mickandlieselsantics

Saints and Singers

The leaf blowers are out in force, doing their worst, making a lot of noise and achieving nothing other than blowing leaves and fungal spores and all sorts of detritus into the air. This is the downside of Autumn. And then of course, the next gust of wind blows all the leaves back where they came from.

After a stroll around the streets of Northenden, I stopped for a quick coffee at Boxx2Boxx. The owner, Jill, was in today, meeting and greeting many young fans.

Chester draws me in like a magnet. It’s a straightforward enough drive to Chester, but I managed to go wrong when I tried, and failed, to follow directions to a service station on the way. Oh well.

I parked up and walked to my accommodation, my Aurbnb. After checking in, I went for a walk around the city centre. I don’t often go lurking around old, deconsecrated churches, but since this was the venue for the evening’s entertainment, I was glad to check it out. Time for a sit down…

Not the most comfortable bench, I must say.

I know Chester is an old place, but it still surprises me to see just how old some of the buildings are. Since 1622 there has been an inn on the current site of the Golden Eagle. As such it is steeped in the history of the city and community. Adjacent to the Chester Castle and Crown Court, the pub served as a hostelry to the Cheshire Regiments Garrison and the barristers and judges of the Court. This tradition has been upheld, and veterans of the regiment still frequent the pub to catch up with old comrades. I didn’t frequent this establishment today.

It was a very pleasant afternoon, so my plans to visit museums and galleries were postponed, it was forecast to rain the next day. Instead, I enjoyed the cathedral bells for a while, but not so much the busker murdering Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross and other classics.

Three Old Arches form the façade of a row building dating from about 1200, believed to be the earliest surviving shop frontage in England.

For a brief moment, I was transported back to New Mexico.

Laughing at the plastic cactus outside this Mexican establishment might have upset the locals, so I restrained myself. Instead, I had a lovely meal at Thai Baan.

Back to St Mary’s for the gig. Frankie Archer again. I know, I know. When I first booked tickets to see her, I think my mouse must have twitched or something. Instead of Manchester, I clicked on Chester. After berating myself, I decided to spend a couple of days in Chester anyway.

In support this evening was Clara Day, who I’ve heard on the radio a couple of times. I would have been singing along if I’d known the songs.

And of course, Frankie’s set was the same as two nights earlier, her skill on the violin and on all her tech totally captivating the audience.

The threatened rain never arrived, so I spent a day walking around Chester’s old Roman Wall, and making odd diversions whenever I saw something interesting. I never knew until today, for instance, that the racecourse here is also known as The Roodee. Which explains why the car was parked in the Old Roodee car park.

A Celebration of Chester, by Stephen Broadbent

This sculpture was unveiled in 1992 to mark the 900th anniversary of Chester Cathedral.

If it was surprising to see cactus here, even moreso to see a baby elephant. Not a real one, obviously, a bronze sculpture gifted to the city of Chester by Chester Zoo.

Chester Castle was never successfully overrun.

This sign on the back gate would undoubtedly deter any potential invading force.

But, just in case, a party of school children were being trained in the use of swords and shields.

I missed seeing a steam train by a couple of minutes. I heard the chuff-chuff sound, and I saw clouds of smoke behind the trees, but I missed the steam engine itself.

Outside the Cathedral, the Royal Photographic Society was displaying many prize-winning photographs.

On another occasion, I might ascend the 216 steps up the tower, climbing up through 900 years of history, as the sign says. You have to book tickets, so please remind me the next time we visit Chester.

What would you do with 275,000 Lego bricks? Build a model of Chester Cathedral, of course. This was a labour of love. The project started in April 2015.

A team of enthusiastic volunteers worked on one module at a time, on a separate table by the main model. They showed the public where to put the next brick. Once a module was completed it was fitted onto the main model.

The build took eight years and eight days and was completed in April 2023, after progress was slowed due to Covid and the lockdowns.

The good news is, after checking out, I didn’t make any mistakes on the drive home.

After an invasive procedure under sedation, Jenny collected me from the hospital and looked after me for 24 hours, thank you very much. I’m hoping that was the last one for at least a year. Best of all today, though, was spending time with the grandchildren.

After walking to school with them the next morning, Jenny took me home and I was in time to join the Thrive Walk in Wythenshawe. We commented on there seeming to be fewer geese in the park. Maybe they’ve started heading south for the Winter.

If you need some background sounds while you go about your business, don’t forget you can always listen to Mick’s Music Mix on Wythenshawe Radio. My regular time is now Sunday afternoon, 4pm. Or, catch up on Mixcloud. (Psst, no adverts on my shows.)

After the Wednesday walk this week, we walkers were still welcome to have coffee at Boxx2Boxx despite the fact that they were secretly filming inside. The cake was delicious. We sat outside in the ‘marquee’. Thick black drapes across the windows meant that we couldn’t see what was going on inside. Two bouncers outside seemed a bit over the top, though.

This week’s walk in Wythenshawe was attended by 7 people, and we all made good progress. I know I shouldn’t, but I did laugh to myself when one person slowed down whenever they were chatting. As if they can’t walk and talk at the same time. Planning and plotting an overtaking manoeuvre can be difficult when you’re on a narrow path in the woods.

In the evening, I ventured into Manchester for another gig.The bus ride and the walk to the venue were faster than anticipated, so I had time for a quick walk around the back streets.

The show was at Hallé St Michael’s and I was here to see my second favourite Martha, Martha Tilston. As Liesel said, she always puts on a good show. In support was Alwyn Jones.

Again, he sang his own songs, and I was unable to sing along. But, neither could anybody else. The audience was a nice mix of old farts like me and young people.

Martha, of course, didn’t disappoint. She manages to hold the audience in the palm of her hand, inviting us to accompany her without actually saying so. Again, her final song was taught her by her late step-mother, Maggie Boyle.. She stood right next to me, in the middle of the audience, so I’m sure my boat race has ruined some of the videos taken by some audience members!

She was accompanied by Matt Kelly, who’s been at her side for as long as I can remember, right from the early days, gulp, well over twenty years ago, in the Grey Horse, Kingston upon Thames.

Don’t forget, Mick’s Music Mix on Mixcloud. Here is the latest show, the theme is ‘Goin’ Home’. Plus, as a bonus, at the end of this show, you can find out how I was appointed Governor of the state of Alaska.

Humungous fungus

Liesel took Holly to Whittier and on this occasion, the weather was kind enough to make a boat trip worthwhile. And they all had a great time out on the ocean waves, watching orcas breach and glaciers calve. I can only imagine the smell of the sealions as they (mostly) outswam the predators.

Meanwhile, here in sunny England, I enjoyed a walk with Jenny, Liam, Martha and William over the border in Derbyshire. The car park in Crowden was nearly full, but we squoze in easily.

The path followed Torside and Rhodeswood Reservoirs. Yes, reservoirs that haven’t (yet) been sold off by the privatised water companies. William was pleased to make friends with the smallest frog in the world. They met when William enjoyed the first of several bush wees. (He’ll be pleased to read that when he’s a bit older.)

Martha was equally impressed by the very bright toadstools.

We didn’t run up any of the higher hills, not on this occasion. No, we just appreciated the leisurely walk on a well-worn, slightly undulating path. However many steps we grown-ups took (17,500 in my case), I’m pretty sure the children ran twice as far.

I have visions of Liesel rolling her eyes when she sees this photo:

The temptation to bend a tall structure in this manner is irresistable. On the other hand, the view was very English.

Rhodeswood Reservoir with Suffolk sheep and a pylon

Only as we were on the home straight, did I see a sign confirming that we were on the Pennine Way. That’s another item on the bucket list, to walk the whole length of the iconic route.

This week, I felt I was fighting technology a lot. My main fight was with Microsoft. I’ve had a Schrödinger’s account for a while. It won’t let me log in because there’s no such account. Yet when I try to create a new account, it tells me there already is one.

This week, my Microsoft Office stopped working. They were unable to verify my licence. Go online to verify, it said. I’m already online, I replied, I can’t get any more online than I am, no matter how much you nag. In the process, my Word and Excel were disabled. I could view existing documents but I couldn’t edit them nor create new ones.

I got to a place where I could enter the Product Key, and it told me that Key had already been used. Yeah. By me. Three years ago.

