Nanna and Grandad

One Street: Market Square, Shipley #149

It's been a tough week. Key people in our small office have started heading off for various holidays, which has meant that I've had to get up to speed with various bits of software that I'm not so familiar with, making sure that I can sort out any problems that may possibly arise while they're away. I've had a lot of setting up to do on my new Window 8 system and that has been a nightmare. This version at least performs much better than Windows 7 but I've come across so many bugs already - not terminal problems but annoyances which lead to hours of hair-pulling and wasted time and energy. It's hard to believe that they actually do any testing at all with real users! I get so wound up. It does feel like I've been running up a hill all week, not in the mountains that I love but up a shifting pile of gravel - which is precisely what I photographed yesterday. That was very real, as was the sky, but I'll admit to just a little bit of photoshop trickery to put the blip together! Sometimes a picture can say so much more than words can.

I didn't have much time for a wander around Market Square today but in just a short period I bumped into all sorts of interesting people. The leg here belongs to Marie. I had to her ask about her tattoos, which cover a considerable portion of her body. Apart from those you can see here, the other leg is given over to a dedication to Daisy, her pet snake, now deceased. The most prominent ones, on her arms, tell a Winne The Pooh story. The one you can see in the portrait is given over to the lyrics of "A Rather Blustery Day". It's rather well done.

She told me that she used to self-harm and found that the tattoos provided an alternative means of release, a safer, more positive way of expressing herself - a much healthier form of identity. She had a lot of problems in the past but is now in a much better space. She's only just turned forty but has four young grandchildren with another due shortly! I think they are keeping her well occupied.