Blob Thing Watches Salford Quays Become Dark And Goes For A Swim

After watching the funny version of The 39 Steps at the theatre, Blob had a bit of time to relax in the relative tranquility of Salford Quays as the night drew in and as the time grew ever closer to the departure time of a bus.  He almost didn't start writing this post today.  The 1935 Hitchcock movie version of The 39 Steps is on the television right at this moment and he was tempted to sit and watch that.  But he knows if stayed and watch his blog might not get written and he's not got a lot of time to write it today anyway.

Today Blob Thing and his person are going to Beamish Open Air Museum.  They might not be able to look at much because they're going there to do some singing.  It's been a long time since either of them managed to sing.  It usually takes place in the evenings and Blob's person hasn't been good at evenings recently.  Today there is during the day singing and Blob has arranged a lift to the museum so that makes things a lot easier.  Blob Thing has never been to Beamish.  He wants to see it.  His person hasn't been to Beamish since she was a little person.  She wants to see it too and is glad of this day because she will be able to see some of it and not pay for a ticket.  Then Blob can decide whether they should go back and spend money.  He could probably have lots and lots of adventures there.

Blob hopes that the singing will be fun.  He enjoyed it last time.  He enjoyed it so much that he blogged about it immediately.  The second and third posts on his blog are both about Shape Note Singing.  He's looking forward to it and hopes that his person will cope with the day.  He would prefer to sing than to spend the day looking after his person.  Blob says that he's going to be very strict with her.  If she's not coping she must leave.  There's a bus back to Newcastle.  He hopes that won't happen though and they'll have a wonderful time.

Back to Salford.  Briefly.  There's no time for more than brief.  [Unless you only write some now and then write some more later Blob, we could do that.]

Blob thought it was ever so pretty.  The buildings weren't ugly.  At least some of them weren't.  They weren't all straight lines or bare cuboids of concrete rising half a mile into the sky.  Some of them had very interesting shapes and they made lovely patterns in the water as the light faded.  Some of these pictures don't show the light well - Blob's person's camera isn't perfect with light levels and sometimes does funny things.  Blob looked at the reflections and wished he could play in them.  Splash about on the walls of the buildings spread out across the water.

The buildings were all different shapes and sizes as if a different child had built each building out of Lego or Stickle Bricks or cardboard boxes and just plonked them down wherever they could find a space.  Blob's person told him that just over there was where a lot of television programmes were made.  Blob Thing has never been on television.  One day he might.  He would like to write a book one day and maybe his books would sell millions of copies and be made into blockbuster movies like The 39 Steps and he would be famous enough to return to Salford Quays and actually go into one of the buildings, climb to the top and look at the view before abseiling back to the ground.  From the way he's talking it's almost as if Blob is more excited by the thought of looking at a view than he is about fame and the blockbuster movie.  Blob has sensible priorities.

Here's a picture Blob thing loves.  It's of his creator.

Blob Thing stood be the water and marvelled at the place.  He marvelled at the day too.  How could a day that had started so badly, with tears and grief and worry, have finished so well?

Blob Thing is writing this at the end of a day.  He talked about the singing at Beamish.  Well that didn't happen.  Well it did happen.  It just didn't happen for Blob or for his person.  Something went wrong with the sending and receiving of a simple message and that meant that Blob's person couldn't get to sing to day.  Blob was very disappointed for a while.  But his person said not to worry about it too much and that there would be other chances to sing again.  She said that they could go anyway and she would still take Blob and Winefride somewhere.  She just didn't know where.

She thought hard about it and decided that they could all go to Alnmouth and walk on the beach again.  Blob and Winefride had enjoyed that so much a few weeks before and their only disappointment was that they couldn't stay longer.  Blob's person said that together they could enjoy the beach and watch and listen to the sea and the waves.  And then if they had the time and energy they could walk along the coast to Boulmer or Craster.  Blob watched his person find the map and the bus timetables and put them all in the bag, already packed for singing.  He was glad to see that she was sensible enough to take out the heavy singing book.  Carrying that along the beach would have been hard work.

The three companions left the house on this alternative adventure.  The day was still a day.  And although the original plans had gone completely wrong that didn't mean the day was spoiled.  They would find new adventures, make new plans, and live the day.

They got on the Metro to take them to where they would catch the bus to Alnmouth.  And then, to Blob's surprise and horror they didn't get off the train.  What could his person be up to now?  Had she forgotten about the beach?  Had she forgotten about promised adventures?  Maybe.  Or maybe she had suddenly decided to go to Sunderland and join the people standing up against racism and the nasty, bigoted racists of the English Infidels and the English Defence League - people whose grasp of what the word "English" means seemed to be totally incorrect and whose driving force seemed to be a hatred of anything and anyone telling them they might be wrong.  But no.  Blob's person wasn't doing that.  Today it would have been far too much for her to cope with.

Instead they got off the Metro in the city centre and walked to a bus station to get a random bus.  They were very lucky because there was a bus there already and it was due to leave in less than two minutes.  Blob will tell you about the adventures he had with Winefride today.  But not today.  Today's adventures will have to wait.

[Oh, alright Blob, just one photo, just one.]  Here is a surprise picture.  It's as much a surprise to Blob's person as it is the Blob and his sister.  She hadn't planned to visit this place until the bus had nearly passed the bus stop in the nearby village.  This is a picture of Blob and Winefride.  They're standing on Hadrian's Wall.  A terribly exciting surprise for them.  They hadn't dreamed that they would be doing anything like that today.  True, it's not the wildest part of the wall but it is the wall and they were happy there.  One day Blob's person promises to take them to explore the whole wall.

No singing today.  But Hadrian's Wall.  The day worked out okay after all.

Just as that day in the past worked out that began with Blob's tears and total worry in Newcastle and ended under the skies of Salford.

One last picture of that day.  There was a swimming event going on that evening.  People were jumping or climbing into the water and swimming in it.  Nobody could quite work out whether this was a competitive event or whether everyone was just doing it for fun.  Blob Thing wanted to join in too.  So he borrowed a swimming cap from one of the swimmers and gingerly slid into the water.  It was ever so cold and ever so wet and Blob didn't particularly like how it felt.  Nevertheless, he was determined.  So he swam all the way to the far end of the water, stopped for a rest and then swam all the way back.  That's quite a feat.  It's a long swim.  It's an even longer swim when your general anatomical form is that of a blob, with no arms and no legs and no limbs of any variety.  For a Blob to swim is amazing.  [Blob's person it under the impression that he didn't swim at all but is using his imagination at this point.]

Blob Thing was ever so proud of himself and if he hadn't stopped for the rest he would probably have got the fastest time and come home with a bit cup proclaiming him to be the Salford Quays swimming champion of 2016 and he would get on television and get a sponsorship deal and have enough spare money to go on a world cruise or fly a rocket to another star or do something more useful like solve world hunger and put an end to the prejudice that some people showed in Sunderland today - much to the horror Blob is sure of most of the people who actually live in the city.