There is no way to speak to a human at Microsoft. There is a phone number, but when you call it, the automated voice just says to go to the website.

When you go to the website, you go round and round in circles. I had to enter fifteen one-time codes, and my password several times, getting nowhere fast. In the end, I decided to delete the account. It asks 101 questions before you get to actually get to that point: mostly about features that I didn’t even know existed, that I’ve never used, and I won’t miss at all. And then, the account’s not actually removed for 60 days, ‘in case you change your mind’.

Then, if you open (in my case) Word or Excel, that is taken as to mean I want to cancel my request to delete the account. To avoid opening one of those by mistake, I uninstalled all the software.

A couple of days later, I received a marketing email from Microsoft. I don’t need that either, so I’ll unsubscribe. Easy, I thought. To unsubscribe, yes, I have to sign in. If I do that, then my request to delete the account will be cancelled.

The whole set-up is just nasty. Amongst all the big tech companies, I used to think Microsoft was one of the, if not ‘good’ guys, then one of the least worst. Oh well.

I’m now using getting used to Libre Office. It does 90% of what Microsoft Office does, it’s free and open source. So, a big razzberry to Microsoft.

On a lighter note, literally, Una sent some gorgeous photos of the Northern Lights from Anchorage.

Just as glorious, of course, is Northenden’s tiny village green, embracing the season.

Another technology fail. Booking flights to a holiday destination used to be fun, something to look forward to. Now, it’s soul-destroying, it just feels like you’re fighting the system all the time.

I’m visiting Helen in Australia at the end of January. After several days faffing about, trying to find a cheaper flight, it was time to pick a flight and book it.

After successfully entering all the details of my booking, double- and triple-checking (recalling Liesel’s faux pas last time, when we got tickets for March instead of April, oops, but never mind), Etihad declined my credit card, despite me confirming it was genuine via the bank’s app. I called the bank, there was no reason for my card to be declined, they said, the problem must be at their end.

I looked up Etihad Customer Support and being a bit flustered, I clicked on the first link that came up. Connect to our partner for a refundable £1 to get help. Cheeky bastards, I thought. When I did, I saw they want £1 then £24 a month subscription. At this point, I realised this was a con. So, back to the bank who strongly recommended cancelling my card and reissuing. This was a bit disappointing and annoying, and yes, inconvenient, but it was the right thing to do. Some rogue company might have my credit card details.

I still had to pay for my flights, of course: I don’t know whether the booking disappears after a set amount of time. So, I used my other card. This is one that I’ve been running down for a long time. I’ve not used it now for several months, and I’d planned to cancel it in due course. Again, to verify the card, I had to go to this bank’s app to say it was genuine. The payment went through.

So, I’ve decided to keep this second credit card, for just such an eventuality, an emergency, even if I don’t use it on a regular basis.

On my ‘main’ card, the one that was incorrectly declined, there are a couple of subscriptions so I’ll have to go in and change those, once the replacement card turns up.

Also, a reminder to myself, even if the heading in a big typeface says ‘Etihad Customer Care’, check the actual link before clicking on it.

I didn’t spend all week fuming in front of my laptop. I did go out a couple of times for some fresh air, some shopping and, oh alright, a coffee. I had a flu jab and a covid jab, one in each arm, to spread the load of the 5G microchips being injected into my body. But best of all, I went out to a gig.

I saw Frankie Archer at Low Four Studio in Deansgate, Manchester.

Yes I’ve been busy preparing shows for Wythenshawe Radio, after a break of very nearly a year. It took a while to recall how to use some of the software and, inevitably, new ‘features’ have been introduced that I’m not interested in. That’s progress, apparently!

The venue was intimate, and the audience enjoyed the support act, Satnam Galsian. She sang songs in Punjabi and in English, and played her own shruti box, a bellows that provides a drone to accompany the vocals.

Frankie Archer herself bounced onto stage and performed several ‘dark’ songs, promising to sing some more upbeat ones in the second half. When playing her fiddle, dancing around the stage, you can tell she’s really enjoying herself. And I don’t know how she can keep on top of all her equipment, samplers, keyboards, pedals and other gadgets.

The Demon features in the video for her latest single, The Demon Lover.

If you would like to hear more from Frankie, listen to my latest radio show, now up on Mixcloud. As well as Frankie, there are some great songs which (sometimes inadvertently) namecheck other bands or singers.

One two tree

It feels like it rained continually for a week after I returned home to Northenden. But that doesn’t matter, because I was sleeping for most of that time anyway. I was vaguely aware of the passing of time and the rain splashing against the windows and the wind howling through the trees and eating every now and then, but I’ve no idea why it took much longer to get over the jetlag this time than it usually does.

Still, the rain did stop eventually so I went for a wander down to the river, to see how high it was, and to see whether there was a realistic chance of any flooding.

The water was no higher than usual. I’m not saying I was disappointed, but I was certainly surprised.

The trees in the woods were taking a while to dry out, though. And if the rain didn’t cause any damage, the wind certainly did.

The last half dozen blackberries didn’t look very appealing, either, so we left them for the foxes. And the last half dozen bees are slurping the last of the pollen from the sunflowers, sunflowers that look a bit sad now that Autumn is approaching.

In Manchester Central Library, I joined a group of writers. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but in the end, after a bit of a chat, we just wrote for an hour, uninterrupted, and with no expectation to read out whatever nonsense we came up with. I’d never been up to the 3rd floor before, so of course I had to take a picture of the dome.

It was fun meeting Kimberly and Sarah, both published authors. The good news is, I was able to get a seat on the tram home.

Walking through the woods, we don’t often see birds. And when we do, they usually fly off pdq. But one little chap was sitting on the fence, yes, he just couldn’t decide whetehr to stay or not.

He wasn’t bothered by us, and he wasn’t in distress, so we just said hello and walked on by.

And in Painswick Park, there seemed to be far fewer geese than usual. Maybe they know something we don’t, and they’re heading south before the weather deteriorates.

A few of us had a discussion about the colour of this car:

Grey with a slight hint of blue was the consensus. But Google told us is was Cape York Green Metallic. Green? Sure enough. When we looked up the registration number, it did say green. I’m sure if I reported an incident to the police, I’d describe this vehicle as grey rather than green. So I won’t bother. And in any case, as far as I know, it’s not been involved in any criminal activity.

Over in Anchorage, the Autumn colours are a bit ahead of ours.

Later in the week, Liesel had a visitor, a young American, Holly, all the way from Washington. I’m sure she’ll appreciate the Autumnal colours.

I’m getting back into making radio shows so keep an eye on the Wythenshawe Radio schedule. It was a joy this week to have a chat with ‘one to watch’ Frankie Archer, the feminist Northumbrian electro-folk musician, who is going on tour very soon. Yes, I have my tickets. Mostly though, I was refamiliarising myself with the various software. Inevitably, there were ‘updates’. And updates almost always means adding in more features that you’ll never need. I’ve always thought, if it ain’t broke, don’t break it. So that’s my little whinge of the week.

Feeds and Weeds

I’ve heard of Hatcher Pass, but today was my first trip there. We drove towards Willow, a city that once very nearly became the state capital. My ears popped as we drove up into the mountains. Our specific destination was Independence Mine State Historical Park. Gold mining here was once a big operation, and we enjoyed walking around the site, always keeping an eye out in case someone had dropped a gold nugget or something.

The landscape looked a bit Scottish, although the tundra vegatation here is totally different.

A big surprise was to see a wedding party: they’ll have some fabulous pictures of the bride and groom with a gorgeous backdrop.

Some of the old buildings are in need of some TLC. Visitors are warned to stay on the path.

We walked up a few of the tracks and it was quite exciting to be here in the moutians. A couple of years ago, I might have been tempted to run up the slopes like a gazelle, but those days are gone, I fear. In Winter, the area is a popular ski resort. The amount of gold found in the rocks and minerals seems to be very small, it takes a lot of hard work to extract it, but 30,000 people thought it was worth the effort.

And as if the buildings being in a state of disrepair wasn’t bad enough, it’s a good job we weren’t planning to catch this train back to Anchorage.

On the drive home, we stopped at a place purporting to offer The Best Ice Cream in the World. It wasn’t. It was OK, and the scoop was American huge, nothing special, really. It began to rain before we arrived home, but our spirits weren’t dampened.

