The Adam Smith Experience

This is within 5 mins walk of the station. Butchers Works was a 19th factory set up which has been recently restored and now looks like the set from a Hollywood adaptation of North&South.

Butchers Works is actually owned and run by the Academy of Makers and Freeman College, which is next door. These guys give kids with autism a chance to learn steelwork, arts and crafts skills, which means all the money spent onsite goes to a good cause.

There’s an amazing cafe called Fusion (where you can consume the nicest quiche in Sheffield) http://academyofmakers.co.uk/fusion-cafe.html which is also very trendy.

There’s a Pewter Gallery displaying things that the students next door have made, and there’s an artists workshop, which the public are welcome to drop into and see what’s happening that day.

It’s also within easy walking distance of the Sheffield Tap (which has the city’s most comprehensive beer selection), the Rutland Arms (another nice pub, owned by the same people who run the Wig&Pen, which I think is one of Sheffield’s nicest bars) and of course Showroom Cinema. So you could easily start with Butchers Works complex, get lunch in Fusion, his the Cinema for some Art House fun before finishing up in a nice pub with a decent drink.

Alternatively, if you leave Buthchers Works and go in the other direction you’re straight into the Millenium Galleries, and I heartily recommend the Ruskin Gallery, which is the last gallery on the left before stepping out into the Winter Gardens. John Ruskin originally built his Museum in Walkely because he believed that the working men and women of Sheffield deserved to have access to artistic and cultural material. However, the museum was eventually closed and knocked down, but the collection survived and Sheffield Museum’s have tried to reconstruct it and stay true to its essense. Obviously, opposite the Millenium Galleries you’ve also got the Grave Galleries up above Central Library. They usually have some good stuff, and a lovely little cafe.

This one I only recently discovered myself when I went along to the Kelham Island Victorian Christmas Market. I’d heard all about it but didn’t think it’d be all that. But then it was.

The Museum is situated amidst many C19th factories and mills, and is itself a converted factory complex. It’s like going back in time. The museum is huge, with three floors and many sections (one of which is a recreation of a Victorian street, which is surprisingly effective). There are also huge turbines and engines and pieces of machinery which they turn on every 15mins or so. Quite exciting.

Immediately next door to the museum is the Kelham Island Brewery, which is like Cadbury’s Land for Ale drinkers. Again, they have little bit of a museum, a bar, a nice shop (and legend has it, the best pork pies in Sheffield)- http://www.kelhambrewery.co.uk/

Around the corner you’ll find the Fat Cat, which I’m sure you must have frequented at some point. If not, the Fat Cat is the sister pub to the Dev Cat on Devonshire Green. It’s enormously popular and has a massive range of ales and largers. A little further down the road you’ll also find ‘The Grind’, which is a new very yuppie-ish but not unpleasant cafe/bistro.

You can take a turn around the gardens, swing by the bear bit, take a stroll in the greenhouse and maybe have a drink in their (fully licensed!) tea rooms. They’re really good for crumpet, actually.

If I take people to the Botanical Gardens I usually then cut up Westbourne Road and come out in Broomhill, where you can get a really nice lunch in The Thyme Cafe (which is a small restaurant, despite the title. Trivia: It’s twinned with the Spice Market Cafe on Ecclestal Road, where Hugh Escott used to be restaurant manager), or in El Toro (home to the best cupcakes in Sheffield), or even The York (which is owned by the same people who run The Old House). It’s also very easy to get drunk in Broomhill, with the York, the Tavern, the Plaice, Nottingham House, the Fox and Duck…

May 26

Mar 27

I’m running for Cancer Research UK. Cancer Research UK change lives everyday. If you’d like to change a life (or at the very least change mine by making me very happy), then visit my fundraiser page today.

The morning of the rehearsal. So much planning and effort had gone into getting James and I in the same place at the same time to do this. Midway between the point we enrolled and I started my training and the race itself (looming ominously in May, getting closer all of the time). The same distance we’d be doing on the day. Preferably in under an hour.

For me, having only just managed my first 8K in the previous 48 hours, this was daunting. I didn’t know where we’d be running, which meant that mentally I’d be struggling to gauge how much further we still had do go, and I didn’t know about James’s usual pace. What if I coudn’t keep up?

