from Aga

22/02

Manchester – architectonical mish-mash: redbrick mixed with glass and the postindustrial mixed with the very modern. How come people here aren’t freezing? Maybe it’s not so cold but we’re wearing coats, scarfs and gloves and they look like it is almost summer…
China town, Canal street, Piccadilly and just fantastic dinner in an Asian restaurant (starters from Vietnam and main course from Japan – yeah ). Looking for Hacienda – now it’s a block of appartments…
















23/02

Looking for B.Arts ‘headquaters’ in mysterious old barracks in Newcastle.
Why are there beavers in reception?
Good to know: if you don’t want milk in your tea, you should be really fast in mentioning that because real Brtitish could be even faster 
Tour around the place – rooms, stairs, room stairs… Real maze. Ben said it’s messy but I think is just place where creative people work 




Too much stuff that has been gathered over the last twenty-seven years…? Remember – do not throw anything, it could be useful one day. What you need is to find place to store it – for example in the attic of an unfinished museum in a post-mining area.








‘You should know where you are’ – said Ben and took us for a trip.





We also took a look around the area with a canal – there is a huge network of canals (waterways) in Britain which were connected to industries and factories. They were used as a smooth ways of transport to some pottery or stuff like that. Now they are part of landscape with could be very nice, I suppose, but it isn’t in fact – almost nobody uses this canal as leisure or relaxing place because there is no access to them, they’re a bit dirty, banks are full of bush and there’s no light in the evening. So B.Arts has just started a long-term project to do some workshops and events around the canals to encourage community to use it and care for it. And then do more permanent changes like organize places convenient for meetings, picnics or events.



Taking part in session of “Bridge” project (take a look at the B.Arts website) that is led for young men mainly form Kurdisthan and Afghanistan. Good to know: sometimes it happens that times of some planned sessions or activities are not convenient - so only few people will show up. So? Nothing, in fact. You can basically find some other day and now just have a nice time talking to each other (about car insurances or the youngest daughter who is just one month). Obvious and nice, isn’t it?