Mick and Liesel's Antics

Buses, boats and birds

My sister and I agreed to meet at my long-time favourite coffee shop in Manly, Three Beans. I like Manly, it’s full of bright, young, fit and healthy people, so of course, I feel right at home.

It’s a 199 bus to Manly from my b&b and I have to cross a very busy crossroads to get to the bus stop. If I see the 199 approaching, and I have several lanes of traffic to cross, I’m not sure of the traffic lights’ pattern, so I have to wait at 4 or 5 crossings. One time, yes I missed the bus. The next time, the lights were in my favour, the 199 was held up by red lights.

Helen and Keiran joined us just after I’d knocked over Pauline’s berry crush smoothie. Pinky prurply gloop covered the table, the floor, my feet and of course, the provided napkins were nowhere near good enough to mop up the mess. The assistant tried very hard not to laugh at this useless old fart. Will my embarrassment deter me from visiting this establishment again? Nope.

We walked over to the wharf and east Manly Cove beach. Maybe too hot and sunny for Keiran whose sleeping and feeding routines are not entirely predictable nor reliable! So, leaving Helen and Keiran behind, Pauline and I set off for a longer stroll in the sunshine.

A few folks were on the beach, but neither Pauline nor I were tempted. Despite copious amounts of SPF 50, I for one would feel too exposed for too long.

Some new gym equipment has been installed so I had a go at a couple of the exercises. Easy. I reckon twenty seconds is plenty, for a first time, including fifteen chair lifts (I don’t know the names of the various workout techniques so while I can envisage what I did, I can’t name it with any certainty.)

We tried to have a chat with a brush turkey but he wasn’t interested, gobble gobble.

At Little Manly beach, the sign says: “There are severe penalties for taking, attempting to take, harming, possessing, interfering with, buying or selling White’s Seahorse or for damaging their habitat without the appropriate approvals.”

Appropriate approvals? From whom? Either it’s a protected area or it isn’t. Save our seahorses!

Pauline and I had a debate about this incredibly tall pine tree growing in someone’s back garden.

I maintain it’s a real tree, wood, with the crown growing naturally at the top. Pauline thinks it’s concrete or metal. Next time we visit, we’ll take some kind of testing kit.

After meeting up with Helen again, we went for lunch. The sushi train was fun to watch, while trying to grab something appealing without knocking other plates off. It was also interesting to see the cooks make up the sushi, so much faster and more efficient than our efforts at home, when we seem to spend a lot of time removing sticky rice from our fingers.

We wandered along the Corso to the main Manly beach. The sea was much calmer today and a few people were swimming or surfing.

We decided not to walk along towards Shelly Beach, the path was exposed to the hot Sun with minimal, if any, shade. So, sorry, eastern water dragons, you’ll have to wait until next time to see us.

Back in my room, I did some writing. Actual hand-writing. For the first time in ages, I thought I’d send some postcards.

After having breakfast at Hideout Dee Why, I walked up the road to Dee Why library, a quiet place in which to write, with the keyboard this time. A lovely Chinese couple approached and gestured as if to ask whether it was alright to share the table. Go ahead, I said, with a smile.

The lady started getting out a bundle of papers, including passports and I just carried on doing my thing. A library assistant approached and told them, “no, no, he’s over there”. They got up, apologised and went over there, presumably to speak to the real JP.

After a spot of shopping at Aldi, I know how to have a good time, I went over to Helen’s where I was greeted by a little chap outside the front door.

By the time I’d found the keys, he’d disappeared, I assume, into the bushes. But no. He’d slipped under the door, so he was now sitting still in the hallway, wishing he were a chameleon.

After tacos for dinner, we all enjoyed watching more wildlife in the garden. The orange spider wasp was chasing its own dinner, a spider, possibly a huntsman, but ignoring the tiny ants that would have been an easier catch, I would have thought.

Then, as we were leaving the premises, we saw this little beauty:

I told it not to go into Helen’s garden, there are foul beasties in the undergrowth.

As Pauline and I walked down the road to catch the bus back to our respective pads, we heard an awful screeching racket. Cockatoos, they look great, but their call would never appear on a mixtape of relaxing birdsong.

They were singing in the wires, so loud, that a couple of residents came out to see what the noise was all about.

The following morning, there were warnings of smoke drifting down from bush fires on the mid north coast of NSW. I didn’t detect any, but the city itself, Sydney woke to a thick blanket of haze.

I met Pauline for coffee on a return visit to the Hideout. A ten minute walk for me, a bus ride for my sister.

We passed this beauty as we walked again to Dee Why beach, the trunk smooth as Keiran’s bottom. It brought to mind the iconic twin, ghost gums on Larapinta Drive near Alice Springs. Sadly, those trees were destroyed by arsonists in 2013 in the middle of a restoration programme, following some dieback. These ghost gums were regarded by the Arrernte people as living spirits, so this act of vandalism hit the community hard. I have memories of touching, but not hugging, one of them in 2002.

Further down the road, we ingested the great smell of frangipani, or plumeria. Almost pungent in its potency, I was surprised I didn’t have a sneezing fit.

The hibiscus flowers were very bright, you could believe they had internal back lighting.

Today was the day of the annual Fun Run or Sun Run from Dee Why to Manly. It takes place very early in the morning, so we didn’t see any of the action. And we certainly didn’t participate. By the time we were up and about, all the road closures had finished.

After coffee at the beach, Pauline and I set off for Curl Curl. We caught the 166 bus most of the way, got off a couple of stops early, then enjoyed walking along the boardwalk on Curl Curl beach.

As we walked by McKillop Park on Freshwater headland, I thought, that looks like a strange and interesting sculpture, so I looked it up.

