Well, a lot of things have happened. On Wednesday I travelled (with staff and patients) by train to Manchester to attend the Hearing Voice’s Network AGM. We stayed overnight in a Travelodge near the city centre. The next day, Thursday, saw the AGM. There were some workshops in the morning and afternoon.

In the morning, the choice was between a) the healing powers of crystals and b) setting up Hearing Voices (HV) groups. I went to the HV setting up workshop where we discussed the the charter to be applied to HV affiliated groups. Too much like lawyer work for my liking.

Breakfast wasn’t provided by the hotel so we had a cheap breakfast for £1.75 in Littlewoods.

The lunch was nice. There was a lunch time workshop which discussed the pros and cons of coming off medictation. There was widespread feeling that you should do it slowly and under medical supervision.

In the afternoon we had more workshops and I went to the “Away with the fairies” work group. It discussed the role of myths and legends in psychosis. We talked about Shakespeare (Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Marlowe (Dr Faustus).

After the afternoon we bought some provisions for the train and headed back to Morpeth, arriving late at night in Newcastle train station. A car gave us a lift from Newcastle station.

On Saturday I went to Edinburgh with a friend and bought 4 T-shirts – 2 the right size (XL) and 2 the wrong size (S) so I need to swap them with a friend. The ok T-shirts were “FBI : Female Body Inspector” (Wishful thinking) and “I hear voices and THEY don’t like you”. The too small T-shirts were “Rehab is for quitters” and “You’re just jealous ‘cause the little voices are talking to me”.