Once again Liverpool has been transformed with what, on paper, sounds like a fairly old fashioned type of entertainment: giant puppets move through the city.

The skill of the Royal De Luxe takes that simple premise and executes it brilliantly, and the day of the Giants moving through the city to find each other is a story beautifully told.

As I missed the date for wishing the Western world Happy New Year it seems appropriate to instead welcome in the Chinese New Year.  Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of dragons to post, so here’s a picture of the only snow we’ve so far had here this winter.

I’m aware that it’s been a few months since I’ve posted here, my online activities died down quite a lot towards the end of last year as significant events in my personal life kept me very happy and very busy.  This is not a promise to become a daily updater but hopefully now I will update more frequently than once a quarter.

My postings on #altdevblogaday also reduced but my latest article, Learning from the past, has now been live a few days and seems to have been well received.  I’ve now re-posted it on my articles page here too, and Gamasutra also picked it up.

It’s November 5th today, a date that, to us Brits, means Gunpowder Plot.  Or Guy Fawkes, or simply bonfire night.  There are many names for it, but it means the same up and down the land – fireworks get set off, fires are lit, and toffee apples eaten.  As it falls on a Saturday this year it gives us the chance to celebrate it properly on the actual night, rather than the nearest Saturday as so often happens.

It’s a fun time to be about if you like fireworks, and what better way to kick off the darker nights than by lighting up the sky?

Yesterday we visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which is where this image was taken.  I went there last year and, while admiring of the place as a whole, found the experience slightly prickly.  I’m not sure if it’s me that’s changed in the past year, the park or just the temporary exhibitions, but yesterday was relaxing and felt far more welcoming than it felt previously.  It was also very busy, which was nice to see – for £5 car parking you get free entry for all which, given there’s several hours worth of things to see and walk around, is staggeringly good value – even when you add an additional donation on top.

If you get the chance, I highly recommend you pop along.