It was created by First Nations artist and creative director Nicole Monks and her design studio, mili mili. It is a tribute to the historical significance of signal fires, which were lit on headlands by Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years. The artwork is an architectural place-maker that marks the beginning of the Northern Beaches Coast Walk. It provides a space for reflection, shared storytelling, and enjoying panoramic ocean views.

And yes, the ocean views were stunning, but a life on the ocean wave was not for us. We tried to have a chat with a cormorant but he was more interested in preening himself.

There were a couple of surfers in the water, but we also came across one up here on the headland.

This statue commemorates Duke Kahanamoku’s historic surfing demonstration at Freshwater Beach headland in December 1914. The Hawaiian Olympic champion swimmer is widely regarded as the “Father of Modern Surfing” and his visit ignited Australia’s passion for the sport. Next time I’m here, I’ll try and remember to walk around to see the front of the statue!

We found Harbord Diggers, a return visit for us, and we met Helen, Brent and Keiran for lunch. We sat at the same table as last time, and Keiran was really engaged with the texture of and the lighting and shadows on the wall behind us.

Knowing from experience that veggie burger and chips here was too much of a challenge, I opted for a tofu poke bowl today. Poky? Again, there was too much food and I couldn’t finish it, despite the many different, tasty flavours.

We were entertained by a delightful singer. I didn’t catch her name but I believe she’s a local, northern beaches artist.

Helen and Brent gave us a lift to the Mall. Then Pauline went back to her place and a bit later, I returned to mine for a late, welcome, afternoon nap.

In the morning, I could smell hot pine, similar to that in a steamy sauna, but it wasn’t unpleasant or acrid, like the anticipated smoke.

We all met at the Mall and caught a B-line bus into Sydney. Not to be confused with the Bee Network in Manchester, of course.

From Wynyard, we walked down the hill to Darling Harbour. Docked on the other side of the harbour is a replica of Captain Cook’s tallship, HMB Endeavour, outside the National Maritime Museum.

But our destination today was the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium. The worst part of the slow meander through the venue is that I’m not walking fast enough for all my steps to be counted by my pedometer. Tens of thousands of steps, no doubt, all lost to the ether, or something.

Keiran slept and fed and I think he enjoyed the lights and the different colours, not to mention the hundreds of other strangers.

There were also octopuses, rays, sharks and of course many, many different tropical fish. The dugong was taken in as a young orphan, cared for and then released into its natural habitat. After a short while, it had lost 25% of its body weight, so they brought it back into captivity where it seems to be thriving now.

Given the curved glass and the subdued lighting, it was quite difficult to take good pictures, but that didn’t prevent us all from trying. Here is an example of some wildlife from one of the tunnels.

Brent, Helen, Keiran, a stranger and some fish

For some reason, this penguin’s stance brought to mind the old Elton John song, I’m Still Standing, and I can’t work out the link between the two, even after several days.

We dined at Helm, just over the way from the aquarium, and on this occasion, I ate just the right, satisfying amount of very nice food.

A thunderstorm was forecast for later in the afternoon. While Brent and Helen took the bus back to Waringah Mall, where they’d parked the car, Pauline and I opted to return by ferry and bus. Both ferry rides, from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay, and from Circular Quay to Manly, were very smooth. The sky was grey and it was cooling down, so it felt as though a storm was on its way.

From the ferry, we noticed a few groups of people climbing up Sydney Harbour Bridge and I thought, never say never, but I’m unlikely to do that, and probably not when there’s a storm a-coming.

I got off the bus just as it started raining but it’s only a 2-minute walk from the bus stop to my b&b. After a long chat with Ann, my host, I retired for a long, late nap. There were a couple of thunderclaps, but mainly, it just rumbled in the distance, we didn’t even have the excitement of sseein any lightning.

If everything technical worked correctly back at home this weekend, you might have heard my show on Wythenshawe Radio, WFM, with the theme: Songs from the Land Down Under, featuring many Aussie artists, some familiar and some new (to me) thanks to Brent and Helen’s input. You can catch the show here… and I hope you jolly well enjoy it!

Family and other wildlife

Well obviously, I’m not used to the Sun rising as early as it does, here in NSW, but I was up with the lark, or the mynah, and went downstairs for breakfast. Brent very kindly drove to the airport to pick up my sister Pauline and I walked over to the apartment to visit them.

We ate lunch outside, in the shade of course. I think it’s fair to say that, on the whole, Keiran was the centre of attention.

For dinner, we went to Harbord Diggers. My veg burger and chips were great, but there was so much food, I coudn’t finish. I thought I was in America or something.

Six local soldiers (Diggers) returned from the poppy fields of France after World War I and later sat on Freshwater Beach where they discussed creating a place that they could remember their mates, join those who protected Australian shores and support each other and the community they lived in. This was the genesis of Harbord Diggers and these original Diggers are now honoured by the six poppies proudly on display in this memorial artwork by artist Jade Oakley.

Each poppy is balanced on a hidden hook, so that when the southerly blows in off the sea, the sculptures bob and dance like poppies in a field. The flickering light of the concealed flames within each poppy are a reminder of the eternal flame, and the poppies appear to ‘grow’ from the reflective pond.

The glowing perforated brass background represents the sea and the sand of Freshwater Beach.

Pauline and I arranged to meet the following morning after breakfast to go for a walk. She’s staying a bit further afield and walked to my b&b. She is having problems with her Google maps and lack of 4G so she approached my b&b from the ‘wrong’ direction, which was awkward as I’d set off to meet her.

For a brief moment, when I saw this item, and despite the sunshine, I thought I was back in Manchester.

I guess someone wanted to get rid of this old bike when they replaced it with one of those big, chunky electric ones. Of which, we’ve seen very many around here, being ridden on the pavements, at speed, by very young people in some cases. With bare feet.

