On the Sunday 18th June it was the second Kidical Mass Nottingham! The first ride was well attended despite a rainy morning so this time, with word getting out and the weather being on our side, 55 people attended! It was so heartwarming to see so many families being able to cycle around our city. […]
Yesterday was the very first Kidical Mass cycle ride! I wanted to launch Kidical Mass here in Nottingham after deciding towards the end of last year that we needed a family oriented ride on a weekend day. In collaboration with the North South Active Travelway (NSAT), I pushed the idea of a family ride and […]
If only I could understand how my mind works. I posted an incredibly late review of my 2021 on the very last day of 2022 and thought to myself that with this new “do it” attitude it would mean that within a few days I would then upload the more recent photos from the year […]
Did I intend to publish this just about 365 days ago? Yes, I did. “Oh I’ll write this tomorrow,” I thought to myself. Tomorrow became next week and then it never came about. There’s always something else to do. Ahhhh. I just managed before the end of 2021 to make a monumental move into my […]
If you are searching for something to watch to get you into the Christmas spirit, or perhaps not, I recommend ‘Christmas In A Day’. I say not only because the film shows how it is individuals mark it in such a magnitude of ways from the full on traditional day to more modern iterations. The […]
New powers to improve safety on Nottingham’s roads? I have long called for further enforcement of both moving and parking offences. I read about the idea of moving moving traffic offences from the hands of the police to councils a couple of years ago. Legislation has finally passed meaning it is now a possibility. With […]
We now have a new council – the North Northants Unitary and May 6th presents an opportunity to vote in a better solution in Wellingborough and North Northamptonshire. With services all controlled by one authority, our overall travel and transport strategy can be unified and can be so much better if it becomes Labour controlled. […]
Hello! I can now officially call myself a Labour candidate in the upcoming Local Elections for the new unitary authority! I was a prospective candidate but now my paperwork is all handed in and the proper campaigning shall begin, as candidate Samuel Shoesmith! I am standing to become a councillor for the Wellingborough’s Croyland and […]
Hello March! Let’s March on with the blog! It is the first of March in case you hadn’t noticed and as is common for me to ask, how did that happen? Where does the time go – but I shall not ruminate on this as time passing quickly means we are closer to near normality. […]
I’m about to recommend something other than the BBC so I need to firstly get the following out there. I am a big fan of the BBC. I think it is a fabulous institution. When asked to describe what make a Briton feel British, the BBC is one of the pieces of cotton woven into […]
Back on Friday 31st July 2020, Wellingborough held its first ever Critical Mass. What follows is collection of photos and videos from the day. It was such a massive success. At its peak, there were 67 people cycling in one big group. As I have watched some of the videos back, it seemed […]
This coming Friday, the 31st July 2020 it is Wellingborough’s first ever Critical Mass. This is a big group cycle ride to celebrate cycling but also to protest for change. This morning I was on BBC Radio Northampton (@2:11:39) to discuss cycling in Wellingborough. Yesterday I did the same for the BBC News website. At […]
It came as a great surprise and delight that last month, whilst browsing BBC iPlayer, I stumbled upon the final one-off episode of, ‘Child Of Our Time’. I was elated to see this programme it was a much needed for follow up of these children, well, now adults. Every so often over the course of 2018 […]
It was announced a few days ago that Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP, will be made available on the NHS from next month. This antiretroviral medicine, if taken every day, can almost completely stop any acquired transmission of HIV during unprotected sex. It feels fitting that I write a piece about HIV in a climate where […]
Go out and vote. I am writing this on the evening of Wednesday 11th December. A while ago, I went to put some rubbish in the bins and looked up in the night sky. It is cold tonight, it is crisp and completely clear. It is a full moon. Its brightness made me stare and […]
For the past year and a bit, as with most things, I start and then I pause and then continue and then pause, and then forget. I have the energy (pun intended) to do and to create but I spread it so thinly that often the results are questionable at best. It makes me feel […]
I often start my Happy New Year post by saying the year just gone has been “great”, “special” or even “wonderful”, but 2018 has been marked by a devastating loss and it has overshadowed the good times. However, these good times do need to be revisited as now is the time to reflect on the […]
On this day, around this time, one decade ago, I had a brain haemorrhage. Every year, it is important to me to take the opportunity to thank all those who helped saved my life and who have helped and supported me. To my sister, Tiffany, who was with me and raised the alarm, to my […]
I think I dislike change. Whenever a proposal to change something comes along, I have a tendency to cast a negative eye in the direction of said change and I do certainly try to resist the idea. In the vast majority of cases, I do actually end up liking the change. In the most part, […]