Autobiographical – Mick and Liesel's Antics

Pink for Stink

Just about a year ago, I was in Albuquerque and while I was there, I really enjoyed one of the best recent science fiction stories, Project Hail Mary. You can only imagine how pleased I was to see that there is now a new film based on the story. So, I drove over to Parrs Wood Cineworld to watch it. And while a film is seldom as good as the original book, too many fine details missed out, I did enjoy it. As did the other six people in the cinema. The trouble is that by the time the adverts and trails had finished, we’d all finished our snacks. Note to self: next time, turn up 40 minutes after the publicised show time.

It’s that time of year again and I was pleased to receive birthday greetings from Keiran. Well, with his Mum’s help.

A strange birthday which I celebrated by myself since Jenny and family were flying to Australia on this very day. I enjoyed my scone, jam and cream prior to refueling the car at the slightly cheaper Sainsbury’s garage. Petrol locally is now 155.9p per litre, up from 138.9p just a few weeks ago.

Jenny, Martha, William and Liam in Sydney

It’s always good to see the world burst into colour during Spring and sometimes a photo doesn’t do justice to the real thing, so it needs a slight tweak.

Too much? Well, here’s the original

My memory suggests the true colour was somewhere between the two. Still, delightful, though.

I returned to Manchester for a short wander prior to donating blood. The biscuits and tea were very welcome, thank you.

What was I saying about Spring? I heard the rain, looked out and thought it looked like snow. But, no, that can’t be right, it’s just the angle of the Sun, obviously. Well, no. When I went out later, I saw this:

A pile of hailstones on the car. It didn’t feel that cold outside, but as Liesel later commented, we often do have a bout of bad weather around my birthday.

A bigger group than usual walked around Wythenshawe, through the woods and the parks.

Usually, we end up at Costa after this walk, but today, as part of the Greater Manchester Live Well Spring Festival, we met in a Public Living Room for a cup of tea and a chat.

Having a go on the pedal exerciser was not compulsory but it’s a great way of going nowhere fast.

And how lovely to see all the cousins together.

Who let the pigs out? Someone at Wythenshawe Community Farm, that’s who.

I think we enjoyed the walk around Wythenshawe Park and a coffee afterwards. Not so keen on finding a discarded, abandoned, child’s bicycle though.

Jenny and family are having a blast down under, and Keiran experienced his first flight at the grand old age of 4 months, as they all flew north, spending some time at Port Douglas. Which just escaped the worst excesses of Cyclone Narelle.

Liam, Jenny, William, Keiran, Helen, Brent and Martha

In other overseas news, Liesel and Monica attended their first embroidery class. Liesel learned five new stitches and achieved this work of art. Not bad for a first go.

Don’t talk to me about how Rage Against the Machine got their name: they were just trying to use their printer too, right? Grrr. [Full details omitted, for now.]

As it was April Fool’s Day, I suggested to the Northenden Walkers that we’d previously all agreed to wear something pink. Nobody fell for it, except this lady who brought the correct handbag.

In the coffee shop, I was disappointed to find that this gorgeous bouquet was not actually for me.

Walking by the Mersey on another bright day, watching the eddies and whirlpools, but oddly I didn’t see any duck families on this occasion. I wonder where they’re hiding?

The latest radio show is Wythenshawe Radio’s Greatest Hits in which I play tracks played by other preseneters over the last few weeks. It’s here waiting for you to enjoy.

Getting warm

Suddenly it’s halfway through March, the temperature is hovering around -11°C and the snow, slush and ice is piled up outside. Not content with building ordinary snowmen or even snowhuskies, some creative folks have been very ambitious.

I am of course referring to Anchorage, Alaska, where Liesel and her Mom are actually not responsible for this snow sculpture. This one and many others were part of the annual Fur Rendezvous (Fur Rondy) festival in Anchorage. They enjoyed a variety of traditional events such as dog sledding, fur auctions, and outhouse races. And I can’t wait to see what manner of fur coat they bought for me to help cope with the much milder Manchester Winter.

The Statue of Liberty was created by Steve Lukshin and won first place in the solo division of the Alaska State Snow Sculpture Championship. Who knew there was such a thing?

In other overseas news, lovely Keiran in Brookvale, NSW, seems surprised to have reached the grand old age of 4 months.

Nearer home, it is warming up. Whereas we used to see a family of three magpies outside our apartment block, there is only one at the moment.