But eventually, meet we did, and Pauline and I walked to a coffee shop (how did you guess?) called Barrel One Coffee Roasters. We stayed in the shade as much as possible, it was a very hot day, I saw it up to 34° but I saw 40° mentioned elsewhere. Nice coffee but I do feel bad for the folks working in a place like this on such a hot day.

As noon approached, we walked along the road to Bucketty’s Brewing Co. This was the venue for Family Bingo. We met Helen’s friends Helen and Dan, with their children Fern and Asher. Helen, Brent and Keiran arrived a few minutes later and we got the drinks in for out mammoth bingo session. The caller didn’t use any of the familiar terminology: clicketty click 66, two fat ducks 22 or any of those.

An hour of fun and I won nothing. Brent won a model aeroplane kit, as did Asher who couldn’t wait to get home before constructing his.

Pauline and I walked over to Warringah Mall for some shopping before catching the 193 back to Helen and Brent’s. This is the one that takes us round the corner and up the hill so we can walk down the steps. Who wants to walk up that hill on the hottest day ever?

On Australia Day, I walked to Dee Why Beach where I met Pauline at the Chill Bar for a coffee. A cold coffee. In fact, a very welcome coffee milkshake. The beach was very busy, it being a public holiday, but the sea was still a bit rough.

We thought about walking to Curl Curl Beach but my aching carcass very soon said ‘no’. A combination of an irritating cough, insufficient sleep and the ever present threat of shortness-of-breath, I suspect. So, feeling a bit manky, I thought it best to stay away from Keiran today.

Excitingly, we did spot a pair of kookaburras, or as they appear in my hastily taken photo, a pair of white blobs sitting on the fence.

I tested negative for Covid, RSV and two types of flu, which was a great relief. Cough sweets and cough syrup help momentarily, but what I really need is a scratchy toilet brush down the back of my throat. (I’d wash it first, don’t worry.) But the pharmacist was very helpful.

And the barista didn’t mind me at all, sitting at the back of the café, performing my rapid antigen tests.

As I walked to the pharmacy, I’d noticed some honking and tooting and beeping from the traffic, but I took no notice. I found out later that one of those toots was from Helen who was taking Keiran to his first Baby Sensory class.

Pauline and I met the family at Freshie Mex for tacos. I was satisfied with two, but Brent’s a growing lad, he consumed at least four.

Warriewood Wetlands is a bus ride away. I met Pauline there for a very pleasant wander through the woods and the wetlands. We think we followed most of the tracks within its 26 acres but it did feel strange as we exited a couple of times to find ourselves in a residential area.

The first point of interest was a noxious smell. I looked at my sister accusingly, but she denied all wrong-doing. Maybe it’s the stagnant water, we thought. But then Pauline looked up. Bats. Dozens, scores of fruit bats, or flying foxes, just hanging around up in the trees.

It’s a great place for wildlife, nothing too exotic though. We saw lizards and at least one very big butterfly. We heard more birds singing than we actually saw. Some dusky moorhens were teaching their chicks how to find food.

A sign warned us that this was a snake habitat, so I stomped along for a bit, until I forgot.

We didn’t expect to see ibises in one of the areas, but the biggest surprise was seeing a spoonbill. He was very shy and like a lot of bitds, he knew when someone was about to take his picture, and he flew off into the wild blue yonder.

There were also a couple of swamphens, although Pauline knows them as Pūkeko in New Zealand.

There’s a small shopping centre here too, so we popped in for a coffee. Small? As Pauline said at the time, it was like the Tardis, so much bigger on the inside. So we had coffee and I visited KMart to buy some shirts. I don’t think I’ve bought myself shirts since 1992 or something, but a couple of my older ones have suddenly ‘shrunk in the wash’.

I really enjoyed my afternoon nap today and was hoping this cough would soon go away.

Return Down Under

One more day in England, then: a busy day packed with packing, unpacking and repacking. So far, I’ve only remembered one item that I left behind by mistake, so that’s not too bad. I made a quick trip to say hi and goodbye to Jenny with a few perishables and then attempted a short night’s sleep.

I rose at 5am for the first time in ages. I’d like to say it felt good, but nah. The taxi was punctual and I soon found myself at Manchester Airport. I’d checked in online yesterday, so I thought I could just go up to the machine and print out my own luggage tags. Not Etihad, not yet, they don’t have the software. So I joined the check-in queue with all the other riffraff. After a while, we special people, those with boarding passes, were taken aside to a much shorter queue.

It was ridiculously hot in the airport. So I took my coat off and added it to my case just in time before it was weighted, tagged and sent to oblivion behind the desk. In fact, I sent a message to the family that I was sweating like a drugs mule. Someone said I probably shouldn’t say that sort of thing if I were going to America.

But no, I’m off to Australia to visit Helen, Brent and Keiran.

Security was easy: all electronics and liquids could be left in the bags. All I had to do was empty my pockets and take my belt off before posing for the full body scanner.

Did I mention the airport was exceedingly hot? At the first opportunity, I replaced my jeans with a pair of shorts. I was beginning to feel like a real Aussie.

I survived the chemical assault that is the perfume counters in the duty free shop, other than the obligatory sneezing fit.

Two flights later, I landed at Sydney Airport. On the first flight, to Abu Dhabi, I was next to a large and very fidgetty young man. My main thought was ‘ew, he keeps touching me’.

The transfer at Abu Dhabi was easy, just a walk from one gate to another. It took a while to find a coffee shop but it was a very nice beverage. Which I had to finish quickly as boarding started ten minutes earlier than publicised.

On the second leg, I was next to a 10- or 11-year old boy and his mum. Later on in the flight, he fell asleep and rotated so that his head was on his mum’s lap and his feet were on mine. For some reason, I didn’t mind this so much. Weird eh? When, later, his mum took off her eye mask and saw what had happened, she apologised.

