I had no idea there even existed a Leigh Rugby Union Club until last weekend. In fact, I’m still not sure it exists (a rugby union club in Wigan Borough?) and I was actually there, for their Victorian Day fayre, no less.

It was a less corporate affair than its heavily hyped commercial cousin the WOW Fest, but was nonetheless fun in its own way. In fact, it was more my type of festival with a more homely, village type feel about the day.

Enough of that for now, because I plan to do a ‘proper’ post summing up my own experiences of the two afternoons. That shall be syndicated in the Wigan Heritage Services Volunteer Newsletter, which I am currently drafting designs for. Cool, eh? Well, not really, but it is quite fun.

Obligatory pants photography ahoy! Click to view full size.

Mayor Michael Winstanley and Mayoress Judith Atherton kick off proceedings

I ate this whole within the first hour

It wasn't all sunshine, but at least this was only a brief shower

Morris dancers

Genuine Victorian music machine

There are loads more pics over at Leigh Life, so check ‘em out if you feel so inclined. And don’t forget to check back here soon for that article I promised you. Until then, bon appetit.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of distributing leaflets at the WOW Festival, Wigan’s annual event celebrating cultural diversity in the borough. During my breaks, I got the chance to have a bit of a wander round the site,  sample the fantastic (cough) on-site catering grab a few shots of the acts performing on the main stage.

Now I’ve said that I suppose I’d better show you some of them, eh?

That’s Hazara Singh, member of the Asian Music Talent group. Didn’t have time to stick around and enjoy their set as there was so much other stuff elsewhere in the park I wanted to check out.

A bit later in the afternoon, Heritage Survival graced the stage with their African reggae/jazz beats.

Originally from Zimbabwe, Heritage Survival are now based in Wigan. At the time of writing, they’re currently touring the UK, so check them out if you get the chance.

I did actually get a few more photos which you may see at some point in the future. They’re not that good, though. In the meantime, check out the high res versions of the pics in this post by visiting the Illarterate Flickr channel.

You know what? I forgot all about this thing, so it came as a pleasant surprise when I encountered it once again this afternoon. As with most of my stuff, there’s quite a few bugs in there, though these are by human error rather than design.

I thoroughly recommend Whiteboard Pong, though the Snake game is always worth a go… if you can stand the Roobarb and Custard Style wobbly lines!

Click here for endless hours of fun!

Or here to download the Office Pong game

Looks like a few others agree with me, though I have no idea why.

• Zoomdoggle
• YepYep
• And, of course, Illarterate the blog. Heheh.
  

Definitely works in Explorer, though I can’t get seem to get it to work in Firefox. Maybe that’s why I never publicised it at the time.

Ian Miller, guide for the day.

It being my day off, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a very special ‘Meet the Archaeologist’ event yesterday at the Museum of Wigan Life. Ian Miller, head of the recent digs in Wigan town centre, was on hand to discuss his findings and also to plug his new book, which it turns out is so new it hasn’t even been published yet. You know, because of the recession and all. Even I’ve had to stop throwing pennies into the wishing well in Mesnes Park (and don’t give me that ‘it’s just a pond’ nonsense).

The most interesting part, for me, was a brief walk round the excavation sites, now occupied by the Grand Arcade and renovation work for the Wigan Life Centre on Library Street. Forget for a moment that you’re in 2010 and stand at the top of the hill, just by the side of the Moon Under the Water public house. Imagine you’re looking towards Scholes and the old gasworks in the second century AD, and it’s easy to see why the Romans would have once erected fortifications in that very spot.

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