Week 75: Sally

My name is Sally and I live in Horsforth, with my boyfriend Todd. I came to Leeds for University 6 years ago, fell in love with the city and never left. We used to live in Headingley (I still miss it) but have been in Horsforth for nearly a year now, and I still don't think I know the area that well, so this week will give me an opportunity to explore it more! 

I work at the University of Leeds, as a Specialist Mentor for students with disabilities. My area of interest is with Autism and communication difficulties, so I'd love to hear what's going on in Leeds, in terms of support and social groups, and also with the Autism Strategy.

I sew in my spare time and catalogue my disasters on my blog, in the hope of encouraging other hapless folks to give it a go. I'd love to hear about other people's crafting disasters and share some of my own.

My boyfriend Todd is a web developer and self confessed geek, so I can often be found accompanying him to 'geek' events in bars across Leeds, seeking out new craft beers to try.

I will be leaving Leeds in September (sob) so my main aim of this week is to create a bucket list of things I have to do before I leave. All suggestions are welcome and as I try new things and go new places, I'll tell you what I think.

Week 74: Vicky

Hello, I am Vicky and live in West Park or Far Headingley, I have never been sure which!  I came to Leeds over two years ago, after living in Brighton and London.  However I originate from a small town called Thorne in South Yorkshire.  

 

I am a blogger for Leeds Wellbeing Web, which is a blog with the aims of helping people to keep well in Leeds, with information on events, courses, cheap things to do along with personal reflections and stories.

As well as blogging I also walk dogs, little ones.  I walk five Chihuahuas and a Bichon Frise called Dino.  I have been known to get tangled up in Leads or perhaps I should say Leeds, metaphorically speaking. 

I think Leeds is on the whole a good city, there is plenty to do - I love the quirky small cinemas we have - Hyde Park and Cottage Road.  

I also enjoy the green spaces in and around Leeds and the nearby towns which are easily accessible to visit - but also sometimes need the stimulation of the city. Yes, I enjoy variety.  After living in London for such a long time, I really appreciate being in a smaller city where I can bump into people and get to know them.

I have been dabbling with my creative side since being in Leeds and have even made my own film which is called the Present,  it’s about a 30something woman with a busy life who is suffering from stress, with an emphasis on Mindfulness.  This was shown as part of ‘FIlm to Change,’ in last years Film Festival.

It sounds like a cliché but I feel passionate about the world becoming a better place,  a more ‘human friendly‘ experience   - or at least I think about this a lot!  

I hope this week to Tweet from out in the nearby countryside, from some nice coffee shops in the city and also from some interesting community settings. I am trying to get a little/lot fitter, and so may try some beginners running, get my rusty bike out or go to a yoga class - this weeks tweeting may give me the push to do it!  

This week coincides with the Mental Health: Social Media Recovery week and so my tweets may have a well being theme at times. 

Oh, I forgot to put my age - never mind :)

Week 73: Alan

I live in Collingham having moved up from the Cotswolds 8 years ago.

I'm married with three grown up children, two living in Yorkshire.

I own with my eldest daughter Bottle Alley Glass which recycles glass bottles and fuses them for fabrication into kitchen & bathroom worktops, wall and floor tiles and lighting panels. The business based at Thorp Arch Estate supports local social enterprises that collect & clean recycled glass bottles.

I play golf at Scarcroft Golf Club and enjoy rambling and drinking real ale.

My youngest daughter has PWS, so I raise funds and awareness of Prader-Willi Syndrome whenever I can. I organise the Collingham Real Ale Festival annually for charity PWSA UK

Week 72: David

My name is David and I'm a 42 year old television scriptwriter living in Chapel Allerton. I've lived in Leeds for 18 years and Chapel Allerton for all of those 18 years. My wife works for an independent television drama company in Manchester and we have two kids, 8 and 5. I have a strong, complicated relationship with Leeds, a city that I love very, very dearly, but that also frustrates the living hell out of me, and I'll certainly be using this week to explore both those sides of that relationship! I'll also give a flavour of what my job entails, and the particular challenges of forging a career away from London of such a London-centric industry. I'm also a mad keen runner (and member of Chapel Allerton Running Club) and a music obsessive, so I suspect both of those will feature heavily too. Looking forward to it!

