I’ve had a very busy week! On Tuesday I drove to Bedford, where I lived as a teenager. It was very strange, driving and walking around revisiting haunts and memories!

When I lived there it had the reputation of having the most number of native languages spoken in one town than any other in the country. It had large Irish, Italian, Bengali Polish and West Indian populations living alongside a very old-fashioned community of those who had retired and returned from running the Empire. I realised that I was quite an adventurous teenager. I walked and cycled almost the whole of the town and went to parts that my contemporaries probably still don’t know exist! Delivering the Christmas Post took me to one or two scary places, but it probably made me brave enough to explore further. I had friends who lived, literally, on the other side of the railway tracks. My school friends would never think to go there, but that was where I first heard real reggae being played. I even tried to play with a reggae band, (before The Police ever thought of it). A bit too ahead of my times!

Anyway, I spent Wednesday with Livingstone Lower School, right in the middle of Bedford. I don’t suppose you could get a school that represents the Bedford Community if you tried. I had a lovely time telling stories and showing the children how to draw my characters.

We had an inspirational moment with Reception. Time was running out and it would have taken too long to sort out paper and pencil for each child, but they had laminate boards and dry wipe pens at hand. I showed them how to draw a running cat. This involves a lot of construction which I normally do pressing lightly. But with dry wipe, we could do the construction shapes and then easily wipe out the bits we didn’t want. Terrific! Shame they couldn’t keep the drawings and take them home, but I quickly took some pics below, some of which are a bit blurry.

Great drawings Reception and a great day all together. Thanks everyone.