In the morning, Liesel went out on a mission, which meant that Leslie and I walked into the big city. The streets being on a grid network meant that we couldn’t really lose our way, but neither could we completely avoid the traffic.

Even though Autumn is knocking at the door, some of the flower beds in the parks are still very colourful. As is much of the street art. The murals in particular are delightful.

We met Monica in Midnight Sun for lunch and Liesel joined us a few minutes later. We spent some time across the road in the Museum. Dogs are very popular in Alaska so it’s no surprise that there is a Dog Show in the museum, a collection of photos and other exhibits celebrating dogs. Obviously, this exhibition is located in Patricia B Wolf Family Galleries.

On the drive home, we passed a wall adorned with some up to date graffiti, with slogans such as: Human Rights Matter; ICE – Due Process Only; Make billionaires pay taxes again; War Criminals not welcome in Alaska [Putin met Trump here recently]; We did not vote for Project 2025; No human being is illegal; Слава Україні!; No Christian Nationalism; Make America free again; Alaska is not for sale. Yes, it’s a very big wall.

Leslie once again joined Aaron to watch a football game. So Liesel and I had a rare date night. Our first thought was to dine at the Ethiopian restaurant. The car park was empty, and I tried the door, but no, it was definitely closed. Not even a notice on the door. Oh well, off to a Nepalese/Indian place instead. It was called Everest. Of course. The food was very tasty, not too hot and spicy, and, we think, prepared with a lot less ghee than they use in British Indian restaurants. We took the leftovers home in a box. Several boxes in fact.

Rather than go straight home, we thought it would be nice to visit Potters Marsh for a crepuscular walk. There were plenty of other visitors this evening too, and we managed to walk the full length of the boardwalk.

There were fewer birds than we expected, but for me, the most exciting one was the bald eagle sitting in a tree about a mile away. We made good use of the binoculars supplied by the local authority.

Again, I looked at the people carrying 2-feet long zoom lenses with a touch of envy.

Liesel joined Una for a jewellery making class over the road from the Museum. Leslie spent more time with Aaron. Don’t worry, I had things to do. I walked back to the Museum as I wanted to visit the Cold War to the Cosmos exhibition which we hadn’t had time for yesterday.

There are three magpies outside the Museum: they reminded me of the three magpies that live in the oak tree at home.

The Cold War displays were fascinating. I didn’t know, for instance, that America’s nuclear bomb tests weren’t confined to New Mexico and some south Pacific islands. They also bombed a small Alaskan island.

There was a lot of information about the cold war, early warning systems, and the cosmos, but also about climate change.

Lots of information. To me, some of the graphics were too detailed and I’m sure a lot of people would have just walked on by, I know I nearly did.

Later on, we joined Monica and Gregg for dinner at Pho Gia Đình Vietnamese Restaurant. I think Gregg is still adjusting to being retired. Well, me too, after nearly ten years.

Liesel hasn’t visited Thunder Bird Falls since she was a teenager, and that was a long, long time ago. We had a lovely walk there, even if the initial long and steep incline from the car park was a bit daunting. The smell of Autumn was in the air, nothing bad, just the normal seasonal decay. Which, unfortunately for me, brings back memories of cross-country running at school.

We passed lots of dog walkers and interestingly, every single dog was on a lead, as the signs requested. But it was a very pleasant hike and at the end of the track, we admired the waterfall while chatting to a couple from South America.

Nearby is Eklutna Lake, the main source of fresh water for Anchorage. The lake was too big to walk around, so we just wandered down to look at it. We didn’t even skim any stones on this occasion. The sign said ‘No camping, no fires’ so I can only surmise that the smoke we detected came from the official campsite nearby.

One thing we didn’t need to see on the way home, as we overtook another vehicle, was the moose’s head with a huge rack. It was accompanied by a chainsaw on board a Yamaha Viking Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV) being transported on a trailer.

I spent much of the morning packing, and of course I was bound to leave something behind, it would just be a surprise in a few days time to find out what it was.

I also took pictures of all of Liesel’s parents’ records, maybe a new feature of my radio show will be ‘A track from my wife’s Mom and Dad’s record collection’ but with a more succinct name. These records were mostly from Liesel’s childhood, though, lots of Disney and children’s stories.

Liesel, Leslie and I walked to a popular restaurant, Fletchers, where we joined Una and Phil for a most enjoyable lunch. Afterwards, I paid a quick visit to a gift shop and on the way home, I stopped off at Fire Island for a coffee. Yes, I deliberately took a long-cut home.

Uh? Why take a picture of a hotel that we’re not even staying at? Well, the combination of a clear sky and slightly tinted windows gives out a lovely electric blue reflection.

I’ve mentioned it before but I do like the Anchorage Light Speed Planet Walk. Today I saw the Sun, and I passed by Mercury, Venus and Earth, walking at the speed of light. And at that speed, it would take 5½ hours to reach Pluto, so I decided to leave the rest of the Solar System for another occasion.

Aaron and Jodi joined us for dinner, and I said a quick hello to Gideon, who’d been out playing football again.

Well, that time arrived at last. Rain set in as we set off for the airport. I was heading back to sunny England, while Liesel stayed in Anchorage with her Mom. As always, I was unduly anxious about the airport experience, but this time, straight through security and lots of time just to hang around. Even moreso with my slightly delayed flight.

In Frankfurt, I enjoyed the bus ride from plane to gate. And I enjoyed the train ride to my departure gate, having taken a wrong turn somewhere and leaving the secure area. Again, the extra security measures here were blamed on the US government although why they’d be interested in us when we’re flying the UK, I have no idea.

Welcome home, me. Miserable outside. But I was greeted with a box of vegetables outside the door, thanks to Groobarb and Liesel. A few days ensued, adjusting to the new timezone, sleeping, unpacking, short walks, nothing too taxing. As usual, I have a long to-do list and I’m sure it will be even longer next week.

Bugs and bigger beasts

Liesel and I returned to her Mom’s apartment, which was just as warm as it always is, even without the heating being turned on.

After a bit of a rest, I was still jetlagged and bedazzled, but happy to join Liesel as we drove over to a friend’s house. Along with many other people, we’d been invited to a Henna Party, something us blokes wouldn’t normally attend, but this was an opportunity for everyone to meet and get to know Rupert a little better: that’s Jyoti’s fiancé Rupert.

The two bottles of Pimm’s that I’d successfully brought over were enjoyed by many of us at the party, mixed with lemonade and with plenty of fruit added.

Thanks to Melanie and Dave for hosting the party, there was an overwhelming number of people here, some of whom I have met before, including some to whom I couldn’t immediately put a name.

Many of the ladies had henna applied to their hands, in complex patterns, but as I’d been up for over 24 hours, Liesel dragged us away home before her hands could be decorated. Boy, I had a good night’s sleep!

My first full day back in Alaska was relaxed. So relaxed, we even went for a pedicure. The cheese-grater got a good workout on my heels, thank you very much. We paid a short visit to Amrit’s office to quickly address an administrative matter. The view of the mountains was unusual. Then I realised: there was no snow. Last time I saw this vista, people were speed skating on the ice that covered the park just over the road.

We lunched at Bear Tooth, mainly because Liesel’s first choice, the newly opened Eye Tooth, wasn’t open today

Later on, we visited Jyoti’s place for dinner. About 20 people came over, some from Anchorage, some from Talkeetna and a couple of folks from much further afield.

Jyoti’s dhal was as delicious as ever and I’m sure the carnivores enjoyed their chicken. Someone suggested going out for a quick walk, so we did. A very short walk, just to the bluff overlooking Turnagain Arm.

There were a few sandhill cranes down on the mudflats, hard to spot from this distance. Then from a distance, we saw a small flock of them take off and entertain us with a flypast.

Even more exciting was the sight of a couple of bald eagles in flight.

Someone remarked on how lucky it was that the cat that had been lurking nearby had now gone back indoors. It would have been a nice snack for the eagle.

Liesel drove us home around sunset, so it was interesting to see the Alpenglow on the distant Chugach Mountains, even without snow to reflect much light.

