel de Umamuno

I'm busy busy again now but still very pleased I got my week away somewhere nice and warm.

Monument to the unity



The Water Carrier

The Lookout Man

Viejas fisherman
 

It's all go

As usual there seems to be a lot going on.

At the beginning of January I saw a poster for Bury's I Will If You Will initiative (see here). It was for a burlesque dancing class, and I couldn't resist finding out what that was all about. It was brilliant, a good laugh and a place to meet other women who liked trying new things. The best thing about it is it gives go lots of confidence, which I lack, and makes you feel fabulous about yourself. I'd highly recommend it. We were also featured in a Bury Times article (see article here).

Following on from the success of The Big Tidy I organised last year, I have organised the second Big Tidy in Tottington. The rangers were more than happy to help out, and they are spreading the word in surrounding areas too. I've registered the event with Keep Britain Tidy and their new initiative 'Love Where You Live', and they have sent me tabards, posters, stickers etc. This year The Big Tidy will be on Sunday 30th March. We haven't a definite time or place yet but it is likely to be around 10am on the Kirklees Trail end of Laurel Street in Tottington. Further information will be posted on Twitter @TottingtonLife using the hashtag #tidytotty, and hopefully the Bury Times will publicise it too.

In other news a date has been set for my MS Cake Break Wine Time. MS MS Cake Break is a way of

raising money for the MS Society by getting a group together to buy cakes while socialising. I did the cake thing one and raised about £60. Knowing my friends and family I knew there must be a way of raising more. I didn't have to think for long; they quite like a sociable glass of wine/beer or three. My first Wine Time was last year and £555 was raised. This year's date has been set so fingers crossed we raise if not quite such a staggering amount a good contribution to the MS Society funds. This year I was delighted to be asked if my 'handy hint' could be used in the Cake Break magazine. No publicity is bad publicity etc.

I haven't done too well keeping this up to date, but I'll try! If I haven't worked myself into an early grave between now and 22nd May I'll enjoy relaxing with friends while raising money for a great cause while having a quite drink.

Paris on a budget

Every so often I get the chance to do a bit of overtime at work. I don't particularly like to do it, as I have enough to do outside work, but I see it as 'free money' and can't say no. The agreement at home is that I do the work, but any extra I earn goes straight into the 'having fun' pot so we all see the benefit. Last year the extra went on finishing off the kitchen we'd wanted to change for the past seven years. There was just a little bit left over, and I decided I wanted to see Paris again. I didn't just want a weekend though; I wanted time to mooch about and relax.

Paris perhaps isn't the best place to choose for a cheap break! However, I was sure it could be done. I decided the whole of October half term was a good time to put my elastic purse to the test.First thing to do was book flights. Working on the basis that the earlier you book the cheaper the fare I booked flights months and months ago. Unfortunately at the time I booked only the budget airlines outgoing flights were available. That wasn't a problem at all as surely they couldn't change too much when making the move from summer to winter schedules. Our flights, from Liverpool, were an absolute bargain. I don't think we could have caught a train as far as Birmingham, for the same price. 

Next on the list, accommodation. The last time we went to Paris we stayed in a Novotel hotel. It was lovely, and we got a great deal on it. This time however we wanted to stay for eight nights. We could afford bunk beds in a hostel but certainly not a nice hotel, so I had to get my thinking cap on. I looked into apartments in Paris and made a few enquiries. I found a one bedroomed apartment in the 5th arrondissement, just next to the Jardin Des Plantes. It appeared to have everything we needed, including a comfortable sofa bed, and was within walking distance of most attractions. The apartment was booked, but I was a bit worried about what it would be like as it cost a fraction of the cost of even a cheap hotel. Finally the return flights were released. Of course the schedules had changed, quite a lot. Booking flights on the day they were released meant we got a great price again.....but we had to fly back to Manchester, not Liverpool. Luckily we have a great neighbour who didn't mind transporting us to Merseyside (I normally park at the airport, but couldn't do that this time). 

We had a list of places we wanted to visit, but the most important thing on our list was to have relaxing family time. Again, Paris possibly isn't the first place you'd associate with that. Harrison wanted to see the Mona Lisa, I wanted to visit Les Invalides, and Paul wanted to go to the outside of Musée du quai Branly, where grass and shrubs grow all over the walls of surrounding buildings. Apart from that we were going to take each day as it came.

The apartment was absolutely brilliant. It had everything we needed and was in a great spot. Having an apartment meant we didn't have to eat out all the time, or at all. Harrison was quite happy eating in, and it saved us a fortune. We took some food with us and visited the local supermarket to buy our other meals. Each morning we went along to the boulangerie on the corner of our street for fresh baguette and pain au chocolat. We only actually ate out once during the eight nights we were there. Wine in the supermarket was incredibly cheap. I'd say that as far as food and drink went, we spent less than we did during the same time at home!

We knew we wanted to see some attractions that had a cost involved. After sussing out all the alternatives we bought a four day Paris Museum Pass for  €54. Harrison had free entrance to everything we wanted to see. That was easily the biggest expense of the holiday. However that  €54 got us entrance into Musee du Louvre (normally  €12), Musee Rodin (normally  €9), Arc de Triomphe (normally  €8), Hotel National des Invalides, with Napolean's Tomb (normally  €9.50), Centre Pompidou (normally  €13),  Musée du quai Branly (normally €8.50), La Conciergerie (normally €8.50), Musee de l'Orangerie (normally €10), and the Pantheon (normally €7). I couldn't choose which was best, we saw some terrific sights.

An awful lot of what we saw, and enjoyed, was completely free though. We walked absolutely everywhere. We never caught a bus or Metro all the time we were there. We estimated that throughout the week we walked almost 50 miles. One day we did over 12 miles, and a normal trip out would be six. With walking, as well as being able to justify eating the baguettes and cheese, it meant we saw much more. The 'much more' were things perhaps not on the ordinary tourist route. Paris is full of sculptures and street art (graffiti?). One highlight was the pest control shop we stumbled across, with a window display full of dead rats!

So, we did it, and for a lot less than even I imagined we could do it for. Things like this just need a bit of planning and lateral thinking, and you need to take a chance!

Here are some of the many photos I took, but all these sights were free. They were the things outside the museums we saw while we were wandering around.