I was given four veggie meals altogether: pasta, pasta, pizza, pasta. I have changed my menu choice for the return flights, for something, if not more tasty, then certainly more varied.

I finished reading one book and the whole of another during the flights. I can recommend Erased by Christopher Coates, a nice easy read, but there are definitely a few plot holes! I watched no films nor TV, just had a look at the map every now and then to monitor progress. We flew over Colombo and this is probably as close as I’ll ever be to visiting Sri Lanka.

Formalities at Sydney Airport were straighforward and I was greeted by Helen, Brent and lovely little Keiran! As it was quite late in the day and I’d been awake for over 24 hours, they drove me to my Airbnb in Dee Why, thank you very much, and I met my host, Ann. I’d chosen this place as it was the closest I could find to Helen’s apartment. A welcome shower was followed by a reasonable, but too short, night’s sleep.

In the morning, I walked down the road to meet Helen and Brent. While waiting, I noticed the not unpleasant scent of jasmine. It seemed an odd contrast with the roar of the traffic passing by.

I found out later it’s not proper jasmine, it’s a Murraya paniculata, commonly known as orange jasmine or mock orange. Very nice scent, although I failed to pick up its notes of citrus.

We drove over to Freshwater for breakfast at SeaSprout, which I’d visited on a previous trip. Given the state of my throat, I surprised them by choosing an apple and ginger juice rather than tea or coffee. Yeah, I picked up a cough on the flight (I think) and put it down to allergies.

But where’s Keiran, I hear you ask?

We went to Aldi where I got some bits for my place. Then I hit the wall, and went back for a nap.

I walked down to Dee Why Beach, enjoying the sunshine and the warmth, after what has been a dreary few weeks at home.

There were a few people on the beach despite the sign saying it was closed. But what the sign means is, don’t go in the water. This follows four recent shark attacks here and in Manly, caused by run-offs from the recent floods. Little fish eat the tasty effluent. Bigger fish eat the smaller fish. Sharks detect a feast nearer to shore. There was no danger of me venturing into the Pacific Ocean on this occasion, in any case, it was just too rough.

The Chill Bar beckoned and I had a coffee before walking over to Helen’s place where we enjoyed Brent’s stir fry, thank you very much.

Still with a niggling cough and a bit jet-lagged, the walk back to my b&b seemed to take a lot more than ten minutes. But here comes the weekend!

Everything’s Alright

The funniest thing I saw recently wasn’t on TV, it was through my window. I think it’s a new little puppy in the house over the road. It escaped and even though its legs were much shorter than theirs, it outran the two men chasing it down the road, in the rain and in their slippers. Did they ever catch it? I expect so, but once they were round the corner and out of sight, I stopped watching. But now, of course, I’m waiting for a repeat performance. And a comment I often heard out on the streets in regards to a dog’s bad behaviour came to mind: “Ooh, he’s never done that before”. Yes he has.

They’ve dug up Royle Green Road in recent times for gas works, water pipes and fibre optics. And they’re digging it up again soon for major gas works, closing the whole road in the process. I don’t know how I’ll be able to leave the flat in the car, there’s only one way out, soon to be blocked. So, to avoid that problem, I’m going walkabout.

But first, here’s a lovely picture of Keiran, just short of two months old, reading the book that his late, great Granny made a generation ago. This book has been enjoyed by many children over the years and deservedly so, it was a labour of love by Sarah.

So, then, we’re now over two weeks into the new year and what have I done? Just the usual daily routine, never quite enough exercise, probably a bit too much of the wrong sort of food.

Here’s a Public Service Announcement. When you visit Northenden, don’t trust the direction signs.

For example, this one is pointing in the wrong direction to the library. That facility can now be found in the Church Hall at St Wilfrid’s Church. And if you’re happy to see the Public Toilets signposted, don’t get too excited. They’ve been closed for at least as long as we’ve lived here, over seven years. Indeed, the building is now a very welcome coffee bar. Very handy after a stroll along the river.

It’s been mentioned before, but the temperature in Anchorage continues to make me uncomfortable, even though I’m not there. -18°F translates to -27.77777°C. I’d be sitting inside the freezer to warm up. Instead, I’m going to take a big trip south

Manchester always delights when the Sun’s out and on this day, there were two Suns in the sunset. Yes, a lyric from a Pink Floyd song.

Yes, we haven’t had a lot of Sun recently so I thought I’d add an extra one to the sky over Manchester, with the aid of AI, of course.

Hard to believe but it’s nearly 40 years since Sarah, Pauline and I attended the London premiere of the film Labyrinth. Of course, we all hoped David Bowie would be in attendance, but he wasn’t. Jennifer Connelly, who plays Sarah in the film, joined us, as well as Prince Charles and Diana, although they were in the posh seats. I mention this because to celebrate the anniversary, it’s being shown in some cinemas here again. No, I haven’t been yet. But very soon, I will be battling the drop bears.

In terms of Wythenshawe Radio, the next several shows have been made and delivered, so I’m hoping they’ll be uploaded and played out at the right time, while I’m away. You can always have a look at Mixcloud and listen to any of over 140 of Mick the Knife’s shows.

I’ll see you soon, from down under… put the kettle on, Helen…

Treemendous

Happy New Year! Yes, a little bit late, but we’ve been busy doing a lot, and sometimes doing nothing at all. And so it goes. Which reminds me, I found the source of a quote I like. ‘We are put on this Earth to fart around.’ Thanks, Kurt Vonnegut. He also came to mind recently when I listened to Curious Cases on Radio 4. They were talking about ice, its formation and the more than twenty states of ice. I wondered whether Ice-9 as described in Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut was one of those twenty. No. Apparently, it’s totally fictitious. So that’s a shame. Although, given its properties, maybe not. I think I’ll have to re-read the novel.

