Ferry memorabilia alert! 🚢📢 Say hello to Sammy Sealink! I got this mug on a 1991 school trip to Normandy sailing from Newhaven to Dieppe. Thank you to Lizzie for finding it during a clear out of our parents' kitchen. Happy to be reunited with it. Does anyone else have a similar mug?

Nice - JADE and Knats with nominations for the Mercury - fantastic news for Tyneside once again.

Part four of the unlikely ports series and we are now in England. This small Cumbrian port turned Victorian seaside resort is shaped by deep links to Scotland and Ireland. With its ferry long gone, this port is now kept afloat by a biscuit maker's need for flour. So where are we? Guesses welcome.

Grain, granite and golf

How a Victorian dock, built in a land of feuding and pillage, has been kept alive by a biscuit maker's need for flour.

rosieniven.com

Oh, and still almost no *national* media and political coverage… The Tyneside coastal communities, who have been doing back-breaking work round the clock to clear as many nurdles as possible, won’t get answers and a proper clean-up till this spill gets more attention. Read through thread for more.

Alison Stenning@alisonstenning.bsky.social · 7d ago

Litany of failure here from Port of Tyne and companies involved in perhaps worst ever plastic pollution event in UK/Europe: No immediate containment of spillage No mention of spillage in press releases until day 4 *Still* no large-scale clear-up operation Nurdles found 20 miles N and S of Tyne

Spent the day walking the Thames path from the source to Cricklade. Well, actually we decided to sack off the bit from Kemble station to the source and back and was very glad we did. This was what the river was like today.

Preparing for a two day walk along the Thames path... Is there any point in taking a raincoat?😂

Death in Vegas, what a tune! #totp

There's always time for a moustachioed, winking building to see in Friday! 😉 Have a great day everyone 👌 📷 My own, Sault Provence, June 26

How many of us would be here in the #nufc community if Keegan hadn't made those heartfelt, illogical, no-agents-involved choices to join us in 1982 and 1992? What would we be after decades adrift in the lower divisions? How many memories, family moments, beers, laughs, tears, do we owe the man?

Question for non fiction writers, especially in travel genre. If you make a foundational error in your research before you even start and only realise while writing up, should you a. Own it and write it into the narrative, or b. Write the chapter as originally planned as a replaceable sample?

Yes, Argentina the first ever World Cup finalist to not have a shot in the 90 minutes.

So is Saka going for the golden boot now?

"Rain In Newcastle" - my oil painting

Is this some ploy to get Mbappe the golden boot by single handedly dragging France level?

First third place play off I've watched for 24 years

The timeless appeal of ancient glass! 🤩 This Roman glass cup is about 1,700 years old, yet its bold blue and green dot decoration looks strikingly modern! It wouldn’t look out of place today! 📷 by me #Archaeology

Been sitting here wondering why I felt so unmoved by being 1-0 up only to make all the wrong tactical choices and ship two goals in the last ten minutes. Then i remembered that I’m a #nufc fan.

It's over but no complaints. Probably the most controversy free England v Argentina knock out game ever.

Today I have the rare opportunity for a day devoted to writing and research. And what better way to start the day than with this travel article about a sail powered cross channel ferry. It's on my list for this project already but good to hear more about it. www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...

Sail away to the Côte d’Opale: a watery adventure in northern France

A catamaran service from Dover to Boulogne is the perfect start to a trip exploring the Pas-de-Calais and marshes of Saint-Omer by bike, boat and kayak

theguardian.com

I've loved Roupell Street since I first went for a drink after work at the pub there more than 20 years ago. This post gives the fascinating history of the family whose name the street bears, a page turner worthy of Dickens. open.substack.com/pub/whatsdow...

One of London's prettiest streets, and the forgery, fraud and tragedy behind its name

Roupell Street, a picture-perfect Georgian enclave behind Waterloo, and the MP who forged his way to ruin.

open.substack.com

Long before the Borscht Belt or Benidorm, this Irish village was an early example of a purpose built tourist resort with its own ferry service and railway. Read my post to reveal the identity of a historic port that continues to reinvent itself. open.substack.com/pub/rosieniv...

From steamers to pirate radio: the hidden history of an Irish village

Part two of my series on unlikely ports focuses on how a tiny County Louth village evolved from a Victorian tourism pioneer into a clandestine hub for broadcasting rebels.

open.substack.com

Getting a bit fed up with some Guardian writers referring to the World Cup as the GWC. It assumes we're all in on the "joke".

Please head to St Mary's Welcome Centre in Walthamstow if you can help/donate food and water to residents being evacuated due to the fire in Wood St, Walthamstow.

Hi England, here’s the Christmas tree we’re sending you for Trafalgar Square this year.

We went on a vicking train which sent you back in time. We saw a vicking village they told us things too.

Seem to have a good idea of the score without watching the footie.

If you've subscribed to my Substack, I hope you're enjoying it as much as I'm enjoying connecting with people over a shared love of historic ferry routes. I'm approaching an exciting subscriber milestone. When it's reached I will put out some exclusive subscriber content. Do sign up! Latest post 👇

Rosie Niven@rosieniven.bsky.social · 4w ago

Ahoy! New on my Substack a spotlight on the small Welsh port of Mostyn, which over the years has shipped everything from Tudor kings to Airbus wings. This is the first in a four-part series on some of Britain and Ireland's most improbable passenger ferry ports. open.substack.com/pub/rosieniv...

Increasingly of the view that the need for No.10 North has nothing to do with devolution but more in the same way that the British developed Shimla as a hill station to run the Raj from during the summer months when Delhi was simply too hot to govern in.

Met Office - weather and climate@metoffice.gov.uk · 4w ago

Temperatures have exceeded 34°C today for the 8th day this year 🌡️ That makes it a record for the most number of 34°C or higher in a calendar year 👇 The record was previously set in 1976 and 2020 for 7 days

Surely a fox and a bin are allies, not enemies

"Former Bulk Distributor assistant editor Andy Burnham is set to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, marking an extraordinary journey from the pages of the tank container industry press to the steps of Downing Street." bulk-distributor.com/2026/07/form...

Former BD journalist set to become UK PM - Bulk Distributor

Former Bulk Distributor assistant editor Andy Burnham is set to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, marking an extraordinary journey from the pages of the tank container industry pre...

bulk-distributor.com