Anders Hanson

A posting on The Yorksher Gob blog (which I only discovered yesterday thanks to the Campaign for Gender Balance Blog Awards), has made me realise I use another bit of Yorkshire dialect without realising it.

The Yorkshire Gob mentions in the footnote to one posting about the word ’stood’:

stood is a perfectly valid Yorkshire dialect particple of the verb to stand. I would like to see it adopted countrywide over the much more unwieldy standing, but a bit of a forlorn hope.

Well I use “stood” in the same context, and it had never really occured to me that it was gramatically incorrect, and I would consider myself to be someone who largely uses English properly (except when I am writing blog entries quickly and don’t check them properly afterwards).

I can now add “stood” (in the present tense) to words like “pot” (to mean a plaster cast on your arm or leg), “mardy” (to mean someone who is being a bit sulky and angry), “nesh” (to mean a bit feeble and weak - often as a criticism of someone if they are complaining about the weather), “while” (to mean ‘to’, as in ‘we’re open 9 while 5′) and “gennel” (to mean an alleyway), as words that I have always used but that I had never realised were Sheffield dialect until someone pointed it out. I did find out about some of them when I went to university and people didn’t have a clue what I was talking about when I said that someone had a ‘pot on their leg’.

As someone who doesn’t have much of an accent, (although some Southern friends of mine would disagree), I like the fact that I do use some local words. It does at least connect me with my roots and where I grew up.

After a spell of delivering I called in to the London Road Gallery. It is the first time I have been in, and the thing that drew me to the place was the photos by Berris Connolly, which were mentioned in the Sheffield Telegraph and I wanted to see properly.

I have always been interested in photography, particularly where the scenes depict real places. The ones from Berris Connolly are even more fascinating as they are places I know, and have been taken at various times over the last few decades.

I love them because they are so atmospheric, but in many different ways. Either because they show a city in decline and with its industry decimated, or because they show a Sheffield being rebuilt, or because they depict some of the 70’s architecture which whilst often hideous reminds you of a different time full of post-war optimism when the modern architecture signalled better times ahead.

My favourite is the one shown above of Savile’s old works in Brightside from 1988. I hope Berris Connolly will forgive me for stealing the image so I can use it to promote his excellent and fascinating photography.

LONDON ROAD GALLERY

BERRIS CONNOLLY PHOTOGRAPHY: Gallery of Sheffield photos

When I moved to Aberystwyth I was told by Mark Williams, now the Lib Dem MP for Ceredigion, that although I might not realise it yet, I would fall in love with Aberystwyth. He was right, I did.

I only spent nine months living in Aberystwyth, but I loved being there, and despite having lived in other places before and since, I can never quite leave the town alone. An article in The Independent on Sunday yesterday managed to sum up quite a few of the reasons why this is the case.

Aberystwyth is completely unique in the UK. It manages to be both big town Britain and small-time rural Britain all in one place. It has a thriving university, whilst also being the centre for local farmers. It is in a majority Welsh speaking area, whilst also having a large English community. It is miles from the nearest major city, and yet includes some of the most important national institutions both in Wales and the UK. It is both beautiful and ugly. Cosmopolitan and parochial. It is quite simply a huge jumble of different things and that is why I love it.

The article in The Independent picked out some places in the town that I also love. But I would also like to give a bit of a push to some others:

• Parc Natur Penglais. The most popular place to get a grand view of the town is the top of Constitution Hill. But further along just above where I lived in North Road is a park that stretches up Penglais Hill. It includes winding paths, heathland and woodland. It also includes seats and rocks to sit on and is wonderful on hot days as it faces south across the town.
• The end of the promenade under the war memorial. This is the point where the prom turns from running roughly southwest to running south, and at it there is what feels like a little promontory of paving that sticks out in to the sea . On a stormy day it is remote, bleak and invigorating. On a calm day it is warm, sunny and relaxing.
  
• Tanybwlch. Visitors to Aberystwyth know the main beaches along the promenade. Tanybwlch is the beach to the south of the town on the other side of the harbour. It is reached by following a small residential street off the main road at Trefechan and it comes to an abrupt end by the bridge over the River Ystwyth. This beach is pebbly but great to walk along as it is empty but beautiful.
• South jetty of the harbour. This is reached from Tanybwlch beach and is used mainly by people fishing. It is a great spot to see the comings and goings of the harbour, with the sea lapping against the jetty.
• Mecca Coffee Houseon Chalybeate Street. Possibly one of the best coffee shops in the country and a town institution. I loved drinking their mochas.
• Rummers on Bridge Street. My favourite bar. It is in an old boathouse by the River Rheidol, and has a lovely outdoor terrace. The bar itself is down some steps, with a low ceiling and with sawdust on the floor. Its customers are a complete cross-section of the town - young and old, Welsh and English, locals and students, and many more things too. It often hosts live bands on a Friday night, but beware as it is often packed and on warm days it gets absolutely roasting.
• Cae Melyn. It seems odd to name a residential street, but I got to know this road by delivering leaflets there during the Welsh Assembly elections. It is a complete mix of houses, but quite a few are unusually designed 60s and 70s modern homes that are in complete contrast to the rest of the town. My mistake was to deliver the road in the dark the first time. It is a switchback road that runs up a steep hill, and the gardens are so long that by the time you get to the letterbox you’ve fallen down a hole that you didn’t see in the dark.
• The alleyways and yards of old Aberystwyth. Behind the main roads are all sorts of hidden alleyways and streets, where there are houses, businesses or even historic buildings. The best one is the one that goes from the promenade, up some steps and then comes out near the back of the library. Most people don’t know it is there, but on the short walk you end up stumbling on parts of the old town walls.

