Looking up

My radio show recently was about all the local festivals. Time to engage with some, then. So, while Liesel enjoyed coffee with her WI chums over in Didsbury as usual on a Saturday morning, I took the bus to Wythenshawe. GRUB Carnival promised the best street food in Manchester. I thought the town centre would be heaving with stalls and people, but in the end, just five vendors competed for my custom.

The most interesting, to me, was Tasty Vegan Food from West Africa. I consulted Liesel by phone, and bought some puff puffs, both savoury and sweet, something that Liesel has been wanting to try for a long time.

I took the goodies home, ate my half, and left Liesel’s for her. She’s lucky I didn’t consume her share too.

The puff puffs were indeed delicious. And, as it happens, Liesel’s been following this lady on Instagram for a while. Small world, innit?

Didsbury Arts Festival started too, and I thought I’d go along to look at the exhibits later in the week. The one Festival we did get involved with though was Glastonbury. The music was good, even if some of the mixes from the BBC, to my ears, weren’t that good.

Elton John’s performance on Sunday night was brilliant: hit after hit after hit. I watched it all live, but I did record it from TV and from the radio on my PC.

It would have been great to join the crowd at Glastonbury.

Er, no, actually. Even seeing this image on TV made my palms sweat, I wasn’t that far away from a panic attack. I would not want to be in the middle of that lot. Nor would I want to be on the edge of the crowd, somewhere at the back, miles away from the stage. Still, as I said, it was a superb performance. And wonderful to see Ray Cooper, the percussionist, just as energetic as he was that time Sarah and I saw him with Elton, on stage, all those years ago, just the two of them on stage.

Liesel walked over to Fletcher Moss to join the gang from the WI who’d been volunteered to clear the Himalayan balsam from the dipping pond. I walked over a bit later and we met for coffee before walking home. I still don’t know where the dipping pond is.

In the evening, Liesel went out again, this time to her WI Book Group. I recorded a chat with Kyle from Wythenshawe Star Gazers, which I spent a long time editing, for the radio show.

Liesel got up early and went for a solo walk. I got my steps in by joining the regular, organised walk, even though it was shorter. After this, Liesel and I joined our group of choir members in a pub in Gatley for lunch. No, we’re not in the choir, and so far, they haven’t caught on.

It was our turn to collect the children from school again this week, always a joy. They played in the school playground for a short while before we took them home.

Martha demonstrated her new skills, doing a hand-stand, going right over and finishing in the bridge position. From some hanging straps, she was able to pull herself up and through. I told her that I used to do that on tube trains in London, when they had similar straps, but I’m not sure she believed me.

I didn’t perform that stunt too often though, because every time, it felt like my arms would be pulled out of their sockets. And now, I think those straps have all been replaced by something more rigid. That’s progress.

For logistical reasons, we took Martha and William to their own house, where we didn’t play much, or read anything. I think they were tired after a long, hot day at school. Instead, we watched several episodes of Bluey, an animated Australian TV series for children, but us adults enjoy it too, it’s quite funny. Bluey is an anthropomorphic six-year-old Blue Heeler puppy characterised by her abundance of energy, imagination and curiosity of the world. The young dog lives with her family who, I think, are more interesting and fun than, for example, Peppa Pig’s almost dysfunctional yet stereotypical family, useless dad especially.

In the end, I attended all three of the Thrive Manchester organised walks this week, a hat trick. It’s cooler and more humid now, compared with last week, so it often feels like it’s about to rain. But so far, we’ve not been caught in anything too bad.

I mentioned it earlier: the theme of this week’s radio show was Astronomy and my guest was Kyle, from Wythenshawe Star Gazers. Later on in the year, I’m hoping to join them for an evening of observation. If you missed the show on Wythenshawe Radio, you can catch a slightly extended version here on Mixcloud.

Oh. And we never did see anything at Didsbury Arts Festival. Maybe next year.