So while farting around, I continued playing with some AI tools.

Eat your heart out, Christopher Wren.

On BBC iPlayer, I watched an animated reconstruction of the old Doctor Who story, The Celestial Toymaker. I was reminded of where I probably heard a particular joke for the first time, and I have been repeating it ever since.

The answer is ‘an umbrella’ for you at the back.

One day, over Christmas, Martha admitted she didn’t get the joke. When I explained, her face lit up like the Christmas tree she was standing next to.

Christmas was fun. Alan and Una invited me over to their place for Christmas lunch. On the way, I stopped off at Jenny’s and spent Christmas morning with the family. I think it’s sad that our excitement about Christmas diminishes as we get older. But it was fun to spend time with Martha and William.

Obviously, I didn’t have a tree in our luxury apartment, so here’s a picture of Jenny’s.

Underneath, huge piles of presents and at least one of the children was eating chocolates from the tree… I didn’t indulge.

We played a game called Codenames, that was good fun. And we had video chats with Helen and Keiran, celebrating his first Christmas, and with Liesel.

Round at the other grandparents, we were joined by their other grandchildren, Annabel and Emily. So there were eleven of us around the table for a gorgeous, and huge, Christmas lunch. Thank you very much Una, great job, and so much delicious food!

Yeah, I too thought that the cousins were about to break into a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, but they didn’t.

After a couple of hours, I was still too full to eat a slice of the Christmas cake, that Martha had made with the help of her Nana. I took a slice home and it really was nice!

It’s been too long since I’ve included a picture of Keiran. So here he is, just a couple of days after Christmas.

I joined Jenny, Liam, Martha and William at Factory International in Manchester to watch Shaun the Sheep’s Circus Show. Plenty of acrobatics and circus skills on display, and they make it all look so easy.

But the big shock of the day was seeing William when he took his hat off.

Losing his hair like that inspired me to remove the beard that I have been nurturing for a month and to have a haircut. Not as extreme as his, though.

So on the one hand, it was a fun Christmas. On the other hand, it was the worst Christmas ever, because there was no Doctor Who Special on TV ! There’s a consensus that this was one of the worst years ever for Christmas TV. So glad I have books to read and radio shows to prepare.

Walking around Northenden was alright. The Sun appeared briefly from time to time, but in general, it was just colder and more unpleasant than it has been for quite a while.

Meanwhile, Keiran paid his first visit to Taronga Zoo in Sydney to bring in the new year.

I didn’t stay up to see the new year in. No, I was in bed listening to the fireworks while reading.

And suddenly, it was proper Winter. Temperatures below zero. Frost on the cars. People slipping on the pavement outside. But then, unpleasant as it is, at least it’s not -25°C like it is in Anchorage. Brrr, just the thought of that makes me feel uncomfortable.

I joined the family for dinner just a couple of days before school re-started. I’d missed seeing the snow fall, so it was a surprise that afternoon to see it sprinkled everywhere. Not enough snow to make a snowman, but Martha had made a larger than usual snowball. She was interested to see how long it would last before it thawed completely.

The regular walks have resumed and earlier today, we wandered through the woods which were less muddy than I expected. But a couple of trees have fallen over. Or, if they’re really old, I suppose I should say they’ve taken a fall.

I’ve been working on a few radio shows so that I don’t have to think about them when I’m away in a couple of weeks.

Last week’s was a 3-hour special, in which I remembered musicians who died in 2025. Lots of them. You can listen to the whole extravaganza here.

In the Pink

There’s no point trying to ignore Christmas. It’s looming over the horizon and even little Keiran has been introduced to the big fella.

The weather’s not very Christmassy though. It’s still unusually warm for this time of year, and it has rained a lot. Torrential at times and that means going out for a walk isn’t so appealing.

While prepping a radio show, I came across this old record of my Mum and Dad’s: Max Bygraves, You’re a Pink Toothbrush. It fits the theme of the show so I’m playing it. Earplugs are available, if you prefer not to listen to the blue toothbrush talking to its pink comrade. Pink toothbrush, how ridiculous.

Then, one day, the Sun came out. Low in the sky, sometimes hidden behind the trees, but it was out. The sky was blue. So, I got out my Seestar S50 to take a picture or two. I knew there’s a lot of sunspot activity right now so they were the target.

That was a good afternoon’s entertainment. Now, if the clouds would only disappear for one night, so I could see the stars or even the Moon, that would be very welcome, thank you very much.

The weekly Friday walk now takes place in Wythenshawe Park. That’s OK, but it also now starts at 10 o’clock, which makes it harder for me to drag my old carcass out of bed.

It stayed dry on this occasion, although some of the park was quite muddy. And as I drove home, I turned the radio on to hear… Me, Myself and I. Someone must have been off and they were playing the show I’d uploaded for Sunday.

📢 Wythenshawe Radio WFM 97.2, now in DAB in parts of Greater Manchester and Cheshire, Sunday 4pm for Mick’s Music Mix.

Later in the afternoon, I got stuck in traffic on the way to Martha’s school. She was taking part in a performance of Alice in Wonderland. I was initially told it would start at 4pm. I was still stuck in Cheadle when Jenny sent a message saying that it was actually 4.15, phew, I wasn’t late. I met Alan in the queue and I think it’s fair to say the show was a sell-out, lots of parents and grandparents standing at the back.

It was good fun of course, but it was a shame that not a single boy was taking part.

Despite all the rain, the river Mersey isn’t much higher that usual. Whatever they did to improve the flood defences seems to have worked, so far.

Meanwhile, Rochdale Canal in Manchester is higher and overflowing the pavements.