The first long(-ish) walk of this visit took place early(-ish) in the morning. We wandered down to Westchester Lagoon, Liesel setting the goal of turning around at the second bridge. Some people were paddle-boarding and kayaking in the lagoon, and after a while, we finally found the family of swans that Liesel had told us about. The cygnets are pretty much fully grown, but their plumage is still baby grey.

A few colourful flowers brightened the place up, and we noticed that some of the trees’ leaves have begun to change colour: Autumn is just around the corner.

Common toadflax or butter-and-eggs or brideweed

We walked slowly back home, and Liesel drew my attention to some skis in a most unusual place.

She said that round the corner, there was a stick library. I asked why someone would want to borrow a stick? She said that people don’t but dogs do.

Which makes perfect sense in a city where there are approximately 17 dogs per capita. I don’t know if that figure’s correct, but I extrapolated from the number of people we saw today compared with the number of dogs.

I was able to have a bit of a nap in the afternoon, before the main event of this visit.

Anchorage Museum was a great venue for a wedding ceremony, and this is where Jyoti and Rupert celebrated their nuptials.

Liesel, Leslie and I were amongst the first to arrive. We met some of the same people that we’d seen over the last two nights, at Melanie’s and at Jyoti’s.

It was nice to be reacquainted with Theresa, our companion when we walked Hadrian’s Wall a couple of years ago, and to meet her daughter Neela for the first time.

It’s a sign of the times, I suppose, that I was very conscious of not saying something that could be misconstrued. All the ladies were telling each other how wonderful, how gorgeous they were looking, all dressed up beautifully for the occasion. Several times, I too thought “You look nice”, but in this post-#MeToo age, I felt uncomfortable vocalising this, especially to the younger members of the fairer sex. What a shame. But they could all have come from the pages of a fashion magazine.

The food was plentiful, charcuterie, vegetarian samosas, lamb & turkey kabobs, tandoori chicken, potato chips, chocolate and enough cupcakes to sink a battleship.

The marriage ceremony was beautifully conducted by Una, who you may remember, joined Liesel and me in unholy matrimony all those years ago.

It was then time to party with nice mix of western and Indian music. I wandered around a bit, greeting people and even climbing the stairs for a better view of the proceeedings.

I’m glad I hadn’t eaten too much when the time came to make my mark on the dancefloor. I managed not to tread on anybody’s foot, so I’d call that a success.

People started drifting away, and the hosts were packing up as Liesel, Leslie and I left. Later, we found out that the bride and groom and several guests had moved on to another venue to continue their debauchery well into the night.

After all that excercise, I had a really good night’s sleep, even if the dreams were a little weird.

After dropping her Mom off at Aaron’s house, Liesel drove me for a massage. Debbie’s been around for a long time but this was the first time I’d met her. Her massage was fantastic, very relaxing, and highly recommended. And it was booked well before I decided to show off my moves on the dance floor last night.

Liesel had also planned a date with Catherine and Hans, and we drove up to their house for lunch. Cath had baked quiches for us which we enoyed, while watching the weather. The plan was to go for a walk, but it looked decidedly murky out there.

Cook Inlet viewed from Cath and Hans’s house

And yes, it did start raining, so our planned walk was delayed and eventually cancelled. Still, we had a good chat about this and that. They’re now off to Switzerland, but I forgot to tell them that I’d seen some skis up a tree, if they needed some.

Dinner was planned for Phở Lena but this venue was closed. Plan B then was So Thai, and that’s where we met up with Aaron, Jodi and Mom for a very nice pad thai.

No, we weren’t magically teleported to Guildford, Surrey, England: this is just one of the photos Pauline sent me from our old hometown.

After leaving the Thai restaurant, Jodi and Liesel visited the shop next door, Enlighten Alaska. The sign on the door said ‘No pets allowed’, so I didn’t go in.

At Alaska Botanical Gardens, the ticket clerk assured us that there had been no bear sightings recently, but we did notice a large ursine deposit by the boundary fence.

The gardens are very well presented and we enjoyed a very pleasant walk.

Although we’d come for a walk and to enjoy the flowers and other plants, we were also impressed by some of the sculptures.

Tempting, but we didn’t want to spend a few thousand dollars on a collection of rusty bicycle wheels pretending to be a tree.

There’s a pair of large magpies here, made from local willow, alder and birch branches.

Night and Day, by The Myth Makers, Doona Dodson and Andy Moerlein

Look closely and you’ll see a little Liesel and Leslie, just for scale.

We decided to follow the extra mile long trail, and we were joined by a young lady from Colombia, now teaching here in Anchorage. She said she was scared to walk any further by herself, as she was a bit scared. She apologised for her bad English, but there was nothing wrong with it. Plusl, our collective Spanish was no good. Dos cervezas, por favor.

We saw more evidence of approaching Fall, or Autumn.

Vibrant fall foliage of Mapleleaf Viburnum

We noticed as we wandered around that there were no birds singing. And apart from a few bees, there were very few insects. I did spot this well camouflaged little chap.

The separate Herb Garden was interesting too. The biggest herb growing here was rhubarb, but this is pretty:

A quick errand took us to Monica’s house after which we returned home for dinner and to watch some ~~cra…~~ thing on TV.

There must be something in the air or the water here, because I had more weird dreams. After breakfast, we left the city, visiting Portage, famous for its glacier which has now receded a mile and a half since Liesel was born. Not that I’m blaming Liesel, but we got nowhere near it. And it was on this drive that I saw the first snow of my trip. Just a few patches on the mountains across Turnagain Arm, but it all counts.

Of course, a few spots snow aren’t as interesting as the glacier which we saw from a distance.

We haven’t visited Whittier since that time many years ago when we joined Cath and Hans on their boat. The tunnel is longer than I remembered, two and a half miles, and just one lane, so vehicle convoys enter the tunnel in alternating directions every half hour. We were lucky in both directions, we didn’t have to wait too long at all.

The first thing we noticed as we emerged into Whittier was how much lower the clouds were on this side of the mountains.

We decided the visibility was too poor, there was no point in joining a boat trip today. But how lucky were we to see a train about to go through the tunnel.

We didn’t spend a lot of time here, just admiring the calm sea and its mineral rich colour, which doesn’t really show well in photos. This is when I wish I were a painter instead.

More sightseeing on the way back, of course.

Byron Peak and Byron Glacier in Portage Valley, Alaska, as seen from Portage Lake

We even stopped off at Williwaw Salmon Viewing area where we did indeed view some very sluggish salmon trying to make their way up the narrow stream.

This was as close as we got to seeing any wildlife. Not even a moose by the roadside.

Back in Anchorage, we had a late lunch at South, a popular restaurant. While Liesel and Leslie had proper, big, American meals, I was quite satisfied with my Cauliflower Tacos (v, gf): cornmeal crust, sofrito, roasted poblano, avocado, cilantro, flour tortillas. All washed down with a long refreshing gin and tonic based beverage.

The two moms sitting near us with their young children left enough food on the floor to feed the 5,000. I believe a reasonable tip was left for the staff!

We thought it would be a nice day out to visit Alaska Zoo. I remember the first time I was taken, many years ago, in the depths of Winter. It was so cold that day, even the Siberian tigers didn’t emerge from their dens. Today was pleasantly mild, but I think the Siberian tigers must have moved on to that great celestial zoo with much bigger plains on which to roam.

The thing that struck us today was just how much fencing and chicken wire and mesh there is. Plus how much plastic there is in the animals’ pens. The place seemed a bit worn out, shabby even, compared with, say, Chester Zoo. It needs a bit of a touch up, some new signs, some fresh paint. And they really should think about replacing all that tight mesh. But despite this handicap, I did get a few good photos.

I took some pictures through the mesh, believing that I could use an AI tool to ‘remove’ the cage elements from the image. No luck there. I’ll try again when AI has grown up a bit.

Two hours at the zoo was plenty, and back in town, we had a late lunch at New Sagaya, Midtown Market branch, not the one just over the road from Leslie’s apartment.

The good news is that on this visit to Anchorage, my nose hasn’t been bleeding nearly as much as it usually does, for which I am very grateful.