Here is Blob Thing relaxing after his swim.  It was an experience.  But it's not one he wants to repeat in a hurry.  He doesn't want to train for the 2020 Olympics and enter as part of the Independent Soft Toy Nation team.  Swimming isn't his thing.  The water leaves him far too soggy.  [Blob's person thinks that this photo wasn't taken after Blob's swim.  It was just taken when Blob borrowed a swimming cap.  But you can decide for yourself whether this story is just the product of his active and creative mind or whether he swam for glory that night.]

[1728 words]

Blob Thing Enjoys A Banquet And Heads To The Refugee Rally

It's late in the day and I still haven't even started writing my blog today.  There's a good reason for it.  A very good reason.  Winefride was listening while I was dictating the posts for the last couple of days as I met the Herma Merma Dragora and then was lucky enough to find a ferryman across the Tyne.  She was looking at the pictures too and she did really well because she starting pointing at them.  I asked her if she would like to go on a ship like that too one day and she got excited by that thought.  It was almost more excited than I've ever seen her before.

So last night I talked to my person about it and told her how much it would mean to both Winefride and myself if we could one day we taken on the ferry together.  Then this morning she completely surprised me by saying that today would be the day.  She had been planning on going for a very long walk and taking us with her but the weather didn't look right for that.  She still wanted to go out somewhere though and said that we could all get the Metro to South Shields, have a little explore there, and then find the ferry person and cross the river and have another little explore.

It's been a stunning day, full of adventures.  Winefride has had a brilliant time and it's been wonderful and joyous to see how happy she's been.  She enjoyed the ferry the most of course and we have some great pictures that I'll show you sometime.  But that wasn't the only adventure.  Winefride met a friendly lion, rode on the shoulders of Muffin the Mule and we met a creature living in a tree.  It got a little bit dangerous at one point and it was only with the help of a giant octopus that Winefride was able to rescue me from being eaten alive by a shark.  I was quite scared.  It actually had me in its mouth and if it wasn't for my sister and the octopus she had made friends with I don't know what would have happened.  My person tells me that the shark would probably have realised that I'm not a fish and wouldn't have eaten me.  But it was still a frightening experience.  I had a few adventures of my own while Winefride was having a rest and even my person had some fun.  She played on a roundabout and a zip wire in the rain.  Watching her have fun was brilliant.  The only things that would have made it better were if it hadn't been raining so much and if my creator was there to share the fun of the play area.

Anyway.  I'll tell you about all that another day and show off the pictures.  They're all stuck on my person's phone at the moment and she needs to get round to moving them onto her computer.  But she kindly agreed to email one picture to herself so I could put it in my blog today.  Here are Winefride and myself and behind us the ferry is just arriving to carry us across the water.  Isn't it swish?

But back to my other adventure.  We climbed the hill from the ferry into the centre of North Shields.  I don't understand it.  I thought we would get more of a welcome after our heroic trek.  I thought there would be banners raised in our honour, that the streets would be lined with cheering crowds and that they would possibly even be throwing rose petals in our path.  But there was none of that.  Nothing.  It was almost as if the city of North Shields did not know that we were coming and that we had completed such an arduous ordeal in order to be there.

We walked on, through the very centre of that city.  We still didn't see any shields for sale but I did spot at least one shop selling socks.  Even in North Shields in this century, socks had replaced shields.  Perhaps the cities should both have changed their names by now and the area be known as the Land of Socks.  But maybe they are overly proud of their historical heritage and keep the name in order to remember a time of valour and shields that would otherwise be forgotten.  Maybe more barbarian hordes would invade if the city were called North Socks.  It's not such a powerful name.  Maybe the barbarians don't know about the socks.  I hope they don't ever read my blog otherwise it'll only be the Herma Merma Dragora - and the powerful, friendly lion we met today - who stand between Shields and it's total annihilation.

Further we walked.  Further still.  Away from the noise.  Away from the crowds who hadn't known to cheer.  Eventually we saw a church ahead of us.  A place of God.  My person said that this was our final destination and there we would receive the welcome we deserved and be able to share in the fabulous banquet we had been promised.  The building rose up ahead of us, imposing, as if the people there had fought and won many battles against barbarian hordes.  My person is trying to tell me that in the 300 years the church has been there, no barbarian hordes have tried to invade the Land of Shields.  But I think my story is much better than hers.  Her story might be believed by scholars of history but it's not very exciting.  Her story is this:  A church got built.  People worshipped in it.  And then one day the people welcomed the people from the walk for refugees and gave them a banquet.  The end.  My story is far better.  I didn't see any socks for sale in the church either.  The church website says it has a long and fascinating past.  So my story must logically be closer to the truth than that of my person.  I'm sticking with it anyway.

We entered the building.  Journey's end.  We had made it.

And we were welcomed as we deserved.  The people of Christ Church, North Shields had done an amazing job preparing for our coming.  We all took our seats in the banqueting hall.

There were some speeches to commemorate the occasion.  The minister who led the walk said a prayer.  He talked with my person and by the end of the chat they were friends on that which is called Facebook.  They discovered that they had a mutual friend in Scotland, someone who had stood beside my person when she got married.

And then.  And then.  We ate.  And we drank.  And we ate and drank some more.  And we celebrated everything that we had done that day and celebrated the fact that the refugees are welcome.  I know my person is proud that she lives in a City of Sanctuary.  Sunderland is also such a city and that is a brilliant thing.

Yes.  We ate and drank.  But not all of us did.  Some of those walking with us, some of those brave refugees, ate and drank nothing.  Those people were Muslims and they follow Islam.  One of the important things in Islam - it's one of the five pillars of that religion - is fasting.  It's not just the giving up of food and drink, there's a lot more meaning to it than that.  During the year, my person told me, they have a month of fasting in the calendar month when they believe the Qu'ran was revealed to their prophet.  For the whole of that month they fast from all food and drink from sunrise to sunset.  Our epic walk had taken place in that month.  While we snacked and had lunch they ate nothing.  While we feasted at the banquet they ate nothing.  And the month was in the middle of summer.  It would be a long fast.  It's true that each of them was given a banquet to take away with them.  But they would still have many hours to wait before they could eat.  Isn't that amazing?

I ate a lot of course.  Here are the remains of just a fraction of my eating.  Lots and lots of fruit because my person and I are just extremely healthy people.  Honest.  We are.  And I don't see her butting into my blog and correcting me at this point so she obviously wants to give the impression of health too.

Here's a photo taken by the minister.  These are many of the intrepid walkers.  And a few of those who welcomed us into the sanctuary of Christ Church.

Walking with these people had been one of the best days of my life and I hadn't even nearly been eaten by a shark.  It's always a bonus for the day to not be eaten by a shark.

It was time to go.  My person had somewhere else she needed to be and I was going to go there too.  We planned to go and sing at a rally for refugees.  I posted something about that when it happened.  We arrived back into Newcastle and there was just time for us to walk from there to the place of the rally.  More walking.  After an epic trek my person made me walk some more.  To get to the rally we had to cross back over the River Tyne.  But this time there was a bridge.

The view from The Tyne Bridge is brilliant.  From here you can clearly see the Tyne swing bridge, and beyond it there are more bridges.

