Articles tagged with manchester
It's good to relax
After several weeks of running around for at least one day every weekend, I finally think I have both days to myself for this one. This month so far Mr C and I were at a concert in #London on the 3rd, visited #Manchester on the 11th, celebrated our #weddi
Worrying Trends
I was out in #Manchester yesterday. Mr C was at a gaming and computer event, so I was allowed to wander round the Trafford Centre #shopping mall for the afternoon. Manchester is a very #multicultural location, not quite as obviously so as some areas of En
Diary – Sunday 29th March 2015
Diary – Sunday 29th March 2015 Just as I’m working out how little money I can spend in a very frugal tightly stretched financial week, my computer mouse died, forcing me to add the cost of a replacement mouse to my weekly budget, thoug
Diary – Monday 23rd March 2014
A busy day today, with strong emphasis on revisiting the Manchester city centre based interviewer who gave me my stage two of three interview to give him documents needed for processing my application for work at the airport. The documents
Magazine Review – The Skinny – March 2015
This issue of the widely circulated North West student magazine has several impressive features, including; Cara Comedian by Jon Whitely, a study of popular comedienne, Josie Long, who has been in performance since she was just 14. She now purposely
Diary – Tuesday 17th March 2015
Manchester usually has a whole festival of activity over the weeks leading to Saint Patrick’s Day, but there was no such event this year apart from the annual Irish Parade which I sadly missed. My day was dominated by my second of three intense inte
The 30 Day Song Challenge – Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event
A major event I attended in about 1980 was a free Rock against Racism concert in Manchester’s Alexander Park. It was the start of my political awakening, being the music community’s response to organized right wing extremists like the National
The Thirty Day Song Challenge – Day 6 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere
There are plenty of songs directly about places; Sinatra seemed to have a song for every major city he played; New York New York, Chicago-My Kind Of Town, etc. Locally, any band from Manchester reminds me of home; so much music came from here in t
Diary – Friday 13th March 2015
My first of potentially three interview processes towards a warehousing role connected to Manchester Airport, which used to be called Ringway Airport, dominated the morning. The first interview was nowhere near the airport, but in a welfare office
Diary Wednesday 4th March 2015
An evening at Three Minute Theatre followed a day of writing and preparing for Thursday’s job hunting activity. I wasn’t performing in the short radio plays tonight – just watching various plays set to three, six and nine minute lengths.
Diary – Wednesday 25th February 2015
A busy morning spent job hunting, but failing to catch any, followed by real ale activity and going to the movies. It was the night of a selection process meeting for our real ale group’s region to pick the pubs from our area for inclusion i
Diary Tuesday 24th February 2015
I had a tedious morning writing out job application letters. One job I don’t qualify for anyway was sent to me with mandatory instructions to complete is lengthy application form, and send it back to my job brokers for their approval before they post
Diary – Friday February 20th 2015
The day of the heavily promised interview with a leading High Street Supermarket’s biggest warehouse loomed and fizzled out like a damp squib. Having completed an irrelevant training course that promised the interview at its end, I got up ea
Unusual Customs In My Family
We have a few eccentric customs in the North Manchester area. Here are some that I have seen. 1/. Setting aside a little unconsumed ale or wine. It can be customary not to totally drain your glass but to leave a little beer or wine in the
Diary Tuesday 17th February 2015
An annoying, frustrating, boring day for me. It started with a comment on my PP comments box that a reader finds titles like ‘Diary’ uninformative and chooses not to read my work any more – bye then. I’ve crossed that contr
Diary Sunday 15th February 2015
I had to buy my second pair of shoes in three months after my last pair fell apart. I walked to the North Manchester shoe shop in the old pair, changed into the new ones right after I left, as I sat at a bus stop, dumped the old ones in a litter bin and ca
Diary – Friday 13th February 2015
A very varied day of mixed experiences and moods. I have no Friday 13th superstitions, but this day was the anniversary of my Step-father’s heart attack death in 2011. I went to Manchester for what I was told was to be a work placem
Diary – Thursday 12th February 2015
It was a great relief not to have to get up and go to the farcical call centre job which wasn’t paying staff any more. I got a pleasant lie in for the first time in weeks. Later in the day my job brokers sent me details of a new job, with a supermar
Diary – Wednesday 11th February 2015
I sent an angry pleading e-mail to my job broker asking how they came to put me on a work placement with a sales company that doesn’t pay staff and treated my attendance as an interview. I was two hours into my second day on the job when I r
Diary Tuesday 10th February 2015
After the four blissful days of my birthday celebrations came a day of living Hell. I was ordered by my job brokers to attend a mandatory job interview today, which they already falsely accused me of failing to attend on Friday before I sent them
Diary Monday 9th February 2015
My 53rd birthday. Happy birthday to me / Happy birthday to me / Happy birthday dear meeee / Happy birthday to me! Seriously a happy, glorious day. Most of my celebrating was done on Sunday when my friends were free to come out for a meal and drink
Diary Sunday 8th February 2015
I always think the day before your birthday is a day to celebrate as much as the birthday itself as it is the last day you will ever be the age you were before the birthday itself starts. I had my main celebration day out on the Sunday as Monday would be m
Diary – Saturday 7th February 2015
The second diary entry in a row to cover a day of so much activity I have had to create two separate features to cover it all. After my weekly radio show went out I headed to Manchester to top up my phone – I need a top-up card for it but th
Diary – Friday 6th February 2015 - Evening