AK, AI and AG

The Online Safety Act has been in the news a lot recently. Ostensibly, it’s to protect children and others from harmful content on the internet. Well, some sites are being a bit over-zealous. I tried to access something quite innocuous, and for the fiorst time ever, it wanted to check I was old enough. This site chose to do so by looking at me and estimating my age. I made sure my boatrace was in the designated ellipse, which it called a circle. It then had the nerve to tell me, “That doesn’t look like a real face.” Well, it’s the only one I have, so I guess I won’t be visiting this site again any time soon. Rude.

Helen flew home after a relatively short but welcome visit, looking good and ready for the next adventure.

Pauline and Andrew returned from their side trip to Thirsk and beyond. They had a splendid time visiting Newcastle and Alnwick and came back with Geordie accents.

Suddenly, there was an exclamation from their room. What’s wrong, Andrew? It sounded like a big deal. It wasn’t really. While staying with Yvonne and Ian, Andrew had hidden the loudly ticking alarm clock amongst his soundproofing clothes. He just realised that he still had it. Pauline consulted her old school chum who revealed that other visitors had merely removed the batteries from the clock!

While berating Andrew for inadvertently stealing a clock, Pauline came across Yvonne’s copy of the English Heritage brochure in her own bag. I told them that in view of their criminal record, I have taken a full inventory of items in my own luxury apartment.

After a leisurely start to the day, we walked over to Didsbury again. It’s a nice walk and I wanted to see the refurbished path on the side of the river that’s been closed to pedestrians for a couple of weeks.

The path used to be notoriously bumpy, with bricks and rubble peppered along its length. It would be nice to see it nice and smooth and flat, like the path at the Didsbury end.

The level of anticipation as we approached the new bit was almost unbearable. I was on my own at this point, as Pauline and Andrew walked along the upper level path, not fully appreciating how important and exciting this new path was. It’s white gravel, not solid concrete or anything and while it’s better than what we had before, I wonder if it will survive next time the river’s in flood?

Then round the next corner, the renewed path came to an end.

Disbelief followed by manic laughter was the only possible response. I guess we Northenden folk don’t deserve the same riverside walking experience as the posh people of Didsbury.

Andrew found a golf ball which he decided to keep, adding it to his collection of purloined items.

And then, just before Simon’s Bridge, there’s another stretch of white gravel to enjoy.

Even the upper level path has been treated, just a little bit.

How good is AI, part 1? I showed this picture to Google, to see whether it could identify the location. I knew it wouldn’t identify the people. But here’s what it said:

The image captures a moment of two individuals, possibly a couple, [true] walking outdoors on a sunny day. They are on a path surrounded by lush green foliage, suggesting a natural setting like a park, countryside trail, [true] or a garden. The man has his arm around the woman, indicating a close relationship. [true] In the background, other people can be seen, suggesting a public area. This image was shared on Facebook with the caption “Me walking into danger”. [Utter rubbish, the similar picture on Facebook is of a total stranger] Don’t rely on AI for anything important.

We stopped for coffee and a snack in Fletcher Moss Park before wandering around the rockery, admiring the plants and the baby moorhens in the murky water.

Some people are so talented, and this woodpecker certainly lifts the mood.

And finally, in this small collection of bird related pictures:

Obviously not a real chicken, but the name given to this fungus that likes growing on rotten wood. Apparently it’s edible and tastes a bit like chicken. None of us were willing to try it out.

In the parsonage garden, we were greeted by another wood carving.

The weeping ash tree was planted nearly 200 years ago, but succumbed to ash die back disease in 2022. The Green Man that has been carved into an old tree stump is believed to be an ancient symbol of life, death and rebirth. The work was carried out by Andy Burgess, wood sculptor, September, 2023.

We visited the Parsonage where we learnt some local history. Shouldn’t laugh, but Didsbury gets its name from Dyddi’s burgh, from a long time ago.

The place has been lovingly restored over the years, the highlight for me being a stained glass window which acts as a sundial, one of only 44 such in the whole country, apparently.

And in the garden, perhaps the mosts surprising thing was seeing late blooming magnolias.

As if the metal heron in Northenden’s Riverside Park isn’t impressive enough, here in Didsbury, there’s an eagle perched above the lychgate leading to the parsonage garden.

We walked home after a quick visit to the Art of Tea café and bookshop. By now, the temperature was a welcome 28°.

In the evening, after a sunny day with clear skies, I was hoping to see, and maybe photograph the thin cresnt Moon just after sunset. Sadly, a band of cloud appeared low in the sky, ruining my plans.

While Pauline and Andrew visited Manchester Art Gallery, taking the bus into the city, I stayed at home to prepare for my own next adventure. The to-do list was successfully tackled, even though for a while, for every item I ticked off, I thought of somegthing else to do.

I did something today that I very rarely do. I went clothes shopping for myself, specifically to acquire a pair of blue socks. Can I just say yet again that the men’s clothes department in M&S is so depressing. It could do with some colour. Even the socks I found are a dull shade of blue.

Later in the afternoon, we all watched some cricket on TV.

Early Wednesday morning saw P&A go out for a walk. I joined the regular, organised stroll and Pauline accompanied us too.

How good is AI, part 2? I saw something interesting, took a picture of it and asked Google, what could it possibly be?

It said:

The object in the image is a puffball mushroom, likely a species from the genus Calvatia, such as the Giant Puffball (Calvatia gigantea) or the Skull-shaped Puffball (Calvatia craniiformis).

Such certainty. But, just round the corner, there was a whole bunch of these things, some of which had burst, revealing them to be wan-coloured balloons.

We enjoyed a coffee back at Boxx2Boxx. Sitting outside, we felt about three spots of rain, but the rain didn’t start properly until after we’d returned home. The threatened thundersturm didn’t materialise, in the end, and I think we were all a little disappointed.

At Pauline’s request, we joined the children and their parents at Piccolo, an Italian restaurant in Didsbury.

Liam, Martha, William, Andrew, Pauline, Mick, Jenny

This was by way of another farewell meal. Next morning, I was up before 5am, and ready to catch my cab at 6am. P&A were staying at the flat for one more day, before catching trains all the way to Guildford, the birthplace of me and my sister.

Manchester Airport, Terminal 2, was where my next rip to Anchorage began. No major upsets, other than the Baggage Handling system being down, so even though loads of us had checked in online and just had to print our baggage labels and attach them to the bags, we couldn’t just quickly drop them off. In security, we didn’t have to take anything out of our bags before screening, no electronics nor liquids. So civilised. But I had to take my belt off or the personal scanner would have been confused.

The worst experience though was probably walking through the fume cupboard that is the duty free shop with its sickly combination of perfumes. My sneezing fit could probably be heard at my final destination.

The flight to Frankfurt Airport was uneventful but after landing, we had to while for someone to find the bus. The bus ride to the arrival gate was nearly as long in duration as the flight itself.

More stinky perfume in this airport, something that my old Chemistry teacer would have described as ‘Sewer de Paris’. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the inky stench from the complimentary copy of the New York Times provoked another sneezing fit.

The officers here made it very clear that the extra, unwelcome and unnecessary, passport check at the departure gate was at the instigation of the US Governement. It slowed down the boarding process, but in the end, the flight to Anchorage departed just a few minutes late.

I understand the science, but it still feels weird, taking off at 3.30pm and arriving at 3.10pm, same day, 7000 miles away. The flight was a little bumpy in places, but I noticed from the on-board screen, we were deviating a bit from the planned route, presumably to avoid the worst of the stormy weather.

It took a while, but I finally realised what Condor’s new livery reminds me of. Pippi Longstocking.

It was lovely to be collected at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport by Jyoti. In an unexpected and exciting turn of events, she drove me straightaway to Fred Meyer to buy some groceries. Liesel met us here, and while I ran towards her in slow motion, she didn’t reciprocate. Indeed, she was quite rude about my ‘silly walk’.

How good is AI, part 3? I was chatting with a chatbot about some David Bowie lyrics, ahead of me re-starting my radio show very soon (spoiler alert!)

Here is what it said. Yes, there are factual inaccuracies, so not to be relied on:

Here is a list of David Bowie songs that mention specific numerical times, including the ones you noted:

Songs with Specific Numerical Times

1. “Five Years” (The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, 1972)

· Time Mentioned: The title itself, “Five Years.”
· Context: This is the most famous and impactful use of a specific time period. The news announces that the world will end in five years, creating the album’s central apocalyptic tension. It’s a countdown that hangs over every song.