We arrived at the rally.  We sang our hearts out and I do think perhaps my person should go and sing with those people again.  The media took lots of pictures of us and filmed us but then, because the media is a very biased creature, we were hardly mentioned anyway apart from by one media outlet who said that some children had gathered to protest, and they included a picture of some of the stupendous children who were with us.  That's the way the media often are.  They skew reality so much that anyone who experienced it can hardly recognise that the event they lived through is the same one that's been reported.

I shared this photograph in my post about the rally.  I still say it.  I stand with refugees.  And I stand for each of those four words on the placard.  Sometimes it is hard to hope.  But we must hold onto hope and, if we are able, work for a future where compassion, decency and humanity are at the centre of all we do, and where "loving one another" is at the centre of the way we live.  That's what I think anyway.  I may only be a small pink soft toy with an active imagination, but it's what I think and believe and it's how I try to live my life as a friend.

Tomorrow I'll be talking about a different subject.  I've got a lot of adventures to choose from.  I keep having more of them too.  My life is amazing.  And now I have a sister to share it with.  I love my sister.




[1883 words]

Blob Thing Talks Socks And Is Thankful For The Tyne Ferry

My person says that I said far too much yesterday.  She says that I rambled and went completely off the topic.  She says that all I was meant to be talking about yesterday was my encounter with the Herma Merma Dragora and that by the end of all my discussions about undersea cities, the lack of legal protections for soft toys, and God her fingers were aching a lot.  My person says that I shouldn't just dictate to her today and that she wants to be able to discuss things with me and then just type a few important words.  But I want to dictate.  It's fun to talk.  And it's fun to watch her fingers.

I suppose I should take pity on my person today.  She's very tired and more than a bit dizzy and would probably prefer to go to bed for the afternoon rather than type something about my adventures.  It's her own fault though.  If she had got up this morning and typed with me then she would have had lots of energy for my blog.  But did she do that?  Oh no.  Today she wrote down a short poem and then finished a verse simple work of art and then wrote a blog about it.  She did that.  Instead of writing my blog.  No wonder she's tired.

I'm going to get on with discussing my adventure now.  I'm not going to talk about eating pufferfish today.  My exciting day joining the walk for refugees was approaching its end.  We walked through the streets of South Shields, tired and hungry and with every cafe and curry house we passed we became more tempted to stop and eat.  If we hadn't known there was a promise of a banquet at the end of our trek we would have succumbed and never made it to the far land of North Shields.

We were tired but we felt good and we knew that the day had been worthwhile.  From this point on it would be an easy walk.  Easy.  Or so we thought.  But we were wrong.  As we passed through the final streets of South Shields we came to a market.  Several people were attempting to sell pairs of socks.  The desperate vendors, obviously struggling to make enough money to feed their fifteen children, kept calling to us.  "Five pairs for three pounds.  Come and get your socks.  Quality socks for quality people."  It made me sad to see how hard the market people were working and the struggle a purveyor of cheap socks has to survive in the land of Shields.

None of the brave walkers bought any socks.  We all had socks on our feet.  Nearly all of us.  I admit that I do not own a single pair of socks.  I have no tights or stockings.  None.  That's not a big worry for me though because I don't have any feet.  Trying to sell me five pairs of socks for three pounds is a fool's game.  I don't need your socks.  I don't have any money either.  I am a soft toy friend of few material needs and I am fortunate enough to have a person who looks after me well.  Now she has my sister to look after too and she's doing a very good job.

My sister is sitting with me right now and she's very happy today.  It's been very windy and she has enjoyed watching the way the leaves move on the trees, how the light turns and changes as the leaves shake.  She has loved the way the wind in the trees sounds like the sea washing against the rocks and she has closed her eyes and imagined herself lying on the sand gazing up at the sky as the cumulus clouds rush past, the gulls talk and the fish and crabs sing their songs in the water.  I think my sister would have enjoyed the next part of my adventure with the refugees and their friends.  I think she would have enjoyed the entire walk.  Maybe my person will take her on that walk one day.  I know she wants to see all the places near Sunderland.  I think she would especially love the roof of the glass centre and it's fun to think of her bouncing and spinning on the transparent roof and jumping up and down with all her might to see if it would crack.  Yes.  We must take her.  I'd like to play on that roof too.  Please person, can we go soon?

I was a bit confused in the market.  We were in one of the major settlements in the Land of Shields.  But there wasn't even one person in the market with any shields for sale.  No swords.  No armour.  Not even a helmet.  What was going on?  This was the Land of Shields and there were no shields.  Hey person.  Can we go to the big Roman fort in South Shields too?  It was confusing and disappointing.  A pair of socks is not a shield.  Of what use is a pair of socks when someone is attacking you with a battle axe?  I admit that socks are quite nice things to wear on feet, if you have such things as feet.  But how would you use them to protect yourself when a barbarian horde is rushing at you with their swords and axes and clubs raised high, shouting out with the fiercest of battle cries? - like the Viking my person saw this morning could have done.

I'm serious.  In such a scenario, what would you do if you only had five pairs of socks for three pounds with which to defend yourself?  I'm not at all sure that if you held up the socks and said, "If you don't kill me and promise to leave my land then I will give you a sock," that the barbarians would listen.  I'm not sure there would be a peace treaty made on the basis of a simple sock donation.  I think with a sock but no shield you would surely be cut into four thousand pieces and the barbarians would celebrate in your castle and drink far more mead than was good for them.

No.  There were no shields for sale in the Land of Shields.  Not that I saw.  Maybe they were hidden in some secret shop.  Maybe the shield and weapon sellers felt too vulnerable in that market square.  Maybe the city had defenders I didn't see and any invader would be lulled into a false sense of security.  They would advance from the sea, laugh at the sock sellers and then be destroyed by an unknown force.  Or perhaps a known force.  The known force I had met on the other side of the city.  Maybe the Herma Merma Dragora could fly up and bear down on the barbarians and destroy their whole army, leaving just three of the smallest of them to take a message back to the barbarian king that the Land of Shields would never be defeated.  I think perhaps it could.  It did seem to be a mightily powerful creature.

I'd better get on before my person tells me off for talking too much. This adventure isn't about socks in the market.  It's about something far more thrilling than socks.  We passed the market and saw something daunting.  We had imagined that the rest of the trip would be an easy walk.  We were mistaken.  It would be an impossible walk.  There was no way to walk from South Shields to North Shields.   Our way was barred by an immense body of water.  This was the River Tyne.  Victory in our quest was snatched from us and we wanted to sit and weep in our defeat.  If we couldn't cross the water we would never reach our banquet.  And going back and buying five pairs of socks wouldn't benefit us at all.  Socks don't make excellent floatation devices.

Our journey was over.  Within sight of North Shields, almost within sight of the banquet.  It was over.  Because we couldn't walk on water.  Even Jesus would have had a hard time getting all of us to walk across the River Tyne.  There was no hope.

But in that time of sorrow came a joyful sound.  The minister who was leading the walk has a way of communicating with his god.  He must have called out because suddenly, there before us in the road, was a ferryman and a ferry big enough to carry all of us across the water.  We were saved.  We would be able to eat the banquet.  And my person would be reunited with her rucksack.  All hail the ferryman for saving the day.

I was so happy to see the ferry and I got my person to hold me so that I could be in a picture with it.  A sturdy ferry indeed.  I had no doubt that it would get us across the River Tyne.  The chances of the ferry sinking were minimal.