And yes, It does bring sorrow to see him on his own. On the other hand, there’s a very cheerful blackbird living in a bush near us. I don’t know yet whether there’s a young family of chicks, but his song is delightful.

Sunshine and blue skies always lift the mood, so visiting Quarry Bank for a walk was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

I met Jenny and the family there, and we wandered along the river Bollin towards The Carrs, just before Wilmslow. However many steps we adults took, William and Martha must have taken double. I wonder at what age you stop running about like that and just walk in a straight line, using the least amount of energy.

We played Pooh sticks on one bridge and failed to spot any fish in the stream. And of course, trees are there to be climbed.

Sadly, in 2020, Chris Hall, 48, was struck by a 22m mature lime tree whilst walking his dog Benson on the the main public path in The Carrs Park at lunchtime on August 28th 2020, along the same route they had used for the last 11 years. This was a tree that council bosses had failed to make safe after a previwous incident. Cheshire East Council failed to investigate when a large branch had fallen from the tree a year before and was subsequently fined £500,000. I mention this, because we passed the attractive memorial, and only later did I learn the story.

Oh, and where’s Martha?!

We all played with a frisbee for a while and I embarrassed myself by no longer being able to throw the thing with any skill. Maybe it’s just intrinsically easier to throw a frisbee up on Epsom Downs than it is here near The Carrs skatepark.

The playground equipment include a zip wire which was most enjoyable. As was the climbing frame. Martha and William had an ice cream while we grown-ups had a coffee.

On the walk back to the car park, we passed horses and gorses. By the river, when William climbed down into a deep hole, not one of us followed him.

For the first time in ages, I thought I’d order a pizza from Pizzeria, here in Northenden. Sadly, I discovered that it had closed down in November. So I tried one from the place over the road. How disappointing. The Deliveroo driver stopped somewhere else to pick up another order, so by the time my meal arrived, it was cold. I complained and got a refund of the delivery fee, but even after re-heating, it wasn’t a very nice pizza anyway.

Loyalty cards, pah. I just want to do a bit of shopping, or buy something. I don’t need a loyalty card for everything, I don’t want to become a member, register, join up: just lower the prices for everyone. I don’t need to collect points, rewards, tokens, coins, airmiles or anything. No I don’t want to make a charity donation or give a tip. And I really don’t want to give feedback for every service I receive. Just stop it. Whinge of the week.

One of my current favourite writers is Joanne Harris: she wrote, Chocolat and its sequels. A year ago, a prequel came out too, Vianne. To mark publication of the paperback edition, she is touring the bookshops of Britain. So of course, I had to go and meet her at Simply Books in Bramhall. She makes writing a novel look so easy. She was interviewed by Kay Crewdson who I’ve only known before from the BBC’s North West Tonight programme, when she tells us how bad the weather’s going to be.

That’s not a bookshop, I hear you cry. No, the venue was St Michael and All Angels Parish Church, a 12-minute walk from the shop.

It’s officially now warm enough to wear shorts, and show off these gorgeous old pins of mine. Although a trip into Manchester was ultimately pointless on this occasion, I revelled in the warmth: surely the warmest day of the year so far, 19° apparently.

Of the three weekly organised walks, I made it to all three. Everyone is happy with the new, improved weather.

Martha starred in a production of Shrek at school. And as usual, all the participants did very well.

I’m now torn between spending time outside in the (probably limited) sunshine and staying in, in front of the PC, preparing a radio show. As I discussed with someone the other day, I have no idea how I ever managed to fit in a full-time job.

The latest show is right here.

Thinking about the children

My Dad liked the odd flutter down at the betting shop. Mostly on horse races, sometimes the dogs. And in the olden days, he dutifully filled in the football pools coupon each week. Actually, he won about £100on the pools once, in the 1960s, worth over £2000 in today’s money, so quite a substantial amount. He opened a bank account for the first time ever in his life. When the winnings had all been spent, he closed the account. The bank manager wasn’t happy: “Well, that was a waste of time, wasn’t it?” On the whole though, he wasn’t very lucky. As he said one day, he never had a nice holiday in Jamaica but he was sure Mr William Hill enjoyed a few.

I’m not saying he was a gambling addict, far from it, but I’m glad that that particular, harmless pastime doesn’t appeal to me in the same way. And when it comes to 50-50 chances, I’d never bet, because I’m more than 50% sure that I have genetic architecture that predisposes me to a higher probability of adverse outcomes.