I booked this event a long time ago, and I decided to go into Manchester by bus. It shouldn’t take more than an hour to get from home to Aviva Studios, really, but it did, and I was glad I’d left so early. The Moonwalkers, with Tom Hanks was a fascinating, immersive celebration of the Apollo Moon missions. It brought back memories of how excited I was at the time to follow those events. I even kept a scrap book for each one, from Apollo 8 to Apollo 17. Sadly, those bit the dust when we moved away from Peterborough. But that’s a different story.

This show also looks forward to the next chapter in lunar exploration and we met the Artemis II astronauts.

If you plan to visit this show, The Moonwalkers, here’s a tip: Don’t sit on the beanbags near the front. It’s very hard to keep turning round to see the pictures being displayed behind you. Plus, it was really difficult standing up afterwards.

Afterwards in the café area, the entertainment continued. There was a party from somewhere, I’m guessing a Christmas works do. The ‘pub quiz’ consisted of old, corny, Christmas cracker jokes. Then, I heard parts of someone else’s conversation. “Oh, you know that idiot in North Korea?” I missed the next bit. “I had to laugh when I heard.” I wish I knew what she was laughing at.

I wandered through the city centre for a while, until I’d had enough of the crowds.

I really didn’t need to see this portrait in the window of a ground floor unit of Great Northern Warehouse. Entitled America First – Trump, Putin, China, by local artist Michael Browne, it is hard to miss as you walk by, quite disturbing.

More to my taste is this mural just round the corner.

This is one of over 80 music-inspired installations in the city centre! Music for the Senses. I tried to find out more, but you have to download an app, and pay for it, before you even know whether it’s any good or not.

After nearly twenty years, my Philips Sonicare toothbrush stopped working, just a few short weeks after Liesel’s turned its toes up. I left it a few days in case it came back to life, but I gave in and purchased a new one. I’ve gone for an Oral B this time, on the basis that it was the cheapest and if I didn’t get on with it, I wouldn’t feel obliged to wait another twenty years for it to die.

It’s always exciting when you open a new gadget. I can’t imagine the meetings that go on behind the scenes where they discuss just how much unnecessary packaging they can cram into the box: cardboard, plastic, twist ties and a user guide in 101 languages. Then, horror of horrors. The toothbrush. It’s pink. It never occurred to me to wonder about the colour when I was in the shop, but yeah, sure enough, it does actually say ‘pink’ on the box. Just as long as it doesn’t start talking.

I got up at the right time to winess a gorgeous, pink sunrise. Yeah, the same colour as my new toothbrush. Only, as you can see, in the photo, it looks more orange.

This event even made the BBC news site, if you want to look it up.

So, back to Wythenshawe Park, where not only is it muddy in places it’s completely flooded. In fact, there is such a large expanse of water, that it’s now inhabited by hundreds of water birds, too far away to see what they are.

Yes, usually, that is a large, grassy area.

AI is taking over the world and I’m sure it will be useful one day, but right now, I can’t believe a word it says. But after Donald Trump renamed The John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in his own honour, I thought two can play at that game.

Meanwhile, downunder, they’re keeping the little one entertained.

On TV, as I write, I’m looking forward to the final episode of the Doctor Who spin-off serial, The War Between the Land and the Sea after which, we’ll have to wait until Christmas next year for the next real Doctor Who story. Oh well.

If you would like hear the show in which The Pink Toothbrush features, here it is on Mixcloud: Songs with Mistakes.

Merry Christmas to you, I hope you have a great time!

Parking problems

When the Management Company refers to our communal car park, we assume that we, the occupants of the five flats in the block, are the community for which the car park exists. It’s not supposed to be a free facility for the local bulding industry. But we had a visitor for several days, taking advantage of the free parking opportunity.

This Niftylift HR12N bi-energy articulated boom lift also churned up what pretends to be lawn . I don’t care about its 12.2m working height and 6.1m horizontal reach nor its narrow 1.5m chassis. It just shouldn’t be there. It’s the most dangerous machine around, at least going by all the warning signs.

When the young man came to retrieve it later in the week, despite its narrow chassis, he struggled to steer it out of the car park. I do regret not having a go myself, though.

Apparently there aren’t enough pictures of Keiran here, so, by popular request, here’s another one.

Martha and William were happy to make their own snowglobes at our place. After which, Jenny and Liam joined us for an early Thanksgiving dinner which was delicious, thank you Liesel!

I’ve never been to Oldham before so, after my dentist appointment, I was happy to join Liesel on her mission. While she visited Abi the beautician, I wandered around the hilly town centre. This included consumption of a well-deserved and enjoyable egg sadwich which I washed down with a nice cup of coffee.

Spindles Town Square Shopping Centre provided some entertainment. The sign asked me whether I could ‘Seek out Susie’, Susie from Shopping Susie’s Kids Club.

While studying the picture, a young lady asked me if I needed any help. No, I’m just looking at the picture, thank you. “Well,” she said with arms akimbo, “you shouldn’t be here, there are no shops here, only offices.” I’d had the temerity to take the escalator to a higher floor. End of the world.

Northenden is slowly changing. Outside the Post Office, the postbox has been adapted to accept some small packets and parcels. It has solar panels on top, and you should be able to press a button, scan a QR code on your packet, and it opens the door so you can drop you item in. Well, it already doesn’t work, and I’m not sure you can entirely blame the layer of early morning frost on top.

As you can see, some guy tried to park inside the postbox, but couldn’t quite manage.

It’s a EⅡR box and, what are the chances? Just around the corner, I bumped into QE2, just not the real one. This little knitted Queen was relaxing on the sofa in the hairdressers while Paul cut Liesel’s hair. The motto on my coffee cup lid seems to fit, too.

Keiran’s getting about a bit. He took Helen and Brent for a walk up at North Head, Manly. It looks like a lovely day and the good news is, he does seem to enjoy a car ride too.

