My Productive Life: John Rylands Elizabeth Gaskell Exhibition & Creative Tourist Writing Workshop

Having six weeks off is excellent and I'm not complaining, I'm really not. But. The problem with having six weeks off is that after it has whizzed by in a matter of seconds, people WILL keep asking what exactly you got up to in all that time off work; surely you must have achieved quite a number of worthwhile things? Going back to work is even worse, as you discover that your colleagues have apparently back-packed round Ecuador, written a best-selling novel, climbed a selection of very tall mountains, and founded several orphanages. And what have I done? Well, I, er, read some books, and went to the sea-side, and, erm, drank a lot of wine and watched lots of cricket on TV.

So this year is going to be different: I too am going to return to work having DONE STUFF. The good work began yesterday, with a visit to John Rylands Library on Deansgate to see the current exhibition in honour of Manchester-based novelist Elizabeth Gaskell. To be honest, it was a teensy bit disappointing: a small room which very quickly became crowded with ladies of a certain age talking loudly about how much they'd enjoyed watching Cranford on TV. No doubt this is entirely fitting for a popular novelist whose stories were often serialised for mass consumption, but still; if I was a writer of note who happened to have been born exactly 200 years ago, I would hope for a little more than a few letters on display in glass cases. The library itself is beautiful though, so you should go anyway.

Today I have also been gainfully occupied, on a writing workshop held by the marvellous people at Creative Tourist, an online arts magazine that everyone in Manchester (and beyond) should read. It's always a little scary to meet people in the flesh when you have previously only conversed via Twitter, but everyone was shiny and beautiful, and even looked a tiny bit like their avatars. Thanks to Kate, Susie and Shan for a great course; see how I have been inspired to write something already (please ignore the fact it's the same old stuff.)

Tomorrow, however, culture looks a little thin on the ground. I have created a monstrous husband (in my own image) who expects to celebrate his (non-milestone) birthday for the entire weekend, beginning tomorrow. So, I went to an exhibition, a writing workshop and I, er, drank wine...

- Elizabeth Gaskell: A Connected Life is on at John Rylands Library until 28 November 2010; full details at www.library.manchester.ac.uk/specialcollections/exhibitions

- Creative Tourist can be found at www.creativetourist.com; go and see them now.