Come on you Hull

Giant's Causeway - my photo - note the lack of tourists. Just iconic polygons being lapped by the sea.


Great good is often born of one small act of kindness.


Yesterday was May 1st, the anniversary of daylight saving first being introduced in 1916, of the birth of Fats Waller in 1904 and the death of Barbara Cartland in 2000. But for me May 21st held another significance. It was my deadline for submitting my latest assignment as part of the creative writing course I am undertaking at Hull University.

The assignment was to write the first three chapters of a novel. I found it interesting because in my mind I have written the opening to a novel many times. Always looking for that killer paragraph that will want to make the reader to carry on and read the rest. This is what I decided upon:

As front doors go it’s nothing special. Even when it was fresh, the paint must have looked odd. A kind of off-red that owes its colour more to a dying and faded poppy, than to the freshness of a new bloom. I suppose the gloss must have been a job lot that the Council got cheaply somewhere. The fact that the door matches all the others in the row of houses at least diminishes its impact, if not its ugliness.

Well, I think we can be sure that I don't have a potential best-seller on my hands. Which brings me to a thought I have about any artistic endeavour - how do you know when it's finished? I could write and re-write my opening paragraph endlessly and never be happy with it. I bet if Vincent Van Gough was to see one of his paintings of sunflowers (he painted three) hanging in the National Gallery in London I bet he would feel the need to touch it up here and there.

I don't think you can ever be truely happy with an artistic creation, there will always be room for improvement. Which is why when I write anything I subscribe to the same philosophy as I do when I'm cleaning my house i.e. 'Sod it, that'll do!'

Thus it is that I have submitted a piece of work to those fine academics at Hull University (they might be reading this, so it's best to flatter them) knowing that it is less than perfect. Do I care? Not a jot. I'm just very pleased that I met the deadline and at long last my university year is over. I have that school holiday feeling as seemingly endless hot and lazy summer days are beckoning me. Well, if nothing else I should be able to spend more time on this blog and give you, my dear reader, the love and attention you deserve.

My visit to Northern Ireland was a roaring success. The weather as kinder than I thought and as far as I can remember with my Guinness damaged brain cells, I didn't feel the need to assert my masculinity and heterosexuality once. I must be improving with age.

Thanks must go to my dear friend Peter who is by far the most outgoing of the two of us and thus manages to elicit useful information from anyone within earshot. If I travel anywhere I research via the internet or the appropriate 'Rough Guide'.' Peter actually talks to people and they pass on useful local knowledge. Amazing.

As I mentioned in my last blog the main purpose of the visit was to visit the Giant's Causeway. My first sight of this geological wonder was from the cliffs that overlook it and I uttered those immortal words - 'Is that it?' From up on high it did seem to be a bit small. But once I was up close and personal it did take on a much more satisfying grandeur. I realise now that any photo I have ever seen of the Giant's Causeway does not feature tourists clambering all over it, so it is hard to get any sense of scale. So it wasn't the towering colossus I had imagined, but impressive nonetheless and the feature itself covers quite a bit of coastline, not just the iconic polygons being lapped by the sea that photographers find so alluring.

That was last weekend, but as I write this a whole new weekend stretches before me. And jolly exciting I expect it to be too. I will be getting up early in the morning to catch the first train from Hull to London, where I will be spending the day. Once at King's Cross I will be heading east towards the docklands and then Greenwich. This is such a lovely and interesting part of London that I know that I will easily pass the entire day there.

But the really exciting part of the weekend comes on Sunday afternoon, when the final matches of the season in the Premier League are played. My team is Hull City and they are teetering on the brink of relegation back to the Championship, depending how they and other teams do. To make matters worse they are playing the newly crowned Premier League Champions, Manchester United, so a crushing victory looks unlikely for Hull.

If Hull do go down then so be it. I've thoroughly enjoyed this season and seeing my club play in possibly the best football league in the world has been amazing. But it would be very nice to do it all again next year so I wonder if you could help me and Hull City out? All you need to do at 4.00pm on Sunday is chant 'Come on you Hull' for about 90 minutes (take a 15 minute break in the middle) and I'm sure that will do the trick. Remember though, that's 4.00 pm British Summer Time, because we've been messing with the clocks since 1916.

Sod it. That'll do.

Live long and prosper.