After the frightful conflicts with the dole office hired-gun government licensed bandit job-brokers that dominated the day the late afternoon and evening were wonderful. I prepared some notes for tomorrow’s radio show and then headed out to
The Campaign To Save Manchesters Oxford Road Cornerhouse Triangle
The Campaign To Save Manchesters Oxford Road Cornerhouse Triangle I have been aware for some time that Manchester’s art house cinema and art gallery called Cornerhouse was due to relocate to a new building, called Home. What only recently came
Diary Thursday 5th February 2015
The roller coaster of expected hectic scheduling really began today. As with every second week on Thursday I had appointments with two separate welfare departments, each trigger happy to crush benefits claims with sanctions on the slightest technicality as
Diary – Wednesday 4th February 2015
A hectic day today, with a short visit to the theatre preparing to stage my show later this month, and contacting a new cast member to take on one of the roles in my radio drama. From there, I hit the Central Manchester library for a few hours, be
Creating A Creative Writing Workshop
I am giving serious thought to starting my own creative writing tutorial workshops. There have been a few in Manchester, but most seem to be low key or dying off nowadays and none serve my area of the city – the North. I don’t aim to p
Diary – Saturday 31st January 2015
After a glorious sunny day dominated by one radio show, I set out to attend a meeting / launch party at a Manchester theatre where they are turning one of my short horror stories into a radio play, scripted by me. As I was leaving the stat
Diary – Thursday 29th January 2015
A lot of little tasks today, and mainly sorting out a restaurant deposit for my birthday meal a week on Sunday. I travelled through increasingly horrible weather into Manchester by Metrolink tram, and after going to the restaurant, I hit the centr
Diary – Wednesday 28th January 2015
Dull as the proverbial dishwater up to the evening when I went on a Northern Quarter of Manchester city centre bar crawl, despite wind, hail, rain, and later, snow. I caught a bus to the first sanctuary from the elements, The Angel Inn, in Collyhu
Diary – Sunday 25th January 2015
A busy day involving performance of a burlesque routine I created, presented by the wonderful ‘Princess Of Darkness’ and myself. This was staged after much planning at the first 2015 meeting of the Manchester based North West B
Diary Friday 23rd January 2015
My Facebook comment that there was no free Wi-Fi at the Velodrome on my previous visit on Wednesday provoked an aggressive comment from one reader who claimed there is free wi-fi there and that I was being petty. I don't mind the criticism but his attitude
Diary – Thursday 22nd January 2015
I had to report to two separate welfare advisors today. Initially the appointments clashed but I was able to move the second mandatory meeting back a few hours. The first was just to sign on, where they check my job searching activity is on-going.
Diary – Wednesday 21st January 2015
After a few tasks I needed to do during the morning and early afternoon, I went to the second annual Manchester Beer And Cider Festival at The Velodrome Cycling centre, which I helped promote through my radio show, especially as the station is among the ev
Diary – Tuesday 20th January 2015
A good day with a shocking and unpleasant ending for me. I spent the day delivering real ale magazines to local bars for the real ale society I am in, and enjoyed leisurely pints in two of the bars visited. A third had no real ale on, despite clai
Diary – Monday 19th January 2015
Another day when I barely left my keyboard. I got hit with some spam, even on Persona Papers but that was quickly intercepted and annihilated straight away once reported by me. Interestingly it came from an account that was still listed as pending
The Real Problem Of Thunderbirds
Much is being said about whether the Thunderbirds reboot on TV will give stronger roles to women, which is fair enough. Though I loved the Anderson original its biggest flaw was the secrecy and lack of desire to equip the World’s real rescue service
Diary – Sunday 18th January 2015
A big writing day that left me little time for online writing. I have been invited to present a paper to a philosophy group on the nature of evil. Having already written a short book on the topic, I prepared an edited version of the text as my scr
Radio Show Playlist Diary – Saturday 17th January 2015
My first guest on my radio broadcasts for 2015 was on today, North Manchester CAMRA branch Chair, Steve Davies, making his second visit to my show. This was primarily to discuss the Manchester Real Ale & Cider Festival which runs through the s
Diary – Friday 16th January 2015
A day heavily spent preparing for my Saturday presentation on broadcast live community radio. With a special guest taking part to promote the region’s biggest beer festival, and a new presenter taking up the slot right after my own, I knew I
Diary – Thursday 15th January 2015
My job-broker has changed again. I am now on my third job search-specialist in about ten months, and the chap in the middle did nothing at all for me before being replaced in another reshuffle at their offices. Aside from that yesterday was an ina
Diary – Wednesday 14th January 2015
A quite sedate day writing at home, and later at the library in Manchester City Centre which was very busy as the students have started back at the colleges and already have their course work assignments to study. I left the library to dreadful we
Questions For A Real-Ale Expert On My Radio Show
At a pending radio show I have a guest, Steve Davies (not the snooker player) coming in to talk about real ales as there is a major beer festival looming in Manchester. Steve is my first returning guest as he came in just before last year’s
Diary – Friday 9th January 2015
Lots of minor errands to do; library visit, preparing my radio show, chasing after guests invited to my birthday bash in February who haven’t ASAP’d. Going out in really horrible weather is becoming the norm at present. I felt li
Diary – Thursday 8th January 2015
I had to claim welfare in the morning, my first regular fortnightly claim this year and since my Xmas work contract ran out. It went easily and I was back home by 10 AM. In the late afternoon I called in the library, picking out a few graphic nove
Diary – Monday 5th January 2014
Twelfth Day / Twelfth Night, with the day being quite mundane for me. I rarely left my room where I job searched and wrote up various articles. The evening was much more interesting as I headed to a city centre bar, The Seven Stars in Manche
