[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-space-hop-to-leicester":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Whoo hoo! Here's me pretending to drive Eric, one of the two Leicester library buses. Librarian storyteller \u003Cb>Ian Burley\u003C/b> and I set up shop in sunny Abbey Park and had a blast drawing aliens with all the little astronauts we encountered on our voyage. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_lib_bus-78c34c343f.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThanks to all three libraries - St Barnabus, Beaumont Leys and Evington - who invited me to do Summer Reading Challenge \u003Ca href=\"http://www.spacehop.org.uk/\">Space Hop\u003C/a> events. Here's the fab St Barnabus staff, including the lovely and mind-blowingly multi-lingual storyteller \u003Cb>Jyoti Shanghavi\u003C/b> (in green), whom I \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/282517.html\">met on my last visit\u003C/a>:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_stbarnabas-d1761aeeb9.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI stayed with comics buddies \u003Cb>Selina Lock\u003C/b> (\u003Ca href=\"http://girlycomic.livejournal.com/\" class=\"lj-user\">girlycomic\u003C/a>) and \u003Cb>Jay Eales\u003C/b>, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.factorfictionpress.co.uk/\">Factor Fiction\u003C/a> publishers and two of the organisers of Oxford's annual \u003Ca href=\"http://caption.org/\">Caption comics festival\u003C/a>, happening in less than two weeks! (It's Sat, 31 July - Sun, 1 August.) \\r\n\\r\nOn my last visit they'd mentioned the collection of amazing curry houses on \u003Cb>Belgrave Road\u003C/b>, so this time I took them up on it and we went to \u003Ca href=\"http://www.eatatbobbys.com/\">Bobby's Indian Vegetarian Restaurant\u003C/a>. And whoa... Let me tell you, it was \u003Cb>THE BEST INDIAN MEAL I've ever eaten in Britain!\u003C/b> And that's saying a lot! I was in total heaven. The Gujarati sauces were perfect, even the fiercest carnivore would never have missed the meat, the spices were just too good. At the end, I asked the owner, \u003Cb>Mr Lakhani\u003C/b>, for a business card to take away and he generously loaded us up with a box of complementary Indian sweets. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/bobbyleicester1-30b4d8abf2.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI love Bobby's! I would go to Leicester just to eat there. \\r\n\u003C!--more More photos under the cut-->\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/bobbysleicester2-7af4cd7400.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nUnfortunately, I didn't manage to get a photo of the gang at Beaumont Leys, but here's the fab crew at Evington Library (I mostly focused on \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/new/princess.html\">\u003Ci>You Can't Eat a Princess!\u003C/i>\u003C/a> because of the space theme, but they also got to see \u003Ca hrf=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/new/morris2.html\">\u003Ci>Morris the Mankiest Monster\u003C/i>\u003C/a> and take sneak peeks at \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/new/vernlettuce-book.html\">\u003Ci>Vern and Lettuce\u003C/i>\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/new/titus.html\">\u003Ci>When Titus Took the Train\u003C/i>\u003C/a>:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_evington-fe4a3426a2.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd one of the hundreds of aliens drawn in the last two days:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_alien1-b5a0e436a7.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nOne more pic with the library bus, with Ian and \u003Cb>Darren\u003C/b> (the real driver of the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/education-lifelong-learning/leicesterlibraries-home-page/young-people/bookbus/\">Book Bus\u003C/a>):\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_lib_bus2-3236903f94.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThanks to Selena (pictured) and Jay for keeping me, and wonderfully organised Space Hop co-ordinator \u003Cb>Sandy Gibbons\u003C/b> (on the right), you guys rock! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/sarahselinasandy-020eca80c0.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSpeaking of space stuff, have you seen \u003Cb>Darryl Cunningham\u003C/b>'s latest comic, \u003Ca href=\"http://tallguywrites.livejournal.com/150813.html\">\u003Ci>The Moon Hoax\u003C/i>\u003C/a>? Go read it!","2010-07-21T20:51:00.000Z","space-hop-to-leicester",[],"space hop to leicester!",1776628718465]