And so we all boarded the ferry.  Some of us had to pay a fee to cross the water.  None of us had to part with any of our socks.  I didn't have to pay because it turns out that soft toy friends don't have to pay to cross the Tyne.  We may have no legal protections and we may be treated just as property but there are some advantages to being a friend rather than a human.  My person didn't have to pay either.  She has a magic card that she can use most of the time to travel on a bus.  And her magic card worked for the ferry too.  She showed it to the ferryman.  He bowed and said she was welcome on his fine vessel.

As we crossed the water, my person took lots of pictures to commemorate our trip.  Winefride would have loved this.  Maybe one day we can go again and maybe the ferryman will be just as kind to my person.

Here are a couple of pictures of me.  My person had to hold me very tightly because it was windy and I would never have balanced on the narrow ledge on the ship on my own.  Here you see her wearing two bracelets both of which were given to her by my creator.  My creator even made one of them.  It's got rainbow beads and on it are the words "AUTISTIC PRIDE".  My "Autistic" badge was made by my creator too.  She's very clever.  Anyone who can make me must be very clever indeed.  And now I've got a sister and she's got a beautiful dress and a bow and she's very very lovely.  I love my sister.  I'll post something about an adventure we shared soon.  I am quite desperate to tell you about the policemen!

You can see how windy it was.  Just look at what it did to my dress!

Don't look too hard though.  Please.








One final picture for today.  Here are some of the people we walked with.  An excellent group of people.  I was proud to have been part of the adventure with them and would happily walk with them again.  My person is in the middle of that group.  Most of the other people are refugees, some of whom have lived in the United Kingdom for a while and have built a new life.  Some of them are newcomers.  They didn't want to have to come and live here.  All of them would have preferred to have been able to stay in their countries of origin.  Refugees are not refugees by choice but by necessity.  All of them are glad to be here though.  This is a place of relative safety, of welcome, of freedom.  This is a place where they won't have their lives destroyed by war or persecution or hatred.  Here they can start again.  Here there is hope.  Some of these people have passed through many kinds of Hell.  It's been shockingly difficult.  They must have felt like giving up at times.  But they didn't give up and now they are all thankful for their good fortune in making it here.  Many do not make it.  Some even die in the attempt to be free.

I am proud of each one of these people.  And it was a total honour to be among them.  I want to thank them all for such a beautiful, brilliant day.

So we were able to cross the waters and the ferry carried us all the way to the edge of North Shields.  We had made it.  Just a short walk through that city and we would be at our final destination and would share in a fabulous banquet.  Well, some of us would share.  Some of us wouldn't be able to eat with us.  But I can explain that in my next post.





[2158 words.  Blob is bouncing around now and telling his person that it was okay and that he didn't talk as much today.  Blob's person still isn't happy and says it's too much talking and asks why he had to talk so much about socks when they had nothing to do with the adventure.  She wants a short post tomorrow.   Perhaps everybody would prefer a short post.]

Blob Thing Fights And Vanquishes The Human Dragon Chimera

Blob Thing's epic walk with the refugees and their friends would soon be over.  There ahead in the distance he could see the land of Shields.  Somewhere within that place he would reach journeys end and in the hall of the Saint would be rewarded with a feast.  Would songs be sung?  Would epic poems be written about this day?  Probably not.  But maybe he would be able to write a blog post about it.

Blob says:

Oh yes.  It had been a good day.  I was so happy to have been able to walk up the coast along paths I hadn't seen when my person forgot to take me with her once.  Walking with the refugee people was amazing too.  The refugees could all tell stories and there were some brilliant people on the walk who devote a lot of there lives to helping.  I'd been expecting to go to a rally and sing out for refugees that evening.  A man called Mister Farage was speaking in Gateshead and I was going to go along and sing because I thought he was wrong about refugees.  A group called the North East Socialist Singers would be leading that rally.  I've written about it already with my person in a blog post.  Yes, I enjoyed that evening a lot and keep telling my person that she should go and sing with those people again.  They were ever so friendly and the singing was a lot of fun.  And there I was that day walking for the whole day with refugees.  They were ever so friendly too.  It was a great honour to be able to walk among them.

I'd seen so many things and I want to go back and explore them some more.  There are a lot of places I've seen that I want to go back to.  And a lot of places I haven't seen that I want to go to even though I don't even know what I'll find there.  I wonder where I'll be able to go this week.  I'm a bit dependent on my person.  I am not able to go out myself and get the bus and the Metro to places to explore them.  So I find I'm sitting there having to bully my person sometimes and I have to keep telling her that we need to go out and have an adventure.  She's getting to be quite good at it.  But there are days on which going out at all is an impossibility for her and other days on which it's very difficult indeed and she can't be out for long or have a big adventure.  Sometimes she gets into difficulties when out and although I do my best to help her there are days on which I wonder if we're going to be able to get home safely.  My person looks after me very well.  But there are times when I have to be the one who looks after her.

Some days are so hard.  But the refugee day wasn't one of them.  That day was a day on which my person could fight through any difficulties in her head and appear normal enough that someone didn't even believe she could be autistic.  She did incredibly well that day.  The next day she had to recover and couldn't do much but on that day my person - as someone put it - did amazing.

Now here I was and the walk would be over quite soon.  I sat on a dune and thought about how wonderful my life is.  I'm just a small pink soft toy.  But I have a wonderful life and I have grown up into a person in ways that nobody could have imagined when I was created.  Behind me you can just see a place close to where we were walking to.  It's Tynemouth.  At the mouth of the river Tyne.  We had walked all the way from the river Wear to get there.  Not far to go now.  And then the walk would be over and I would say goodbye to these people.  I was a bit sad because they were all going to get together for a celebration at the end of the week and I wasn't going to be able to attend.  I was going to see my creator and I always like to do that.  But it would have been nice to celebrate with the walkers.

I'd like to apologise.  Sometimes my person is a rubbish photographer.  Terrible.  She's not good at knowing when something is flat.  The sea doesn't actually sit at this angle.  It's meant to be flat.  On her behalf I say we are sorry.  Sometimes she takes a good picture.  But then there are rubbish ones like this.  At least I am straight even in the sea has gone wrong.  If the sea was really like that and you lived in the land at the bottom then all the sea would flow across your land and you would get flooded.  You would either have to move, drown, build an undersea city, or develop the ability to breathe underwater.  I think of those options the breathing one would be best.  I think it would be incredibly exciting to be able to have adventures underwater.  I could walk out and talk with the fish and visit the dark depths and I'd be very careful not to be stung by a jellyfish or to scare a pufferfish. 

I don't know exactly what pufferfish poison would do to me but it's probably best to be careful if I saw such a creature.  The internet says it's a thousand times more toxic to humans than cyanide.  I don't know what cyanide would do to me either but I don't ever want to find out.  Some humans are incredibly strange.  I knew that already.  But the internet tells me that they think pufferfish is a great delicacy.  It also tells me that although it's prepared by highly trained chefs quite a lot of people die from eating it every year.  Tell me, what possible tasty dinner is would risking death for?  It's not just people being strange.  It's stupidity.  Pure, simple stupidity.  I don't want to eat pufferfish.  I'm not so stupid as a human.