On another day I will also list the must-see places elsewhere in Ceredigion. But suffice to say, I have fallen in love with Aberystwyth and the surrounding area. Unfortunately I had to move away after only a short period of time for job reasons. But since then I have stayed in touch, and have plenty of friends in the area.

THE INDEPENDENT: Aberystwyth: little city on the coast

I know it isn’t politically correct or environmentally friendly, but I am sad today as my car has reached the end of its life.

My blue Fiat Cinquecento is the only car I have ever had. I bought it new in 1998 when I started working on board Midland Mainline trains between Sheffield and London. I was working shifts, the earliest of which started at 04:30, which meant that I had to get a car so I could get to work. I didn’t really enjoy driving, but it was a necessity.

Life then changed and I grew to like the freedom of just being able to go off somewhere at the drop of a hat, particularly as I like exploring places off the beaten track. Also, when working in politics a car has become crucial for transporting leaflets, campaign volunteers, stakeboards, various parliamentarians, backdrops and all sorts of other things around the place.

But all of that will now be at an end. My car has had huge problems over the last year and I have spent too much money on trying to repair it. I finally decided this week that it had to go, and so it was sold to a garage in Loxley. For a heap of metal and plastic, it is amazing how sad I feel about it. It might be an inanimate object, but my car is one of the few things that has been constantly a part of my life over the last nine years. It has given me a huge amount of freedom to go off and do things I wouldn’t have done otherwise.

I can’t really believe it myself that I am feeling so sentimental. It hasn’t done that many miles – about 90,000 – with a third of those done in the nine months I lived in Wales. But that is largely because I do walk to places a lot, I tend to use the train for longer distances and in Sheffield I have always used the bus.

With me moving in to a flat in Sheffield city centre next month, it is at least coming at a time that is more convenient for me not to have a car. I can’t afford a new one anyway. The place I will be living in, won’t have any parking and it will be right at the centre of all the city’s bus routes and about five minutes from the railway station. But I will miss it most for days off when I want to get away from things.

Not having a car will change my life. It will be an interesting experiment to see how, after nine years, I get used to not having one again.

A few random pointers to the year I’ve just had and the year I want to have:

The best fiction I read in 2006

OK, so it was a major bestseller and is either loved, hated or one people love to hate, but it has to be “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown. It was long, it twisted and turned, and yes it was pretty implausible at times, but I was hooked. I have never read such a long book so quickly and I couldn’t put it down.

The best political book I read in 2006

An odd choice perhaps, but it is “Clement Davies: Liberal Leader” by Alun Wyburn-Powell. The period through which Clement Davies was leader was crucial to the survival of the party, and yet he is a leader that most people know nothing about. It was informative but also an easy read, and I also learnt a lot from it.

The most inspirational book I read in 2006

Another odd choice, but it was “NUTS! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success” by Kevin & Jackie Freiberg. I had had this book for some years and finally got round to reading it. It was inspiring on the basis that it shows how much one company can enthuse people and it gave me pointers to life and work by showing that you can be successful and enjoy yourself. At a time when I wasn’t enjoying working for a particular employer, it proved to me why I was right to think they were rubbish.

The best single of 2006

This is a toss up between two songs, and yes both of them are commercial but both are very different. The first is “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol which really stirs the emotions and does what I like in a lot of songs, building and building in sound as it goes along before finishing a beautiful flourish. The other song is “LDN” by Lily Allen which is fun, catchy and is pretty strong on imagery. Just what a song should be. As an aside, one other song I should talk up is “Stronger” by Public Symphony which is a beautiful song that is just so relaxing and I haven’t been able to stop listening to it.

The best album of 2006

This album came out in 2005, but I didn’t buy it until the end of that year and have then ended up listening t0 it non-stop in 2006 and so it should be my album of 2006 - “You See Colours” by Delays. Delays have continued as a band that does brilliant songs that are catchy but serious and just absorb you completely. I also saw them live this year and they were brilliant. My favourite band and my favourite album without a doubt. The band is completely underated and have not had the commercial success they deserve, and the proof of why they deserve it so much is on this album.

The best thing I’ve done in 2006

Early in the year I went to Monaco. I am not a spur of the moment person, but one of my friends is, and so it was great to be asked to go away to somewhere I’ve never visited. It was the most relaxing break I’ve had all year and it was wonderful to go somewhere warm, sunny and so completely different just before my busiest time of the year. Alas, in 2007 I won’t get the chance to go away early on.

The worst thing I’ve done in 2006

Although I managed to stop this by the end of the year, the worst thing was working for WHSmith. A one-time great company which has managed to return to profitability. But this has only been achieved by cutting back to the bare bones and by becoming a bad employer. Reading NUTS whilst working for WHSmith, shows you how far the company has to go to be a decent employer.