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!