2. “Time” (Aladdin Sane, 1973)

· Time Mentioned: “5:15”
· Lyric: “Time, he’s waiting in the wings / He speaks of senseless things / His script is you and me, boy / Time, he flexes like a whore / Falls wanking to the floor / His trick is you and me, boy / Breaking up is hard, but waiting for you is the hardest thing I’ve ever known / (5:15) and I’m still waiting for you, don’t you know?”
· Context: This is the prime example. “5:15” evokes the “angel hour” or a very specific, anxious moment of waiting, possibly after a night out. It’s a time suspended between night and morning, perfect for the song’s themes of anxiety, decadence, and wasted time.

3. “Young Americans” (Young Americans, 1975)

· Time Mentioned: “9:25”
· Lyric: *”**They pulled in just behind the factory / That’s where he, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know /

This is about one-tenth of the regurgitation, so I pressed the Stop button at which point it continued…

he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know / He took her, you know, he took her, you know

This response is Al-generated, for reference only.

I said:

sorry to interrupt but I think the record’s got stuck

It said:

You are absolutely right! My apologies, that response went completely off the rails and got stuck in a very long and bizarre loop. Thank you for catching that -it was a technical error on my end.

Let me correct that and provide a proper, concise answer to your excellent question about specific numerical times in Bowie’s lyrics.

Nah, I’m good, thanks.

So, to summarise, AI stands for Absolutely Useless.

Bugs

Another drive to Disley on a Saturday where I joined the family for another Escape Room experience. The view from outside the place, overlooking the Peaks is of course, real England.

The Escape Room itself had a Viking theme and there were plenty of runes to read. But our descriptions of the various characters must have amused the organisers. Still, we solved the puzzles and escaped with fifteen minutes to spare.

While deciding where to find lunch, I was happy to find this memorial bicycle.

The sculpture was dedicated on 12th October 2013 in honour of the careers of Disley’s Multiple Paralympic Gold Medal Winners Dame Sarah Storey DBE and Barney Storey MBE.

It’s just outside the Ram’s Head which by coincidence is where we settled for lunch.

Well, you’ll score no points at all for suggesting that this is a portrait, drawn by William, of his Grandad. Me. Apparently you can tell by the stinky feet. Well, that’s rude, I haven’t had stinky feet since 1976.

Helen joined Jenny, Liam, Martha and William at the cricket on a nice, bright, hot Sunday. Two games of The 100 were played at Old Trafford.

The children both had a go but I think they were severely hindered: just look at the size of that ball!

We don’t get many visitors at our luxury apartment, but here’s one that came in through the bathroom window.

This moth seems to be frayed at the edges, but it was gone the following morning, I’m glad to say.

Over the years, I’ve reported several adverts and posts on various social media sites. Usually, the response from Meta or whatever is that it’s OK, it follows the rules and no action will be taken. And I’ve thought, in that case, your rules need to be changed then. Well, this week, I succeeded in getting an ad removed.

They admitted that something went against their Community Standards, woohoo!

I went over to the swimming pool to watch Martha and William messing about in boats. There were two to a canoe. William didn’t mind falling out to collect the paddle that he frequently dropped, but he admitted later that he had fallen out on purpose a few times. I’d say ‘most times’, but that’s William!

I took care of the children in the afternoon while Jenny and Helen went off to a spa for some pampering. The canoe lesson was longer than I’d expected, so by the time they’d finished, it was getting late for lunch, and at their suggestion, we just went to the local Costa.

Over the next few hours, they fully inspected and played on the new equipment in the playground in Wythenshawe Park. I know we’re in the middle of the school holidays, but I was surprised how many other families were there today.

The old café has gone and has been replaced by a collection of vans. One sells coffee and cake, another pizza, and there are a couple of others. No decent ice cream here so reluctantly, they opted for a Mr Whippy type thing with bits. I didn’t like the look of that, so I had a strawberry split ice lolly instead, my first such for many years and it was so disappointing, it’ll probably be my last for many years too.

William, contemplating life, the universe and everything, but especially what passes for ice cream in this neck of the wood

In the evening, we met up with Liam and the newly-pampered girls for a meal at Gusto. We don’t yet know whether this branch in Cheadle Hulme is one of those due to be closed, but it served its purpose this evening.

A couple of medical interventions this week. I had my first ever shingles jab and I’m due to have a booster in 6 months time. The jab was no bother but my upper arm was hot and tender for a couple of days afterwards, nothing that a couple of paracetamol couldn’t fix. Next, I went for a haircut. Again, no problem, nothing that a couple of paracetamol couldn’t fix.

In the evening, I attended a meeting for the Wythenshawe Radio volunteers. After the organised walk in Wythenshawe next day, I turned the radio on in the car and was surprised to hear myself with a very old show. I don’t know, but I suspect that someone from the meeting just didn’t fancy doing his show and they found one of my old tapes lying around.

On Friday, I met up with everyone over at Bramhall Park for lunch. Too late for a cheese and onion pie, grrr, but the cheese sandwich and chips filled the void.

Afterwards, Martha and William fed the ducks and geese, zillions of them, with officially sanctioned duck food. They both commented on the family throwing bread at the birds, knowing that that wasn’t supposed to happen.

We went for a short walk, and William particularly enjoyed playing down by the stream, under the bridge, jumping from rock to rock. Against all odds, he didn’t fall in the water. They expended more energy in the playground while we watched and, half-heartedly, I played hide and seek with William.

Other then the birds, this was the only wildlife we saw here, a distant cousin of my recent nocturnal visitor, perhaps.

On the way out, we passed this tree which Martha and William climbed and then slid down.

Later in the evening, round at Jenny’s, we had pizza and salad. William demonstrated his twerking skills. Again. And we all played a couple of rounds of Colourbrain, the Disney edition. We played in teams, the idea being to identify the colour of objects or characters in Disney films. I realised two things. There are a lot of Disney films that I have never seen. And of those I am familiar with, I am not that good at remembering the colours of things. Thank goodness Helen and the children, Disney fans all, were playing. Great fun!

All good things come to an end, including Helen’s short visit. We had a farewell meal at Ela, a Greek Taverna in Handforth. Too much food, man. And I didn’t have a chance to use my limited knowledge of the Greek language.

Antipodean visitors

The most recent post suggested I wasn’t having work-related dreams. Well, since then, I have done. Unusually, not about postal delivery, but a conflation of all the IT jobs I’ve had and the busy-ness of the office and rearranging the desk layout for no good reason and panicking because the computers won’t work and trying to do the right thing but knowing I wouldn’t satisfy all of my bosses – yes, I was reporting to many so-called ‘managers’ in the end. And then I remembered, I’ve retired, I don’t actually have to be here in this hell-hole in the first place. The sense of relief persisted long after I woke up.

I remember scrumping on the way home from school sometimes, near the top of Holloway Hill in Godalming. Apples hanging low over someone’s garden fence. A bit maggotty sometimes, but very tasty. I was reminded of this on the day we visited the Gauntlet Birds of Prey Eagle and Vulture Centre in Knutsford. There’s an apple tree outside the place, and, really, it would have been rude to ignore it. So a couple of apples were liberated to add to our picnic.

We all enjoyed our day out with William and Martha. A lot of the birds were in cages, and they were definitely at their when best flying around. They’re free to escape if they want, but I think they’re so well looked after, they’re happy to return by the 5.30 curfew! It’s a family run business, and they’re doing a lot for conservation.

First stop though was the playground.

Here are some of the birds who seemed happy to see us.

But it was much more fun watching the flying display. One of the hawks nearly gave Martha a haircut when she stood up suddenly. Mostly, they were too fast for this videographer but I captured a couple without wasting too much film.

There was a nice quiet picnic area where we ate our picnic lunch, without being pestered by pigeons. I suspect the local vultures and hawks may have been the main deterrent.

Liesel joined the WI for some litter picking in Riverside Park, even though it was raining, on and off.

In fact, we had quite torrential rain for a couple of days, thanks to Storm Floris. But once the storm moved on to Scandinavia, we were back to a proper, warm Summer.

Which Liesel and her Mom will miss. I dropped them off at the airport for their flight back to an Anchorage Summer, just a little bit cooler than ours.