But this was no time for fear. We kitted up, and warmed up- James trying to disuade me from sporting my England Rugby top since we were in Wales during the final weekend of the six nations, with every Welsh born man and woman in a 100 mile radius praying that England would suffer a stupendous defeat to Ireland later that day- loosing them the grand slam and offering Wales the chance to beat France and win the tournement. (As it happened, England were beaten by Ireland and lost the grand slam, but then Wales were also beaten by France which meant England still won tournement. Ha! Unlucky Wales.)

I wore the rugby top anyway. Not because I’m particularly stubborn or nationalistic, but because I find it inspirational. To think that those men out there, who have to rely on their brain and braun equally under immense pressure, have no choice but to complete the 80mins of the game. If it’s going well or going bad at 20mins, they still have to carry on for another 60. That’s how I felt. No matter what happened, in about an hour after we left the flat, we would have ran 10K. If I slipped, tripped or vomited at any point, I would be back here in an hour. No matter what.

This was going to be fine. Then, the first 2K were all up hill. This seemed fine. The pace was maybe slightly quicker than I was used to but it all seemed ok for now. At the top of the hill we’ve already been going for a quarter of an hour, and now we’re running through a playing field. I’m impressed to see Rugby goal posts instead of the usual soccer ones you find in England. I’m liking the emphasis on the game here in Wales. I’m also pleased to note that I haven’t had so much as a funny look for wearing my England jersey.

Next, we’re crossing two public parks, and I’m encouraged to note how many runners are out. James tells me it’s because it’s perfect running weather. Personally I think it’s a bit hot. Sweat is dripping over my eyes. I must get a hair cut before the big race. Every path we seem to meet another runner, all jogging with their headphones and lycra- and to think I was embarrased just to be wearing shorts!

We’ve passed half way. I joke that James doesn’t look like he’s even started yet, and he returns the complement. Although I’m starting to feel it now. The stitch is there, clawing at my abdomen, and I’d kill for a drink. Why didn’t I drink more before we set off? Why didn’t I bring a drink? I should seriously start considering taking a bottle of water in future.

I’m not particularly out of breath as we apporach the final quarter, but something isn’t right. I feel empty, like I’ve been hollowed out, and the hollow is filled only by a screaming sensation. I’m not screaming, but something is. Screaming from deep inside. Screaming for me to stop. But I won’t. I’ve come along way for this. It’s nothing, barely more than the run I’d done two days earlier.

I can hear James encouraging me. Dammit, why does he seem so OK? He looks like he could happily do it all again. He’s asking me if I mind picking up the pace, just for the final sprint down Newport Road. I’m not sure that’s a good idea… but how much worse can it get? I’m feeling Hell’s torment as it is. Is it likely I’ll actually collapse? I don’t think so, 10K is nothing. Those guys I was talking too yesterday regularly ran 13miles as a warm up. Human bodies must be capable of more than this. What the heck. I nod. OK. Let’s pick up the pace.

We make the turn onto Newport road and he’s away! Where did he get that from? I try to speed up, longer strides, tearing down the pavement. I’m at his heels for a moment but then something goes. It’s too much. I sucumb, momentarily, to the screaming.

‘Come on!’ James calls back encouraging, but when he looks over his shoulder he grinds to a halut, his cheeky grin now overwhelmed with concern. Christ, it must be bad.

He’s at my side, joining me at my canter-like pace, patting me on the shoulder and reassuring me that it’s ok. We’ve done well. More than anything I feel bad for holding him back, he was doing amazing. But this isn’t over. Already I can feel the recovery taking place. The emptiness is filling itself. The scream became a sigh of relief, and now it’s a cry of encouragement! I will carry on.

I’m running again- we’re running! I can tell James is hesitant to go too quick, but at least we’re still going together. As we enter the estate and begin the final approach to James’s flat - the finish line- I can barely bring myself to imagine it being over. But we’re there now! It is over! 10K! We did it!

Mar 17

It’s all happening over at my running blog for the time being… Visit now to see how the training is taking on existentially epic proportions (and all for a good cause)!

Feb 27

In May I’ll be running the Bupa Manchester 10K Run to raise money for Cancer Research- follow this link and follow my running blog!

Jun 29

A new version of my short story, Charlotte, recently published in Horror Bound Magazine made a second revamped appearance in Route 57 this month: The Unviersity of Sheffield’s well respected creative writing magazine.

I recently discovered that this article, about me (!), was published in the University of Sheffield ‘Crucible’ magazine- a quarterly publication charting the University’s dedication to ‘nquiry Based Learning’

May 13

My first horror/slip-stream short story, ‘Charlotte’, has now been published in ‘Horror Bound Online’, an American horror writing webzine.