1) I saw A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Bolton Octagon. Not the best version I have seen, but the first professional play I have seen with disabled actors honestly integrated into the cast, putting their abilities and disabilities up front for all to see. Actually they were not disabled; they were just actors.
2) Paul and I went for a walk on a canal tow-path in Burnley. We saw a sunk narrow boat. It had only recently gone down. Maybe the ice got it? There were a pair of flip-flops on the roof, as if someone had left them out before going to bed. There was a mat hanging to dry on the tiller-arm.
3) Driving home from the canal, we drove through some of the back-streets of Burnley. Rows of terraced houses, largely occupied by Asian families - maybe from Pakistan or Bangladesh. As we looked down one street we could see black smoke pouring out of a front door. Paul slammed the brakes on. I ran up the street. Someone was just phoning the fire-brigade on his mobile. I ran to hammer on the doors of the houses on either side of the one on fire. No-one came out. But other neighbours started to come out, and some moved their cars. Two fire-engines turned up within 5 minutes. The smoke had changed from black to white, and was now billowing out of the door and the two front windows. Some of the windows popped out with the heat and flames, and we could hear explosions inside. As far as we now no-one was in the house.
Paul and I left as they were getting the water hoses laid out. There were crowds of people, Asian and white, concerned and rousing people from the other houses on the street.
I've never seen a house on fire, except on TV. The houses are crammed so close together, they face each other with only a few yards between. The whole community is so vulnerable to a fire in one house. I used to live in a house like that, as a child, and I loved being so close to everyone.
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