Sorry.  I was meant to be showing you a photo.  I wasn't meant to be making my person type all kinds of things about pufferfish.  And if you lived in the land at the top of the photo all the sea would have poured down to the other land and the smell of dead fish on the exposed seabed would be horrible.  People would have gone to a lot of trouble to make the harbour walls at Tynemouth and South Shields and then there wouldn't be any sea because it would all be in Sunderland and Roker Pier would be useless at holding back that much water and Sunderland would be an underwater city full of humans with special gills and I would go and visit even if the glass centre had turned into a giant boat and sailed off to Norway.  Sorry again for this photo.  Next time I'll try to get my person to take a photo that shows the horizon properly.  My silly person.  She did a bad photo in yesterday's post too.  Maybe she needs to take lessons.  [Blob's person at this point is not happy with Blob.  Not happy at all.  She admits it's not the best photo ever but she's also taken good ones.  The ones yesterday of Marsden Beach were decent.  More than making up for the bad pictures.  Blob needs to get on with talking about his adventure.  Not about his silly person or about pufferfish.  Get on with it Blob.  Now!]

Okay.  If you insist.  Eventually the dunes came to an end and still the walk wasn't over.  I was feeling tired by this point and I hadn't been able to have a proper rest.  I was told that we wouldn't be able to have a proper rest until the banquet at the end and I wondered whether I could cope.  I was determined.  I may only be small but I would finish this trek.

We left the beach behind and walked into a place very different.  There was a lake and a railway and quite a lot of people.  Many of them had ice cream but I wasn't allowed to get an ice cream.  I do like ice cream but I have to be careful with it otherwise it makes me very dirty.  It would be a bit easier now.  My dress got fixed recently so now it doesn't keep riding upwards and covering my mouth, my wonderfully gorgeous smile.  I like smiling.  There is always something to smile about, even on the hard days.  This year my person has set herself a challenge to post online every single day with things she is grateful for.  Some days have been extremely hard but she tries to do it anyway.  Because there is always something.  Right now we're in a nice house, on a comfy chair.  There is superb music playing - it's by Simon Thacker who you almost certainly won't have heard of.  There is light and the option of going to make tea.  We have my person's phone with us.  We have books.  We have pretty things.  A stone and candle display we bought nine days ago and a lovely painting of standing stones we bought on a difficult day this week.

My person wasn't coping well that day.  She had gone into town to do one specific job.  But when she got to the place for the job she was already struggling and then being there was far too overwhelming and she had to leave.  One job.  And she couldn't do it.  She ended up wandering in the streets feeling rubbish and not knowing what to do.  Eventually she took refuge in a quiet shop.  A charity shop she had never seen before.  It was nice in there.  Quiet.  So quiet.  And they weren't playing music.  My person still had her headphones on though.  And in that shop was this very nice framed print for three pounds.  And a brand new friend, a giraffe called Gerry.  He was beautiful and he's a lot of fun to have around.  He only cost a pound.

I worry sometimes about the ethics of such things.  Is it really right to buy and sell friends?  We are people too.  Should we be counted as property in this way?  I know we're usually bought by good people who offer us some love but that's not the point.  Friends are people.  And I have issues with the buying and selling of people.  We're friends.  We're not property.  Humans shouldn't be able to own friends.  They should be friends of friends and care for us as we care for them with our cuddles and the way we happily participate in imagination games.  But legally, under British law, we have no rights whatsoever.  People are allowed to treat us badly.  They can throw us away.  They can neglect us.  Sometimes we're even burned or ripped apart to make beds for humans.  We have no rights.  And that makes me, as a living, thoughtful soft toy sad and more than a bit cross.  I don't expect I can do anything about it though no matter how unjust the law is and how much it allows friends to be oppressed by powerful humans.

[The adventure, Blob.  The adventure.]

Oh yes.  I was on a walk and then away from the people I saw something very frightening indeed.  I saw some kind of dragon.  Or some kind of human.  Or some kind of something.  It was as if some evil scientist had combined several creatures into some kind of hybrid, a strange chimera, and the result was a monster.  A fierce monster ready to destroy the land.  A Herma Merma Dragora.  Yes, that's what it was.  A Herma Merma Dragora.  Frightening to behold and I was scared because I thought it was going to rise up and destroy everything between Sunderland and North Shields and all the beautiful things I had seen would be gone by the end of the day.

But I am a brave friend.  I decided I would fight the Herma Merma Dragora.  I would fight it and I would in.  I had to.  There was no other choice.  I would vanquish this creature and would be hailed as a hero and all my friends could come and live with me in a magical castle full of light shows and sensory rooms and quiet places and a big cinema to watch our favourite things and we would live happily there forever and only come out so that we could have even more exciting adventures than I already have.  There was no other choice.  I, Blob Thing, hero of the Shields.

I approached the Herma Merma Dragora carefully.  I didn't actually know how I was going to vanquish the creature.  I didn't even have a sword.  But I would find a way.   My person wasn't quite so brave.  She just stood back and took photos, a record of my heroism.  Something to include in the Blob Thing museum that people would undoubtedly want to establish.

My person got a bit scared at this point I think and she ran off and took a picture from further away.  She didn't want to get eaten or burned.  I think that's why she went to take this picture anyway.  She probably has a different story.

I was about to strike a fatal blow into the heart of the Herma Merma Dragora when it spoke.  I was ever so surprised.  It said, "Please don't kill me.  I'm not dangerous.  I'm the friendliest Herma Merma Dragora in the world and I've chosen to be here to protect the Land of the Shields.  I won't hurt you.  If giant dragons invade or aliens or if the ants ever rise up into an army and try to overrun the land I am the one who will fight back and keep the people safe."

It was a great relief.  It meant I didn't have to vanquish the Herma Merma Dragora at all.  It meant that instead of a triumphant pose over the body of a monster, I had found a friend.  It was true that it also meant that there would be no castle to share with my friends with lots of sensory rooms but that didn't matter.  Finding a new friend is far more important than gaining a castle.

Here I am with my new friend.  I still think it looked like a fierce, dangerous monster.  But that just goes to show doesn't it?  You can't judge a person from how they look.  The Bible says that God doesn't look at the outward form but at the heart of a person.  I think in this way we should emulate the God of the Bible.  Don't judge from outward form.  Find out who someone is instead.  Some Christians treat my person according to her outer form rather than according to her heart.  They say she isn't a woman because she was born with a penis.  They say she has to repent of being a woman.  Foolish Christians.  Lots of other Christians don't make that stupid mistake.  My person knows quite a lot of those other Christians.  They're much nicer than the foolish ones who say she has to be a man.

Yes.  Treat people according to their heart.  They may be a Herma Merma Dragora.  They may look incredibly scary.  They may look like they would prefer to eat you than smile at you.  The Herma Merma Dragora can't smile at all.  But it has a beautiful heart.  It's heart is full of smiles.  I could have hurt it.  I made a mistake in making the judgements I made about it.  And now it is my friend and I am very proud of it for everything it does to keep the Land of the Shields safe.

Friends with a Herma Merma Dragora.  I couldn't have imagined that at the start of the day.