William sent us his first ‘Make and Create’ videos for his putative YouTube channel. I’m just glad he didn’t start each presentation with a “Hey guys, um…”, which, for me, is pretty much an instant turn-off. He did invite us to “Like and subscribe” however, so that’s promising.

Parking at Wilmslow station is notoriously difficult, but of course, I forgot that fact when I suggested picking someone up there rather than driving into Manchester city centre. Still, it was great to see my sister Pauline, along with her partner Andrew, on their first visit to the UK from NZ since Jenny and Liam got married three years ago.

So, within the space of a couple of days, I swapped a wife and mother-in-law for a sister and a brother-in-law.

Jetlag notwithstanding, we joined Jenny and the family for an Indian meal in Bombay to Mumbai, an Indian (did you guess?) restaurant in Bramhall. The food was lovely but ‘medium spicy’ in this case was just on my limits of comfort! And the waitress (apols for the old-fashioned word) was very friendly too. Some music started and I thought we were in for another round of ‘Happy Birthday’. No, it couldn’t have been more different. She performed an aria from Don Giovanni which left everyone stunned, and she deserved the rapturous round of applause.

It’s been a while since we’ve visited Lyme Park, so that was the venue for a nice Saturday wander on a beautiful day. We (my sister) prepared a wonderful picnic as did Jenny. And a millon other folks: even the overflow car park was overflowing.

From this point of view, there’s usually a beautiful reflection of the house in the lake, making for a fab photo. But the lake is being or has been drained, by the looks of it. Maybe this is for the renovation/refurbishment promised after the floods a few years ago.

It was a perfect day to visit, so many colourful flowers are out in bloom, and we even saw more than a couple of butterflies.

William put on a very half-hearted puppet show: I think he much preferred just running around. I quite agree. Not that I was running around. Although I did get a message from a local group on Instagram asking how my running was going.

Afterwards, we all gathered at Jenny’s where Martha showed off her collection of gemstones, rocks and seashells.

At last, after years of us all moaning about it, the path that we walk along to Didsbury is being fixed. Until now, it’s been a very bumpy stroll, it looks like someone just dumped tonnes of broken bricks and rubble along its length. But soon, we hope to be able to walk along a nice, smooth, flat path. Maybe even as good as the path they already have at the Didsbury end. So, when Pauline, Andrew and I decided to walk over to Didsbury, we had to stay on the other side of the river. We even took a shortcut through Dogshit Alley. Last time we three went this way, with Liesel, three years ago, we turned right and were challenged while we were looking at the allotments. We didn’t risk it today, turned left straightaway, said “hey” to the horses in the field and proceeded to Simon’s Bridge. Golf is supposed to be a nice, gentle relaxing game. But to drive to and from the course, it seems obligatory to drive along the narrow road at no less than 90 mph. Not ideal when you’re a pedestrian.

Andrew suggested that golf might be easier and more fun if the holes were a little bit bigger, because so often the ball misses by a small margin. I thought football would be more exciting if the goals were a bit wider too. Basketball would be easier for short people if the baskets were lower down. And I’ve always maintained that I would have enjoyed cricket more if the ball wasn’t so hard. I spent most of my cricket ‘career’ at school hiding in the pavilion keeping score, because George, the games teacher, refused to let us (me) play with a tennis ball.

We did see a very rare sight though. No, not a heron, nor a family of ducklings. We passed a jogger, not unusual in itself, but she was actually smiling, almost like she was enjoying herself. Weird.

Due to restoration of the embankment in the Diudsbury area, following extensive flood damage, we had to walk into the village directly, not via Fletcher Moss Park. Somehow, I found myself in La Chouquette, so I bought a gorgeous loaf of sourdough.

We admired the many, colourful planters in Didsbury and visited a few shops before settling for a coffee at FFS.

We wandered around Didsbury Park, I think my first long visit there without there being a fair taking place. We came across several animals carved from wood: some people are very talented.

Walking home always feels quicker for some reason. Two young lads approached us on the narrow path next to the river. They were riding an electric scooter travelling fairly fast, so we stood aside for them. But the thought occurred, one untimely bump in the path and they could easily end up in the water!

Round at Jenny’s in the evening, we played Pictionary. This is the actual game that Sarah and I had all those years ago, including some of our ancient works of art. Tonight, it was Boys v Girls, and of course, we Boys went into the lead very easily. But in a strange turn of fate, the Girls finally won.

We’re experiencing the fourth heatwave of the Summer now which means it’s hot and sticky at night again. So, once again, I reversed the polarity of the electric blanket, so I have a nice, cool surface on which I can push up the zeds. I’m having some funny dreams though. Not sure if that’s due to the heat or the new medication I’m taking.

We all, that is me, Pauline, Andrew, Jenny, Martha and William (Liam was working) met up at Alderley Edge for a more hilly walk. As usual, we tried to follow one of the named trails, kept changing our minds, and finally got lost.

I ended up walking along the road while the others walked up a long, long series of steps that we’d just walked down, me being very happy that we weren’t walking up them! Unfortuantely, the road I was on wasn’t the one I thought it was. From this point, I had a half hour stroll back to the car park, where our picnic lunch was locked in the car. The road was flat thought, and I knew I’d get there eventually. But no, I turned onto Swiss Hill. And what a hill. Incredibly steep, and cobbled. After it levelled out, I thought I was OK. But no. Another steep hill as I turned left again.

This was where Jenny collected me in the car! A quick drink at the café was made even quicker after we were joined by numerous pesky wasps. But we ate our picnic lunch in peace. Martha made a new friend, one with fourteen spots!

This evening’s game, again round at Jenny’s, was ‘Out of the Loop’. It’s a social deduction party game where players try to identify who among them is out of the loop, who doesn’t know a secret word in a given category. Players ask questions of each other, questions suggested by the game, an app, itself. Great fun. But I’m rubbish. I ended up with zero points, while everyone else scored in the hundreds. What a strange scoring system!

Liesel and I have lived here up north for six years now, but we’ve never joined a bus tour of Manchester. Well, today, Pauline, Andrew and I did just that. We joined the ‘hop-on hop-off’ bus outside Bridgewater Hall, where I saw posters for a couple of shows that I might be interested in. But that’s all in the future.

The commentary was informative, no serious attempt at humour. Although a poster on the bus had definite Aussie vibes.

We hopped off at the Football Museum, which, despite my lack of interest in football, I found quite engaging and informative. Lots of fun and games, especially for young fans. Of course, the biggest photo is that of the 1966 World Cup winning England team. A black and white picture, blown up, with the kit colourised. I don’t remember seeing a picture of the England team that recently won the Euros. But they were girls, banned from playing on FA grounds until 1971.

The queue for the penalty shoot-out was too long for us, so we let the lads wearing football shirts have a go instead.

We hopped back on the bus on its next circuit and enjoyed the trip around Manchester and Salford. I realised again, I couldn’t be a bus driver in Manchester, the streets are too narrow, and too many people park their vehicles in really daft places. But our driver managed.

In Salford, we hopped off again and spent a couple of hours at The Lowry Theatre. The immersive ‘Lowry 360’ show was unfortunately sold out, but we enjoyed looking again at other works by LS Lowry. There were some miserable people here though…

… at least, in this picture. Happier folks in this next picture, though. Pauline and I again bemoaned the fact that we don’t have the photos taken of us at Bourton on the Water, standing on the little bridges, when we were about 6 and 4 years old.

Next to the LS Lowry exhibition is another one, celebrating the work of top illustrator Quentin Blake. In contrast, his pictures are very bright, colourful and joyous. And there were plenty of children here having a great time, drawing their own pictures.

We hopped on the bus again, after waiting for just a few minutes at the stop near Salford Quays.

We had a late afternoon date to meet up with Jenny and the family at a restaurant in Cheadle. I’d been to Yara before, but this time, we sat outside, in the shade, which was very pleasant.

I,for one, was taken by surprise when I walked in and saw Helen. My daughter Helen, all the way over here from Brookvale, NSW. Helen and bump! Yes, I am pleased and excited to confirm that Helen is expecting a little chap in November. Yes, I had to look twice. What a fantastic surprise!

