This week I've spent two days in Liverpool on a School for Social Entrepreneurs course - which gave me and my colleague a chance to hang out fpr an hour at 'Paddy's Wigwam' (ie the beautiful Catholic Cathedral) three minutes' walk from Blackburne House where the course took place.

by Diliff - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34030269

Blackburne House is also a fascinating place - a former girls' school dating from a time when girls weren't really educated, but the owner of the house wanted his daughter educated, so founded a school!  Which is now an access centre for women in Liverpool going onto trades and other learning opportunities. And for the SSE.  And has a fabulous canteen.  But I'll be back there another 8 times this year so can make more of that another time.

This time a couple of thoughts about the Cathedral.  .... what impressed me was spending time reading the commentary about the tapestry by Jill Hutchinson....

From http://purpleclaire.tumblr.com/post/21207237136/this-is-one-of-the-most-impressive-pieces-of'

it's made from wool and manmade fibres but also plastic bags and other recycled stuff... it was made in three parts because there wasn't anywhere big enough for a loom to hold the whole thing at once... but the thing that most got to me was that it took her SEVEN YEARS.... due to other work commitments, and a year lost to illness... an amazing commitment. I can't find anything about her on the web at all...

also a beautiful mosaic that my colleague pointed out, by Georg Mayer-Marton who had escaped from Hungary in the Nazi era...

We were there at 8.30 a.m. and it was great to see the cathedral waking up for the day, with the cleaners going round, and the organist tuning the organ ready for the day.

12,000 Godparents for Baby Archer!

12,000 Godparents for Baby Archer!! 

Last week the 12000 plus members of the Archers Appreciation facebook group (who raised over £100,000 last year for Refuge) were faced with an off topic conundrum - a picture and a question.   

'Right you lot, how do I get my baby out? I can't breathe or see my feet and I'm impatient to meet him!"

Many of us made suggestions, lewd and otherwise, from our experiences; and apparently the pineapple worked. Joanna was off to hospital .... but then got sent home as nothing much was happening.

She had contractions most of the night and lots of us chatted to her on another thread in the group - and when she went back to hospital we ended up telling each other our 'birth stories' - big babies, enormous babies, emergency Caesarians, babies born with no time to get to the hospital , etc etc....  all the while holding our breath to hear the news.

She had already told us that we had provided so much entertainment for her that all 12000 of us were going to be godparents ... but we weren't expecting that she would name him after us!  .

But later that day she posted this :

'So this happened! Daniel Thomas Archer Bugler was born at 8.57 this morning. We've called him Archer after you wonderful lot who have given me so much joy and support over the last few days.

I arrived at hospital at 8.15 in a bit of a panic after some traffic issues, bellowing a crazy leonine roar, 9cm dilated and ready to go! He has been born on his due date and is totally perfect. I had no time for pain relief so I'm all clear headed and begging to be allowed home. The docs are a bit grumpy about that as my waters broke so long ago there is chance of infection. I'll persuade them! He was 8 lb 8.5 oz. who won the sweepstake?

As you can see, fella is very tired after a hard morning so he's having a little lie down!

Thank you all so very much for being supportive, funny and amazing. Love you to bits. And what a lucky boy to have 12,000 godparents xxx'

Joanna and her husband are very happy to have their news broadcast far and wide.

And here is Baby Archer...

© Fiona Frank and Andrea Fisher de Cuba Feb 2017

fionafrank at gmail dot com