Sadly I had to leave my new friend behind.  It might have followed me to the banquet but it wanted to stay and keep being sentry against whatever threats would arise, be they ants, giants or aliens.  Farewell kind friend.  I'm sure we will meet again.

I think I've talked more than enough.  I should stop for today.  Thanks for reading.  I know I say a lot of odd things and have some quite strange opinions that I voice without any shame and with knowing that people may strongly disagree.  For today it's time to stop, safe in the knowledge that the horizon is still flat and a Herma Merma Dragora still protects the land.




[2821 words.  Yep.  2821.]

Blob Thing Sees Germany, Meets A Lion, And Becomes A Lifeguard

Blob Thing was having an amazing day.  He was walking from Sunderland to North Shields on a walk as part of the activities people in Sunderland were involved with for Refugee Week.  Blob was very happy because he was going to get to see all the things on that route which his person had seen without him a few weeks a few weeks earlier.

So far Blob and his person and all the good people had walked from a bridge over the River Wear all the way to the sea.  Blob thought that was quite a long way but then learned that it was only a tiny distance compared to the entire walk.  North Shields was, as a name suggested, north of them.  Blob Thing bravely said that he would be able to walk all that way and his person promised to carry him if he got too tired.

There are places further away than North Shields.  Blob Thing was quite pleased not to be walking all the way to this place.  He didn't think he would manage such a long journey in one day.  He was also a little confused as how he would walk there at all.  The first part of the walk would be easy enough.  But that would only take him as far as the end of Roker Pier.  After that there looked to be an awful lot of water, stretching out further than he could sea.  Blob Thing didn't want to walk that way.  He hasn't got direct evidence of this but he believes that he would be unable to walk on water.  And he knows that his person would sink immediately.  Walking under the water would be tough too.  Blob wonders how the people of Sunderland expect him to walk to Germany.  Are they crazy in Sunderland?

Continuing on the walk, Blob Thing spotted a covered area and in the darkness beneath there was lots of art.  Every wall in that darkness was painted with a different picture.  Blob likes pictures.  And his person likes taking pictures of street art.  Blob especially liked this door.  He wants to know where it leads and whether it's a friendly lion.  He says it would be a bit scary to use the door knocker in case it was a particularly sneaky lion using a door knocker as bait and as soon as you lift the knocker it would lunge forward and bite you.  Blob Thing, being small, would be entirely eaten with a single bite from a lion.

A frightening thought.  Frightening, yes.

But Blob still would like to knock on that door and gain entrance to the world behind the wall.  A hidden part of Sunderland full of misfits and clowns and mutants and all the magical creatures that have been pushed away from the surface by an unbelieving, unaccepting world above.  Blob says he wants to visit that world.  He knows that there are stories people have written about similar hidden worlds.  But maybe the one in Sunderland is real.  He thinks it's almost a shame that he didn't get a chance to knock on the door.  Almost.  Not quite, because if he'd explored the below world then he would have missed the walk.

Here's a less scary picture.  Blob liked this art a lot.  He wonders how many people walk by without giving it a second thought, without even noticing that it's there.  Blob's person missed it the first time she passed.  And the second time too.  Both times she was walking on the beach rather than on the path above it so she couldn't see the pictures and get excited by them.  She was very glad to have been there to share the artistic experience with Blob that day.

The brave walkers left the path.  Or rather the path left them.  There was no more path to follow and so they had to walk along the beach.  It was wonderful.  Here are a couple of the walkers still holding up the banner.  They didn't hold it up for the entire walk.  There wouldn't have been a lot of point along a deserted clifftop path.  One of the people below is a refugee.  He's been in the United Kingdom for some years building a new life and could tell you stories of why he had to leave his country of origin.  Refugees are sometimes demonised in the media.  They're often portrayed in ways to dehumanise them too so they become just statistics rather than people.  But the refugees on the walk were all very human indeed.  None of them wanted to leave their countries.  They had to.

While on the beach, Blob spent some time trying his hand at a career.  He decided it might be nice if he were to become a lifeguard.  He could just see himself patrolling the beach and decided a beach would be a great place to work.  Blob imagined himself carrying that surfboard down to the sea and going and rescuing people who would be eternally grateful.  He would make an excellent lifeguard.

It was a nice idea.  But even Blob had to admit that it wasn't practical.  There are a few slight problems with bringing that idea to reality.

• Blob Thing can't swim
• Blob Thing can't run across the beach fast enough to rescue someone

and the big problem:

• Blob Thing wouldn't be able to pick up such a big surf board so he wouldn't be able to rescue people with it.

Blob says that doesn't matter.  He likes the idea of rescuing people, of saving lives.  And dreaming about it doesn't do anyone any harm.  There is an adage that says you can do whatever you put your mind to.  Blob Thing says that's a silly adage.  It's quite obviously false and there are lots of things you can't do.  There are lots of things you can do.  But to say you can do whatever you put your mind to is just setting yourself up for failure.

After walking along the beach the walkers found a path again.  They were all feeling a little tired and they were still in the city boundary of Sunderland.  A very long way to go.  The path reached a road and there, to everyone's happy reaction, were two cars owned by friends of the walkers.

The cars were laden with food and drink and everyone was pleased that it was time to stop for refreshments.  You can see that they hadn't walked very far.  Here's Blob at the refreshment stop and behind him you can still see Roker Pier.  This was turning into a most stupendous adventure.

Here's Blob at the refreshment break.  It was good to sit for a while.  Blob's person was really pleased too.  She was able to put her rucksack in one of the cars for the rest of the walk.  Normally she carries far too many things when out walking.  Just this once she would be able to walk free from all of it

Blob was glad that he and his person had met the refugee walkers at the start of the walk they had planned to do.  He was sure that the original plan would have been a good one.  But this was a better one.  He was happy that things had worked out so well.  If they had travelled on any other Metro to Sunderland they would not have met the walkers.  If the walkers had set out a few minutes earlier or later then they wouldn't have been crossing the bridge just when Blob was.  And if the Metro had been delayed at all - which is not an uncommon possibility - Blob would have been walking South that day instead of North.

Sometimes things just work out.  Sometimes there are brilliant surprises.  And sometimes you have to run with open arms into the surprise.  There's a lot of life out there.  But it has to be seen with open eyes and grabbed with eager hands.  That's Blob's view, and he's sticking to it.



[1345 words]

Blob Thing Walks In Unexpected Directions Along The River Wear

Blob Thing has been having a long think about what to talk about.  He's decided that it would be good to tell you about a long walk he went on in June.

It was an unexpected day.  Blob and his person had decided to start a very long journey and see how far they would get before being too tired to continue.  The journey would be from Sunderland to Hartlepool - the river Wear to the river Tees, following the coast as much as possible.  That was the plan but sometimes plans change.  And sometimes that's okay.  And sometimes it's much more than okay.  That day was one of the more than okay times.

Blob and his person caught the Metro to the stop before Sunderland.  It's called St. Peter's and it's named after a nearby church at which you can see the outline of where a monastery stood from the seventh century.  It's the site where Saint Bede the Venerable spent much of his childhood.  Blob's person has looked round the church there a few times - it's full of interesting things and it's a good place to eat lunch.  Blob wants to visit it sometime and he also wants to visit the glass museum that's very close.  On this walk day he went into the glass museum but only to use the loo and didn't get a chance to look at all the glass or to see people making glass.  He wants to go back and Blob's person says that can happen.