Martha, Helen, Mick, Liam, William, Andrew (leaning back), Pauline and Jenny

A video exists of me walking into the restaurant like I’ve just got out of bed or something, taken by surprise and uttering “What are you doing here?” So embarrassing: thanks, Liam! And sorry, Helen, not the best of welcomes! But I really am pleased to see you!

Pauline, Andrew and I had been pretty busy since their arrival and Andrew decided he needed a down day. So, it was just Pauline who joined me for the regular midweek Thrive Walk. What I didn’t realise at the time was, someone was videoing us enjoying our coffee outside Boxx2Boxx. See if you can spot me and my sister.

After which, we caught a bus to Sale where we met Jenny, Liam, Martha, William and Helen at the King’s Ransom pub, right on the Bridgewater Canal.

King’s Ransom pub and the Bridgewater Canal

We spent another evening round at Jenny’s: mainly because, as Jenny said, their place is bigger than my apartment. And she’s a far better chef than I am.

Pauline and Andrew are now spending some time in Yorkshire and beyond. I drove them to Oxford Road station, only going wrong once.

So, within the space of a couple of days, I swapped a sister and a brother-in-law for a daughter and a future grandson. As Phil Collins once said, “Funny old world, innit?”

I took a leaf out of Andrew’s book and had a down day. Catching up on emails, real mail (just one letter in a week, as it happens), a bit of tidying up, laundry and again, looking at the long list of things to do and then going off to do something totally different.

Meanwhile, how’s Liesel getting on in Anchorage? Working a bit, spending time with friends, and most definitely not commenting on a heatwave. Presidents Trump and Putin had a meeting in Alaska, but this won’t affect Liesel and her Mom at all, unless of course, Trump gives or sells Alaska back to Russia.

A quick week

As many people have noted, July was a very quick month. And this week went by very quickly too. Not much happened. We didn’t walk as much as we should have. Liesel took her Mom to Oldham for some TLC.

I can’t believe this plant is really called Red Robin: that could be confusing if I were an avid bird watcher.

One of the most exciting things I saw this week was the lawn mower in Wythenshawe Park.

That’s a nice sit-down job, I thought, I could do that. Then I remembered. Again. I’m not actually looking for a job at the moment.

There’s a Fun Fair in the park too right now, but on the day I paid a visit, there weren’t many people around, even though the school holidays have now started.

There’s some gym equipment in the park, near the children’s playground. It’s been there for over five minutes, and this is Wythenshawe so of course, it’s been vandalised already. What is the matter with people? A question we often ask when we’re picking litter, for example. But we’ve currenly run out of bags and I’ve tried to acquire some more. What a load of faff. Being told to fill in a form on a website that I only have read access to. I think I’ve now applied to the correct department, but so far, no response. What is wrong with people? It should be easy to pick up some litter bags. Whinge number 1 of the week.

I’ve been selling stuff on eBay and this week I had to send an item using Evri. Not my choice. But it was delivered OK, a couple of days later. They even sent a photo as proof of delivery. It proves nothing of the sort. Well, see for yourself:

What a farce. Whinge number 2.

I’ve started doing Killer Sudokus on my phone again. They’re quite tough. They often require deep concentration. If this or that number go there, then that cell’s got to be something or something, which means those cells can only be this or that, therefore that cell can only be a 4. Eureka! At which point, I realise that ten minutes ago, Liesel said something, so I can now process what she said, think about it and respond appropriately.

This week, we went to watch William’s swimming class. He’s pretty good, actually! We ate round at their house afterwards, thank you Jenny and Liam. Martha showed us her collection of rocks and gemstones, many of whch she can identify. Thank goodness Google was able to help me identify a couple of others!

Sometimes, walking around Northenden can be a bit gloomy, expecially when it’s a cloudy day. But I was delighted to see a splash of colour this week.

Very cheap and totally realistic flowers

Another major project that I’ve been working up for a while was to remove all the duplicate photos from my computer. Doing so manually was too daunting, so I downloaded a program to do the job. Out of 192,000 images, it detected over 106,000 duplicates and in the end, it deleted 67,000. I recovered over 200 GB of storage. In the old days, I would now have to defrag the disk, but I don’t think you have to do that any more.

Like I said, a quick week and we are now into August. I’m on new medication and I think one of the side effects is very vivid dreams. So I’ve been reacquainting myself with old friends, getting lost on my bike, but at least I haven’t had any work related dreams for a while. Onwards and upwards.

Here Comes the Sun

While in Whitby, we lost track of progess in the Tour de France, but just like Tadej Pogačar, it didn’t take us long to catch up. Another day, another hospital appointment for me. This one wasn’t very nice. Oh look, here’s Mick, let’s find another orifice and stick a camera in it. But all the medics I’ve seen have been really nice. All the nurses, doctors, consultants, registrars, receptionists, radiographers, all of them have asked me for my date of birth and and my address. So I’m expecting lots of cards for my next birthday.

Usually when we drive over to collect the children from school, we have to allow for a traffic jam in Gatley. But this week for some reason, there was no serious hold-up. So, for the first time ever, we were the first to arrive. We’ve never seen the playground empty before, so that’s a result.

Yes, it’s wet, it had been raining. Later, back at home, William made a bracelet for his teacher: thank goodness we still have the right combination of letter beads. He and I played hangman and Martha beat Liesel at backgammon. William went downstairs and outside to greet his parents. The trouble is, they hadn’t yet arrived. And he let the back door close behind him. So, we tried not to laugh as William, locked out, in the communal car park, called for help. Don’t worry, we rescued him quickly. Mummy and Daddy arrived soon after and we dined nicely, thank you Liesel.

The house round the corner is proud to have sunflowers once again. They seemed to be growing slowly but suddenly, over night it seems, they’re six feet tall.

Later in the week, we returned to the school to watch Martha star in a production of Beauty and the Beast. The children all did very well, but we thought the backing tracks could have been a bit quieter so that we could hear the performers singing more clearly. Glad to say, Martha sorted out her barnet after Crazy Hair Day.

The choreography was well executed, and it’s a shame there are no boys in this particular drama group. I’m glad Martha enjoys performing though, not like her old Grandad.

Beauty and the Beast cast, featuring Martha

The other grandparents enjoyed the performance too, and afterwards, we all went to the Red Lion in Cheadle for our evening meal, all nine of us. My cheese and onion pie had actual cheese and onions as a filling, so much better than the gloop in the pies from the chippy up the road from us.

Liesel, Leslie and I went for a walk to the Co-op, via the river and the weir. On the island, a shag or a cormorant was playing with me. He’d had his wings out to dry, and every time I thought about taking a picture, he’d put them down again. I’ll make a video then, and screendump one of its frames. It knew, it knew. It did not cooperate. Instead, it decided to fly off somewhere, probably to tease other potential photographers.

Liesel planned to take her Mom out for a regular coffee with the ladies of the WI. I was surprised to see them back so soon. The car had a puncture. A mechanic turned up, changed the tyre, and was gone within about 15 minutes. Last time I changed a tyre, it took over an hour and a half. But he had much better equipment than I have, plus the necessary skills.

Changing the subject, we’re looking forward to seeing the total solar eclipse in a few years, maybe back in Coonabarabran.

Apart from anything else, this will be a good opportunity to see Mercury, which I’m not sure I’ve ever observed in real life.

Yes, sometimes I have too much time on my hands, so I mess about with apps on my phone, specifically Stellarium in this case.

Another hospital appointment, more birthday greetings coming my way. I had to bring my travel insurance company up to date with all my various medical issues. Of couse, that increased the premium. I paid an extra £22 which includes a £15 admin fee. I suspect that if things had gone the other way, they could have given me a bit of rebate. But I’d still be liable for the admin fee. What a rip-off. Anyway, now that’s sorted at last, I can make plans to travel.

Martha has recently started synchronised swimming lessons, so we went to observe her. Her skills in the water are amazing. She has achieved her 100-metre freestyle badge. My best was 25 yards, at about the same age.

Express Solicitors, a local firm, have been sponsoring our walks on a Wednesday for the last year. To mark the occasion, Simon came along with a videographer and he spoke to a few of us. Here is the resulting video. Well, it keeps us out of trouble.

I haven’t mentioned the weather. It’s been alright, a lovely temperature for walking, sometimes a light, refreshing breeze. But we’re in for another heatwave soon.