It wasn't all bad... 11 new experiences of 2016

2016 was a bit of a rubbish year in lots of ways, but rather than mull over the increasingly terrible collective decisions the world seems to be making, or the long list of famous people who passed away last year, I have decided to focus on the good stuff. And for me there was a lot of good stuff. This post is about all the things I did for the very first time last year. A lot of this happened on our big holiday in pre-Trump North America, so I'm going to start there...

1) Went to Canada
There are loads of things I did for the first time in on our road trip to the USA and Canada, in terms of visiting places I'd not been to before (like Niagara Falls, or the Baseball Hall of Fame), but I'm going to lump all of those things in under this heading.

2) Ate fried pickles
Just one of the new culinary experiences of our road trip. We also ate at a Vegan Diner and on another occasion had poutine. But fried pickles were the new food of the year.

3) Went to a Baseball match on a giveaway night
'Star Wars night' made seeing the Boston Red Sox even more special. We also saw a baseball game in Toronto, with the Rodgers Stadium dome closed - the first time I'd ever seen baseball "indoors".

4) Saw a moose
OK, it was in a zoo, but it counts.

5) Checked into a hotel then checked straight back out again
The lowlight of our road trip was a disastrous hotel booking in Albany, New York. But it was a totally new experience for me.

So, enough about our road trip, here are some other things.

6) Saw Shrewsbury Town finally beat Cardiff City in Cardiff. 
It had been a long time coming, but I was finally present (in one of Cardiff's record lowest crowds at their new stadium) to see Shrewsbury beat them.

7) Got on a plane unaccompanied
I went to a conference in Glasgow and flew there from Bristol. It was the first time I had ever travelled by plane on my own, having always had Cathy, or family, or colleagues with me on previous flights.

8) Saw Celtic play
A childhood ambition ticked off

9) Went to Spain
Again, this was for a work conference. I took plenty of photos of Valencia by night. I loved it.

10) Rode through a bus wash
Seriously, this was one of the best things I did last year.

11) Going to a cartoon festival
I love cartoons and one of our favourite cartoonists was at the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival, we decided we had to go. We met her again a few weeks later, in her studio in Massachusetts.

USA & Canada 2016 - Exploring West Massachusetts

We drove West from Boston along one of the smaller highways. For a lot of our day that meant driving past scenes like this.

One of the reasons we went on a road less travelled was because we wanted to visit Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Seeing the Loggerheads on the sign of this junk shop made me feel at home.

The welcoming sign about parking would have gone down a treat in the original Shropshire as well.

Like the original Shrewsbury, the Massachusetts version has some historical old buildings.

And a historical past, commemorated on various plaques.

The final place we stopped in Shrewsbury was a mall down the road that had an International House of Pancakes (IHOP). I have a lot of fondness for IHOP but didn't really like the look of their new pancakes.

Further on from Shrewsbury is Northampton, where we had arranged to visit the studio of one of our favouritre cartoonists, Hilary Price. (We had met her back in April when she visited Shrewsbury UK for the cartoon festival.)

As we left I took a pic of this panel from one of her cartoons about relationships. This is me and Cathy. I often seem to be grabbed to look at 'bugs' or whatever.

We then went South to Springfield. One the way we stopped at the Dinosaur Footprints park, which is just off the road. I am being a dinosaur in this picture. (That's our hire car behind us)

My hand in a dino footprint. Dinosaur footprints are the state fossil of Masschusetts.

One of Springfield's claims to fame is that it is where Dr Seuss, author of The Cat and the Hat and many other books, grew up. We went to the Dr Seuss Memorial Garden to see the bronze statues of many of his most famous characters. We met The Cat in the Hat...

...the Lorax...

Horton, who famously heard a Who (this picture id just his trunk!)...

...and several other characters.

We then drove along Mulberry Street, where Dr Seuss's grandparents lived and the name of the street on which he set his very first book.

The final stop on our mini tour of the area was The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Eric Carle is the author of The Hungry Caterpillar, and several other picture books. I have to admit I gained a new appreciation for his work from our visit to 'The Carle' as they call it. It was a fab museum and we could have spent a lot longer there.

Outside, Cathy saw a bug (not an iridescent one, but close!)

Inside there are some bespoke huge colour pieces by Eric Carle.

And some great exhibitions.

We then went to a nearby farmers deli for lunch. We had spicy dill pickle flavour potato chips. They were indeed spicy!

And then we moved on, leaving Massachusetts and entering New York State, making our way towards a site of pilgrimage for hundreds of thousands of people.

On the trail of cartoonists at the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival

Last weekend we were in my one-time hometown, Shrewsbury, for the Cartoon Festival. It's been going for 13 years and this was the first time we went.

On the Friday night we went to an illustrated talk by Tony Husband, who draws the comic strip 'Yobs' in Private Eye. Tony was talking about his book of cartoons called 'Take care, Son', which chronicles his father's descent into dementia and the impact that had on the family. It was by turns moving and funny, and as you'd expect given the subject matter, very sad. Tony presented it very honestly - talking about how difficult things became when his father was phoning him up to 80 times a day, and how he felt when he visited his father in the care home. "He always used to stand by the window to watch us leave to make sure we felt the maximum amount of guilt."

Tony is now presenting about his experience to a wide number of organisations and companies who are training staff to help customers who have dementia. The humour in the talk was never at his father's expense and I'm sure the way Tony manages to explain the situation and maintain the dignity of his father is a great lesson in itself for people who come into contact regularly with people who have dementia.

We bought a copy of the book and posed for a photo after he had signed it and drawn a Yob in it for us.

Also present at the presentation was Hilary Price, an American cartoonist whose comic strip is called 'Rhymes with Orange'. We discovered this years ago on the web and one of her cartoons, 'True Microwave Settings' was stuck on our microwave for years. Hilary was there with her mum and her aunt. We had a book of her cartoons and when Cathy pulled it out of her bag to ask Hilary to sign it, her Mum told us "I love you already!"

After getting over her surprise that we had her book, and signing it, and asking us if we were cat or dog people and drawing us a dog when I said dog people, she also posed for a photo with us.

The next day we went into the town centre. Next to the mediaval market hall, the festival had several gazebos for the cartoonists to draw large scale cartoons.  Tony had redrawn several of his Private Eye cartoons. The one bottom left (ho ho) is one of my favourites. (Click on it and it will be readable.)

Hilary was there, drawing a large scale cartoon as well. She remembered us from the night before, hopefully not because we came across like stalkers. It was a sunny day but bitterly cold as can be seen from the very necessary coats.

There were quite a few activities available and even I had a go, drawing my 'man with eager to please expression' on the blackboard they had out for the kids.

We came back later and he had been rubbed off. Ah well. Maybe I should actually draw some cartoons with him in.

It was an enjoyable event and I'm really pleased to have met two cartoonists whose work I admire. I'm very lucky to have met a few of my cartooning heroes over the years and if this festival carries on I may get to meet some more.