Yes.  Plans change.  Blob's plans changed quickly that day.

Blob and his person got off the Metro and began their walk.  They would cross the river Wear at the Monkwearmouth Bridge near the Metro station and then follow the river to the coast before turning right when they reached the sea.  A good plan.  Blob's person was greatly looking forward to it.

But then the plan went completely wrong.  The two intrepid explorers began their epic hike across the river.  Oh no!  Their way was almost completely blocked.  There were a group of people crossing the bridge the other way and Blob didn't know how he would be able to pass them.  They were carrying a big banner too.  Who were these people?  Would they pose a significant threat to Blob?  Would they be evil and want to throw him from the bridge into the river?

Fortunately they were nice people.  Blob read their banner.  "Sunderland Walk For Sanctuary.  Refugee Week 2016."

Blob's person decided they might be friendly.  She stopped and said hello to one of them.  Then the did something very out of character.  She asked if she could walk with them to wherever they were going - or at least for a part of it.  Even though they were all total strangers.  Even though she finds social things very hard.  The people seemed a bit surprised by Blob's person's request but they said she was welcome to walk with them, that having another person would be good.

The walk was to be the total opposite to the one Blob was wanting to do that day.  Instead of walking to the sea and then turning and going south they would be walking on the other side of the river to the sea and then turning and going north.  The walk was from Sunderland to North Shields.  And it turned out to be a fantastic day and afterwards Blob was very very glad that they had done it.  He's already posted about refugee week and the good people he walked with that day.  Now he wants to post about the walk.

Blob was pleased.  A few weeks previously his person had gone out walking.  She had a very good day indeed walking from South Shields to Sunderland along the coast.  She's posted about that on her own blog.  But for Blob Thing it had been a less good day.  Blob's person had forgotten to take him with her.  And he was stuck at home instead of enjoying the world.  He doesn't mind being at home and he's got lots of friends there.  But if there's a chance to be out walking and adventuring then Blob would prefer to be doing that.

And now here was a surprise.  Blob would be walking the same walk or at least a very similar one.  But in the opposite direction.  He was so happy about that.  He'd missed out on something and was now going to experience it after all.  He smiled so widely that the stitches in his mouth almost fell off the side of his face.

The first part of the walk followed the River Wear to the sea.  It's an impressive river.  Blob has seen a lot of it.  He's now followed it on different days all the way from the sea to Durham and one day soon he wants to see some more of the river and walk from Durham to wherever he ends up.  He's quite excited about it.

The Wear near the sea was impressive.  Not only was there a glass centre but there were some very big boats to look at.  Blob's person says that the walk from the bridge to the sea includes the entire solar system.  It starts at the sun and includes all the planets and then ends up beyond them and looking into the darkness beyond.  She says that when he goes to the glass centre she'll show him all the planets and he can look at lots of sculptures too.  They had to walk quite quickly that day but next time they can relax and explore properly.  Blob is quite excited about that too.  He is amazed that he has so many things to explore and so much he hasn't seen.  He wants to see everything.  Everything.  And he's being quite adamant about that so it looks like Blob's person has a busy time ahead of her enabling Blob to see so much.

Here's Blob by the river, looking suitable awestruck by the water and impressed by the ship.

Where the river meets the sea there is a big harbour with massive harbour walls on each side.  Blob wants to walk along those too one day.  The one on the left of this picture is Roker Pier and it has a lighthouse at the end.  The other one was meant to have a lighthouse too but when the walls were being built they ran out of money.  Blob saw a programme recently about Roker Pier and what he would really like to do is go in the lighthouse and climb to the top.  And then he would like to climb down from the lighthouse and follow the special tunnel that runs inside the wall back to the shore.  That would be a very exciting thing.  He doesn't think it would ever happen because hardly anyone gets to do that.  But if the person in charge of Roker Pier ever reads this then Blob asks that you would consider allowing him to have a very special adventure.  Blob says that when he visits the glass centre he wants to walk along the pier too and will be careful not to fall into the sea or be swept away by a big wave.

Here's Blob with the two harbour walls behind him.

And then the longer part of the walk began.  Walking from the bridge to the sea hadn't taken too long.  But there were many miles ahead.  Finally Blob would be able to see things that he hadn't been able to see when he was forgotten.  And he would see them with a group of amazing people.  Some of them were refugees.  They had been through terrible things and were now trying to make a better life in the UK.  Some were people who work with refugees in different ways to help them.  Some were people who support refugees and the idea of cities of sanctuary.  And the organiser and leader or the walk was a Church of England minister for whom social action is a big part of his ministry.  Blob decided he was a very good minister to know.

Here's Blob sitting on the grass.  Behind him is the journey ahead.  He wants to tell you about the journey over the next few days and some exciting and unexpected adventures he had along the way.  He also wants to tell you about Winefride and the policemen and how they nearly got arrested.  [No, that's not true but Blob has a good imagination.]

And here's Blob with the pier behind him.  The first part of the walk was over and already it had been amazing.  One day Blob will walk it again and will spend the entire day just in that little walk section.  He wants to see the glass centre so much.  He wants to visit St. Peter's church.  He wants to explore the solar system and walk the pier and see all the sculptures and the marina and possibly have an ice cream by the sea.  One day.  And that day will be amazing.  The walk day was amazing too.  He can't wait to talk about it.

[1532 words]

Blob Thing Sings For Compassion And Says He is #WithRefugees

Content note: Blob expresses his strong opinions.

Blob was tired.  He had just walked from Sunderland to North Shields to support, in his own way, Sunderland Refugee Week.  He had a great time and was very pleased to have joined the walk.  He thought it was amazing.  If he and his person had made different choices they would have chosen a different day out and not met those people.  They had so nearly gone back to Chester-le-Street to walk down the river to Sunderland.  And if they had travelled on any other Metro that day they wouldn't have spotted the banner and the walkers just after getting off their train.  Their day had been very fortuitous.  It had been long too.  It's the longest walk Blob has done in his life.  So he was tired.

But the day wasn't over yet.  Blob and his person had plans.  They had heard that there would be a protest that evening.  At the protest there would be lots of singing led by the North East Socialist Singers.  Blob doesn't know if he's a socialist.  He doesn't know what a socialist is.  But the protest was for a cause that he immediately knew he could support.

The protest was by people who said that refugees are welcome here.  They would stand against racism and xenophobia and hatred.  They would stand for welcoming people with love and with warm hearts.  Blob Thing is a great believer in love and in having a warm heart.  Blob would gladly join these people and sing with them.

They sang for a long time, songs like:

Get Up, Stand Up

 Bread and Roses

We Shall Overcome

Solidarity Forever

Blob's person was very surprised to realise that she still knew most of the words to the first verse of Solidarity Forever even though she hadn't sung it in a lot of years.  She wanted to include that version of it because she had never heard it before.

Blob's person carried a placard throughout the event that she had been handed.  Afterwards she put it down with others and Blob asked for a photograph.

Four words:  Compassion, Decency, Humanity, Hope.