This all came flooding back when I began using buses regularly again, here at home. Whichever bus I’m waiting for, I will almost always see one going in the opposite (wrong) direction first.

And another observation: many buses that pass by are ‘Not in Service’. I know the drivers have different shift times and need to return to the depots or wherever, but there is a very high percentage of buses on the roads here that are not in service. I think I only became aware of this again having seen very few buses in Sydney not picking up passengers for this reason.

The display on this bus wasn’t very helpful. The Airport and Piccadilly Gardens are in opposite directions, being the two termini for route 43. Still, I got to my destination OK.

I do miss this little chap.

After being tortured (slight exaggeration) again by the dental hygienist, I joined the Wednesday walking group. There were 22 of us on this occasion, the first noticeably warm day since I returned.

There’s a lot of confusion between International Book Day, World Book Day and International Day of the Book. Whichever it was, Martha and William joined in the celebrations this year.

The Thursday and Friday walks were less populated and by the end of the week, it was beginning to cool down a bit too.

It’s early stages of World War III since Israel and USA attacked Iran last weekend. That’s presumably just the excuse our local BP garage needed to increase its fuel prices. Wednesday: 138.9p/l, Thursday: 140.9, Friday: 142.9. No, I didn’t join the queue panic-buying petrol. For one thing, I was on the bus and didn’t have the car with me.

On TV, when I can find it, I’ll watch some Paralypics Curling. And I enjoyed another episode of Call the Midwife. It was a somewhat harrowing storyline, to be honest. But, equally, perversely, the best episode ever since it included a beautiful song performed by Mary Hopkin.

Happy International Women’s Day! You can listen again to my Wythenshawe Radio show right here.

Here is your slightly irregular reminder not to rely on AI chatbots:

I asked: if you were to spell out all the numbers from 1 to 1000, how often would you write the letter A? Here is the response:

Alright — let’s work through this step-by-step.

We want to know: how many times does the letter ‘A’ appear when writing out all numbers from 1 to 1000 in words (standard English, no “and” except as part of a number name like “one hundred and one” – wait, let’s clarify that).

—

Step 1: Understanding what we count

When writing numbers in English, there are two common conventions:

1. Without “and”
Example: 101 = “one hundred one” (no ‘a’)
2. With “and”
Example: 101 = “one hundred and one” (one ‘a’ from “and”)

The problem doesn’t specify, but if we want maximum ‘A’ frequency, we use “and” between hundreds and the rest for numbers 101–999.

Let’s also note:

· Zero is not counted (1 to 1000).
· The only letters containing ‘A’ in the standard English number names are:
and, one, eight, hundred, thousand, and maybe others? Let’s check:

Actually:

· and
· hundred
· thousand
· eight? Wait, “eight” has no ‘a’. “Eight” is E-I-G-H-T. No ‘A’. Let’s list properly.

Let’s list all number names and see which have ‘A’.

—

Digit names (0-9):

· zero (no A)
· one (O-N-E) → no A
· two (no A)
· three (no A)
· four (no A)
· five (no A)
· six (no A)
· seven (no A)
· eight (no A)
· nine (no A)

Teens:

· ten (no A)
· eleven (no A)
· twelve (no A)
· thirteen (no A)
· fourteen (no A)
· fifteen (no A)
· sixteen (no A)
· seventeen (no A)
· eighteen (no A)
· nineteen (no A)

Tens (20–90):

· twenty (no A)
· thirty (no A)
· forty (no A)
· fifty (no A)
· sixty (no A)
· seventy (no A)
· eighty (no A)
· ninety (no A)

Hundred, thousand, and:

· hundred → yes, 1 A in “hundred”
· thousand → yes, 1 A in “thousand”
· and → yes, 1 A in “and”

—

So the only words with ‘A’ are:

· hundred (1 A)
· thousand (1 A)
· and (1 A)

And digits/teens/tens have no A.

—

Step 2: Counting numbers with ‘A’

Since no 1–9 have A, and 10–19 have no A, and 20–99 have no A, it means only numbers where the word “hundred”, “thousand”, or “and” appear can contain ‘A’.

1. Numbers 100–999:

Let’s pick the pattern:

· 100 = “one hundred” → one A (from hundred)
· 101 = “one hundred and one” → two A’s (hundred + and)
· 110 = “one hundred and ten” → two A’s (hundred + and)
· 115 = “one hundred and fifteen” → two A’s
· 120 = “one hundred and twenty” → two A’s
· 199 = “one hundred and ninety nine” → two A’s

So:
For 100: “hundred” → 1 A
For 101–199 (except 100): each has “hundred and” → 2 A’s.

