Hidden library

November trip - backblip 2

In to Leeds with Lu and Jake to look round the Leeds Library - founded 250 years ago, it's the oldest membership library in the country, and a peaceful haven amid the hubbub of the busy city centre. It's an open day, and a chance to look round parts of the library that have never before been accessible to members of the public. A real hidden treasure; though I've been to Leeds many times, I didn't know it existed. (It's a surprisingly modest fee to join the library; if we still lived in the area I could be tempted... .)

After that, we met Tom for a drink and lunch at Veritas. Opposite the old Leeds General Infirmary, it's very pleasant and relatively quiet compared with the full-to-overflowing, noisy establishments in the centre. And the food's good!  After lunch, to Leeds City Hall, for a strange performance of an 'animal trial'. Not much idea what it was all about, but it was a good opportunity to look at the court and the rest of the building! Just time to look round the Christmas market before Tom had to leave us to catch his train to work at a theatre in Batley. Very good to see him, if only for a short while. Soon afterwards Lu, Jake and I headed for the station to travel to Mirfield for a ceilidh - a fund-raiser for a print workshop, and great fun! Jake's first ceilidh - he's a natural! Lovely to catch up with Ron D, an old friend who happened to be calling the dances.

There was a while to wait for the last train to Leeds, so we sat in the pub next to the station until it was due. It was late and, when it arrived, full of Saturday-night inebriation, and we were all glad when it eventually pulled in to Leeds well after midnight. (It's hard work keeping up with thirty-somethings!)