Just four words.  But four words that Blob Thing believes in.  Blob is happy to stand behind those four words and with people who are campaigning for those things.  And he too is #WithRefugees. 


Blob wasn't alone of course.  There were lots of people there.  And some of them were children.  Blob felt proud of them all, knowing that each of them had thought lots about issues of social justice and that they wanted to be lightbearers in a world where social justice doesn't always exist.

Inside the building an event hosted by UKIP was taking place.  Mr. Farage was speaking.  His event was called "We Want Our Country Back."  Blob thinks that Mr. Farage is being mean in trying to keep refugees out of Britain.  Blob thinks that Mr. Farage's "Breaking Point" poster was totally despicable and to defend something so closely mirroring Nazi propaganda, as Mr. Farage did, was not an action of someone who Blob would like to see having any position of power.

On the day that this is published Blob knows that people in the United Kingdom are having a vote.  Do they want to be part of the European Union?  Or do they want to leave?

Blob isn't a politician.  He isn't a member of any political group or of any campaigning group.

But he sees that one side of the argument has very often been an argument for xenophobia, an argument against those words on the placard his person had carried.  Blob looks at Mr. Farage and what he sees is campaigning without compassion for those who suffer most in the world.  He sees a complete lack of decency.  And he sees a man whose campaigning stands against the beauty that Blob sees in humanity.  Mr. Farage tries to sell hope.  But Blob sees a false hope arising from selfishness.

Blob thinks that too many of the British people have swallowed the ways of Mr. Farage, mirrored in much of the media.  Blob believes many people have been taught to fear, have been taught to want to exclude and cast out the suffering.

Blob thinks Farage and the other rich people campaigning alongside him, men with names like Johnson and Gove, might win today.  He thinks of

And Blob doesn't want to think about what the future might hold.  Blob is a little scared.  He hopes that the lightbearers can hold back the rise of hatred and exclusion that is happening.  But he sees the possibility that things will get a lot worse.

Stand with Blob Thing.  Be #WithRefugees.  Be #WithCompassion.  Be #WithHumanity.

Blob knows he's spoken strongly in this post and in the previous one.  He knows that some people won't want to know him any more.  But he doesn't care.  His person said to live daring to shock.  His person said to stand up and be himself even if some people don't like it.  And he is a brave little thing.  He's going to do it.

He does promise though that tomorrow his post will be back to normal.  In tomorrow's post, Blob will tell you about going to a cafe.  No politics.  No strong opinions about issues that are dividing the entire country and even the entire world.  Just a cafe and a cup of tea.




[893 words plus song titles]

Blob Thing Becomes An Activist And Says #RefugeesWelcome

On Monday Blob Thing and his person went walking again.  When they set out they didn't know where they would be walking.  They had three plans sorted.  They could walk from Chester-le-Street along the Weardale way to Sunderland.  They could walk from West Boldon along the River Don and then turn right and walk to the sea.  Or they could start Blob's person's walk from the Wear to the Tees.  They just didn't know.

They chatted about this on the Metro and decided that the last option was best for the day.  Blob's person's knee was not feeling good at all - every step had been painful when walking to the Metro - and that walk would never be too far from a bus stop.  So they got off the Metro at St. Peter's station.  That had been the end point of a walk Blob's person had done a while before, from the Tyne to the Wear.  They had been looking at pictures that morning and Blob said he wished he had been taken on that walk instead of being forgotten at home.  Blob's person was very apologetic about it.

Blob and his person set off.  They knew that they wouldn't reach anywhere near Hartlepool that day but they could make a good beginning.  A hundred metres into their walk they reached the Monkwearmouth Bridge which crosses the Wear in Sunderland.  And there their plans for the day changed.

They met some people crossing the bridge from the other direction.  They were carrying a banner.  A very good banner indeed.  A banner saying something that Blob and his person could both see merit in.  These were obviously good people, walking for a good cause.

Blob was planning on being at a rally supporting refugees that evening at an event where the nasty Mr. Farage was speaking.  He had just that day defended his own political party releasing a big poster that perfectly mirrored Nazi propaganda.  Just as the Nazi's were demonising Jews, Mr. Farage's poster was demonising refugees.

Now he and his person saw these people and asked if they could tag along and be part of the walk.  Happily, they could.  All the way from Sunderland to North Shields - the very walk Blob had missed out on but in reverse order.  He was so excited.  Not only was he going to walk the route (which he'll tell you about another time) but he was going to do it for a good cause.

He and his person talked with a lot of good people on the walk.  Some were there simply to support.  Some worked with refugees to help them here.  Some worked to take aid to refugees who otherwise would starve to death in camps abroad.  Some helped to run charities and projects that would aid refugee socially and practically in the local area.  Blob learned that one man there had been arrested six times for peaceful protests for good things like not having big weapons of mass destruction.  Blob thought that all these people were excellent.

Blob enjoys a rest during the walk.
















And he learned that some of those walking were refugees from different countries.  Some of them didn't even know if they would be allowed to remain in this country or if they would be sent away.  He knew that these people had fled from horrific circumstances.  Some had been through all kinds of hell in their own countries and in their journey to some kind of safety here.

Some of them were Muslims.  And some were Christians.  Blob Thing spotted long ago that people like Mr. Farage don't mention that there are Christian refugees.  He is part of the problem that includes people even worse than him demonising all people who follow Islam.  Blob doesn't think people like that are nice. But the refugees he was walking with all seemed friendly and he was glad to be among them.

He was absolutely amazed by the Muslims who were walking.  It was a long walk for everyone but the Muslims, as part of their faith, were celebrating Ramadan.  During Ramadan, among such things as increased giving to charity, Muslims fast from dawn until dusk.  The walk was taking place on the Summer Solstice and that meant for eighteen hours that day they were not permitted to eat or drink anything.  And yet they were walking too.  Blob thought this was wonderful.

At the end of the walk, everyone was greeted in a church in North Shields and they were all treated to a massive spread of food.  The Muslims were able to take away lots of food too so that they could feast on it when the sun went down.  Blob was very pleased that everyone's needs had been considered so carefully.

Blob and his person ate very well after the walk.










Blob had enjoyed a fantastic day with the group from Sunderland Refugee Week.  He's got lots to tell you about later - including posing with a human dragon, riding on a boat and becoming a lifeguard.  But today this is more important.  Much more important.

Today Blob just wants to say that he things refugees are welcome and that he is proud to be living in a city of sanctuary and to have been walking with people from another city of sanctuary.   Blob Thing is proud of each and every person who he met on the walk.  He's proud of the walkers.  And he's proud of the people who helped the walkers by providing food.  There are a lot of good people in this world.

The day was not over.  Blob Thing was tired.  But he still wanted to get to the rally and support good people there, standing up for something worthwhile.  He will tell you about that tomorrow.

The whole of this week is refugee week.  Across the country good things are happening. If you want to get involved with any of it, the main website is http://refugeeweek.org.uk/   Some of the local events are listed on the site and there are contact details for local people who would know more.

He started this blog just to share a photo a day and say where he had been.

But today he has a message.  Tomorrow he will have a message too.

Today Blob says, refugees are welcome here.





[1056 words]