Week 71: Mark

Hi everyone. My name is Mark and it's a pure delight to be your person of Leeds for this week. Now although I was actually born, bred and live in Leeds's sister city of Bradford I have a lot of connections with this great city.

Firstly my wife is originally from Leeds and lived there all her life before I snatched her away to live with me and secondly I work every week day in the city centre. I work for a lovely charity in the heart of Leeds called StepChange, we provided fee help and advice to people who are struggling with debt problems. They are a major employer for the city and the Leeds office has over 600 people in it and they are all awesome. I do give debt advise as part of my job so I help people each and every day which is very uplifting. I do work nights and Saturday's those so my tweet might be at slightly strange times.

Of course getting to work involves public transport and I have to get a bus everyday to get me to and from work which takes me near or through Kirkstall, Bramley, Rodley and Caverley everyday.

I am a bit of a geek and enjoy videogames, comic books and strange films. What I adore though is anything to do with horror and especially zombies. In fact I will have attended the 6th Leeds Zombie Film Festival in April having attended the previous 5 so expect that to come up during my stint as well.

I have no specific plans with my week as Person of Leeds but I will try my best to make it as entertaining and engaging as possible.

I hope you all enjoy my ramblings and I look forward to talking to you all!

Week 70: Mel

My name is Mel (male not female). I've lived and worked in leeds most of my life (although I was born in Cyprus). 

I started my working career at La-Tasca  in Leeds, then after many other jobs, I ended up working at The Leeds Dental Institute. In 2010, I started a diploma in adult nursing alt the Leeds General Infirmary, and qualify next year.. YIKES!!!!

On a personal level, I really enjoy going out in Leeds for drinks and food. I present my own radio show at the hospital radio (@cityspundlgi) in leeds. I have been working at real radio too.. I love running. My first race was the Leeds 10k back in 2011, where I came 12th out of 9,000. Since then, I have completed the leeds half marathon and the great north run (I came 764th out of 55,000 there). Just recently started learning karate!!

A weird 'quirky' thing about me... I'm petrified of frogs! - don't ask!!

Week 69: Neil

Hello there.  I'm Neil and I actually don't live in Leeds as I'm currently traitorously living in East Ardsley, Wakefield.  I was born in Dewsbury but soon moved to Kippax where I lived until I was 25, when I moved to Rothwell.  The birth of my first child, Lily, 6 months ago meant us moving to a bigger house.  Lily tends just to sit around and doesn't seem to contribute anything useful to the household.  I'm in the process of trying to work out what good children are if they are not going to lend a hand to my daily life.  I suspect she's extremely lazy.

I'm a primary school teacher at a brilliant school in Belle Isle and have worked with children for most of my adult life as I'm a glutton for punishment.

Outside of work I run a theatre company called Bite Thumb Productions.  We perform regularly at The Carriageworks theatre and have managed to build a small but solid reputation for the last 9 years within Leeds.  We have managed to build a massive deity-like reputation within my own head.  Our next show Up 'n Under 2 will be on next week (17th & 18th).  I'll probably inform you as to how that's going in a thinly veiled attempts at self promotion.

I'll be tweeting about all kinds of nonsense from very subtle plugs for our show, to nauseatingly sweet pictures of my daughter and hopefully some words of wisdom from my pupils at school who feel they have much valuable wisdom to impart to you all.  It'll probably be something to do with Gangnam Style, that's all they seem to witter about from the beginning of the school day till hometime.

Most tweets will probably be misanthropic and self deprecating.  I'm extremely good at waffling in a manner that suggests I know what I'm talking about.

My personal Twitter account is actually my theatre companies so I limit tweet content to discussion/pappy guff about the arts.  It'll be interesting this week to tweet about all the other random drivel that pops into my head.  May I apologise sincerely to you all now.