Another pet peeve: websites for shops that are closed but don’t tell you until you’ve spent ages placing your order. Usually we can order a pizza for later delivery, but on this occasion, computer says no. Not just closed until 5 o’clock or whatever, it was closed all day apparently. Possibly longer, it didn’t specify.

It’s been raining a lot and it’s safe to assume that every sentence from now on can be preceded with ‘It was raining…’.

So instead of spending in time wandering around the Christmas markets in Manchester, we took the children straight to the theatre and straight home afterwards.

We saw a stage musical version of the old Disney film, Freaky Friday. Thankfully, the songs and the laughter and the applause were all loud enough to drown out mine and Liesel’s coughs. Yes, somehow we’ve acquired a lurgy. So had Martha and William, to a lesser extent.

Liesel and I enjoyed a drive into Salford too, to see Count Arthur Strong’s version of A Christmas Carol. During the first half, he played Charles Dickens, and we learned absolute nothing about the great Victorian storyteller. The second half was indeed a version of A Christmas Carol, but not as we know it. With a cameo from Anita Harris amongst others. Again, audience laughter drowned out out hacking. But boy did we get through some cough sweets.

We had cause to visit Salford again the following day. We can now add Salford Royal to the list of hospitals we’ve visited this year. On this occasion, it was Liesel’s appointment and it went very well.

Spontaneously (or was it?) on the way home, Liesel suggested visiting the Trafford Centre. I made notes of which postcode area we parked in before dining at Wagamama. That hot, spicy soup cleared a few nasal passages, I can tell you, phew!

I think the only shop we visited was Marks and Spencers, but that was enough excitement for one day.

And that was it. Liesel’s short visit home was over. It still seems strange to have a short visit to your own home, but that’s the way the universe is right now. I dropped her off at the airport for the flight to Atlanta. Then onto Albuquerque for for night. Then she’ll take her Mom back to Anchorage. Next time I see Liesel will be in Australia.

Oh, alright then, here he is again.

Fun with the Grandies

There is no doubt about it: Keiran is the cutest baby, ever, in the history of the universe. He’s doing very well, eating, sleeping and getting to know his parents. He’s gaining weight, which is great, but I must admit, I am a bit jealous of his luxuriant, dark hair.

It rained torrentially all day, so I was considering taking a taxi to Bramhall. Fortunately, the rain eased off, so I drove, passing by, or through, several large puddles on the way, and I parked around the corner from Simply Books. I was here to see Janina Ramirez talking about her new book, Legenda. I was just in time, but what I didn’t realise was that the event had been put back half an hour, to allow everyone, including Janina, to reach the venue despite the flooding in the area.

While hanging about, I looked at some of the books on offer. I enjoyed Gavin & Stacey on TV but I probably won’t get around to reading these two books, described thus on the covers:

• Joanna Page: Lush! from Swansea to Stacey and everything in between.
• Ruth Jones and James Corden: When Gavin met Stacey and everything in between.

Janina Ramirez is very bubbly, enthusiastic about her subject and very friendly. Her talk was fascinating of course, and I look forward to reading the book.

She very kindly recorded a message for Liesel which will, I’m sure, be treasured!

Keiran and Helen returned home on Brent’s birthday and he’s already gadding about town.

Liesel arrived back home in Northenden after spending a night in Albuquerque where her Mom will stay with Buzz, Neil and Gabe for a couple of weeks. Manchester Airport Terminal 2 is very modern, but I find the road signs confusing and/or misleading. And sometimes, Google Maps doesn’t help much, either. I circumnavigated more than one roundabout.

Liesel wanted to be home now so as not to miss William’s birthday again. So we visited a couple of bakers to get the requested cakes for the birthday celebration. Due to heavy traffic everywhere, we arrived at Jenny’s later than planned, just before school pick-up time. We walked to school with Jenny and the children were very happy to see their Oma.

Sometimes, when you have a baby, you end up ‘feeding’ other members of the family too.

The first major excursion that Liesel and I took was a shopping expedition. We went to John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Tesco. Hours of fun, but we found everything we needed. We’re only a few short weeks away from Christmas so it was quite exciting to see these creatures in the shopping centre.

Liesel made two kinds of salsa that, next day,we took over to Jenny’s for William’s family birthday celebration. They were the perfect accompaniment to the bean chili that Jenny made for us. For his birthday, William received a few Minecraft themed Lego kits, and boy, is he quick at construction. He asks for help but doesn’t really need any, I think he just likes the company.

Liesel and I joined the other grandparents, Una and Alan along with Aunty Andrea, Uncle Paul and cousins Emily and Annabel. Annabel is a bit older than Martha but to her delight, she’s already taller than Liesel!

And because you haven’t seen him for a few seconds, here another photo of our cute little gransdson Keiran.

Before Liesel arrived, I was able to get a bit ahead with the radio shows, so I won’t have to lock myself away in the studio slash office slash spare room slash so-called third bedroom while she’s here.

Don’t forget you can explore/enjoy over two year’s of Mick’ Music Mix on Mixcloud.

The latest upload was comprised of ‘Songs with Monosyllabic Titles’. Catch it right here on Mixcloud.

Ooh, I haven’t had a moan about technology yet. This week I finally caved in to the nagging and upgraded my phone’s user interface. Always a nightmare because such updates change things and you often don’t find out what until much later. On this occasion, it took away the spelling suggestions/autocorrect facility from the keyboard. But the most obvious change (that I’ve seen, so far) is the bright yellow keyboard that you can see from space.

Grrr.

Exciting times

What an exciting week that was. The gardeners turned up and instead of just blowing the leaves around like they usually do, they actually collected them up and took them away. A lovely pile of compost for someone.

