Almost too much culture today!

After a quiet morning at home, I drove to the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead to hear a Bulgarian photographer, Rossena Petcova, being interviewed about her exhibition, Feeling-At-Home Places.

Rossena lived in the north east for two years, leaving in 2016, and had been invited back for this small exhibition of her work. Here you see her with Mick Stafford, local photographer, who was one of the people she photographed as part of the project. We were a small audience, but there was lots of enthusiasm and interest in her work.

From there, I drove to the quayside and parked next to the Heritage Centre to see The Needle Points North exhibition. Worth a visit.

Then to The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead. I was here for ages because there was so much to see. 

Idea of North is a series of projects and includes a photographic exhibition called Women on Women. Brilliant stuff. Chris Killip also has a wall for photographs of the 1980s Gateshead underground music scene. That looked aggressive and wild.

Michael Dean's Having you on is certainly not my cup of tea. A room attendant kindly explained the exhibits. I would never have guessed what they represented and it still left me cold.

Phil Collins film, Ceremony, was compelling and very thought provoking. It lasts 45 minutes but the time sped by.

Sorry, but I didn't like Lubaina Himid's Our Kisses are Petals.

The main reason for going to the city was to meet Julie for a meal and go to a play at The Live Theatre. When I left the Baltic I wondered if I could work out whether England had won by the body language of people in the street. I could not, but I have heard that they won!

If you have read this far, please don't give up.

We went to see Mia - Daughters of Fortune, a Mind the Gap production about adults with learning disabilities who may want to have children. The cast of four were on stage throughout. They all have learning disabilities. The acting and the production were just excellent, as was the post show discussion. More than half the (very small) audience had learning disabilities too. It was impressive to see the confidence in voices from on and off stage.

When I came home, I heard that Oscar had been in to eat and then gone out again. He is clearly very hungry now and came back later to eat in the conservatory. No sign of Daisy.

If you read this far, thank you!