After losing that much weight, I can hear the old oak tree breathing a sigh of relief and stretching its limbs.

What an exciting week that was. I ventured into Manchester one evening to see Margaret Atwood speaking about her latest book, Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts. She told some funny stories and was very engaging. But I found the acoustics at the Opera House a bit disappointing. From where I was sitting near the back of the stalls, the reverberating audience laughter drowned out a lot of the dialogue from the stage.

This was the least worst of the two pictures I took. I was too intimidated by the ushers walking around with their ‘No Photography, No Videography’ signs.

Oh, and the other disappointment is that the books weren’t signed by the author.

Manchester is gearing up for Christmas, and I’m sure I’ll visit the Christmas markets sometime.

Thanks to recent solar activity, the aurora has been visible from Anchorage.

The southern version was visible from Manly, NSW, but Helen didn’t witness the event, having other things on her mind.

Storm Claudia brought strong winds and torrential rain this week. So loud, and of course, no chance of us seeing any aurorae through those clouds.

Under normal circumstance, you would expect tomatoes to be bigger than grapes. This week, I enjoyed these freaks of nature.

What an exciting week it was on TV too. A few weeks ago, Channel 4 put up a few select episodes of Brookside, the only soap that Sarah and I watched regularly. I’ve just found out that STV are showing (possibly) every Brookside episode, uploading five new ones every week.

Good to see these two together again:

It was an exciting week for young Martha too. She swam one mile, non-stop, and is rightly proud of her achievement and the certificate she received.

But of course the big news this week, the most exciting event, is the arrival of Keiran Michael. Helen and Brent have been blessed with this gorgeous little chap.

My heart is overflowing with joy for you all! For a moment, after seeing you on the video call, I thought about hopping on a plane straightaway to come over to see you all those miles away in Australia. Totally impractical of course. So, welcome to Keiran, our third grandchild! We look forward to seeing you in a couple of months time. Lots of love to you all.

I’m sure Keiran is looking forward to hearing his Grandad’s WFM radio show. The latest is on the theme of Water, for Our Earth Week which coincides with COP30. Listen here on Mixcloud.

Walking boots

Each school holiday the parents of a local primary school, Broad Oak, run a Hearts Trail in Fletcher Moss Park. This lets children explore and get to know the park and is always on a different theme. There was a Halloween theme this time, and Martha and William enjoyed the walk around the park, looking for spooky hearts. Plenty of other families were out for a walk too.

But I think more exciting even than finding hearts was testing the waterproof properties of their Wellington boots.

After the walk, I fancied a coffee (of course) but the queue was longer than we’ve ever seen it.

Autumnal colours shone through, especially given the exotic nature of some of the trees and shrubs in this garden.

One thing I didn’t have on my bingo card for 2025 (don’t you get fed up seeing this formulation on social media? I do and yet here I am, using it myself) was seeing William on the shoulders of a lacrosse player.

This is just one a few decorative park benches in Fletcher Moss Gardens.

Later in the afternoon, the children went roller-skating with their cousins Emily and Annabel. I went home and thought about going out litter-picking but, well, let’s just say, it’s the thought that counts. I did some stuff indoors instead while listening to the radio.

The management company warned us it was coming, but I was surprised when a large vehicle parked up in our communal car park.

I think it’s a cherry picker but really it’s a JLG articulated boom lift, probably a JLG 340AJ model.

It’s a noisy beast and it followed me around the flat as the young painter decorated the exterior of the building. A bit disconcerting when you’re sitting there when the boom appears outside the window and the painter waves. You have to wave back, before ging to hide in a different room. In the end, I think it was only the woodwork that was painted. Plus a few splatters on our window. But I’m sure that’ll soon be sorted out if our window cleaner ever makes another appearance.

On my quick trip to purchase a new charging cable for my phone, I wandered through the book department. I won’t be buying this one:

Everyone knows a dice has the number 6 opposite the number 1. I don’t trust this cover so why should I trust the rest of the book? A lot of people do, though, it seems, following its publication in 1937.

Nothing much has changed in Northendedn and Wythenshawe. More leaves are falling from the trees. Posts are still being driven into. Despite all the rain recently, the river hasn’t risen noticeably. I did have some rotten luck though.

The pen I acquired from Saddlers Creek Wine last year has dried up. It’s a shame because it was one of the smoothest ballpoint pens I’ve ever used. I’ll just have to go back sometime and pick up a new one.

They’ve been going off for a couple of weeks now, but I was pleased to hear the excessive fireworks on November 5th. I can’t believe so many people, strangers, wanted to commemorate what would have been my Dad’s 100th birthday.

And as we remarked the following morning on the walk, in the olden days, the morning after bonfire night would always be foggy and cold, with the smell of gunpowder everywhere and discarded rockets all over the place.

There is nothing worse than making a cup of tea and then the milk comes out of the bottle in lumps. Yes, it was still in date, always kept in the fridge. Nightmare.

Earlier, I suggested nothing’s new in Northenden. Well, Spring must be just around the corner. These beauties have just come into bloom.

Evening? This picture was taken at about noon.

Much of my time at home has been taken up with producing radio shows. I want to get a few spare ones under my belt before Liesel comes home in a couple of weeks. Speaking of whom, a few days ago, Liesel told me that after falling for 17 hours continuously, they now have seven inches of snow in Anchorage. It takes over an hour to put on enough clothes to go outside and walk over the road to the shop. From my point of view, the longer we retain higher than average temperatures in November here in Manchester, the better I like it.

Anyway, I interrupted myself there. Last week’s show had the theme of Chocolate, but in the end, it was mostly a long chat with Tasmin Archer. You can listen here on Mixcloud. It’s an extended version of the radio broadcast, because I didn’t want to waste all the chocolatey tunes I’d found.