Let’s check 200–299: same pattern:
200 = “two hundred” → 1 A
201–299: each = “two hundred and X” → 2 A’s

That pattern holds for all hundreds blocks (100–999):

Block N00: “N hundred” → 1 A
Block N01–N99: “N hundred and …” → 2 A’s

So per hundred block:

Count of ‘A’s for that block:

· N00: 1 A
· N01–N99: 99 numbers × 2 A’s = 198 A’s

Total for block = 1 + 198 = 199 A’s.

There are 9 such blocks (100–199, 200–299, …, 900–999).

So A’s from 100–999 = 9 × 199 = 1791 A’s.

—

Step 3: Number 1000

“One thousand” → one A in “thousand”. So 1 A.

—

No. 1–99 have no ‘A’ because none of their words contain ‘A’.

Step 4: Check if 1–99 have any ‘A’

—

Step 5: Total

From 1–99: 0 A’s
From 100–999: 1791 A’s
From 1000: 1 A

Total = 0 + 1791 + 1 = 1792 A’s

Home Alone

At home, there have been a few schemes over the years where we can recycle the blister packs that medication now comes in. All of these schemes soon stopped for whatever reason. Here, in Sydney, we can leave such blister packs in Chemist Warehouse and they then either recycle them (we hope) or just throw away. And this morning, I disposed of three weeks worth of blister packs while waiting to meet Helen, Brent and Keiran by Warringah Mall.

Liesel and I took the bus from our b&b and Helen pushed the pram from home. The B-line bus was packed, so Liesel and I had to sit upstairs. A nice quick ride into Sydney and we finally had a chance to say a proper hello at Wynyard. Where the postcode is 2000.

Here is a rare photograph of Sydney Opera House taken from the upper deck of a B-line bus as it crosses Sydney Harbour Bridge.

We walked to The Rocks, another historic area in Sydney. The walk was mostly downhill and we even had to negotiate a few steps with the pram.

PaniQ Room is Sydney’s original and favourite Escape Room. It’s a fun and exciting way to spend some time with friends, family or colleagues and exercise your mind. This was our venue for an hour of adventurous missions, puzzles and riddles. Our mission was to restore a video tape to a hidden safe before The Godfather realised that it had been stolen. We enjoyed solving the puzzles, and following up a couple of misleading leads that led nowhere.

The music from The Godfather played throughout, and I for one felt it was time to watch those films again. There are no photos from the escape room itself, of course, we can’t reveal the secrets. We escaped with seven minutes to spare: Liesel and I were very glad to have Brent’s and Helen’s younger brains ticking over a bit faster than ours.

The successful escapists with Mafia hats

Yes, Brent is holding some gak while Helen and I are sporting cigars.

The Saturday market was crowded, and I wondered how many of the people were passengers from the cruise ship, Discovery Princess today.

Ancient Feelings (2025) by Thomas J Price

This sculpture caught my eye outside the Museum of Contemporary Art. The 1.5-tonne, 3-metre-high head of a woman is cast in golden bronze.

We wandered around Circular Quay to the Opera House where we enjoyed lunch, outside, in the shade, avoiding the bright sunshine. Food and drink was ordered by QR code and disappointingly, the servers just walked our food and drink to the table, no roller skates involved.

Actually, we were underneath the Opera House, quite a daft place to sit, in retrospect. 161,000 tonnes of bricks and tiles above us, all held up by this pillar.

Helen and Brent lending their support too

My last ferry ride of this visit down under was enjoyable, and we then spent some time in Manly, listening to a busking sax player and buying a couple of things, before catching the bus back to Brookvale. We walked to 4 Pines Brewery where we met Nat and Rob. Later, Jacqui joined us, but it was a very brief, hot in the Sun, final meeting.

Walking along the road, we passed this delightful, attractive and very tasty plant.

No, I didn’t taste it: we all know that everything in Australia is designed to kill us! It’s very pretty, though.

Fuel by Night was the venue for Liesel’s and my final dinner here on this trip. This venue is a coffee bar by day, and is open for meals a couple of nights a week. Liesel and I caught the bus back to our b&b while Helen and Brent walked back home. Some quick packing before bed.

We’d walked quite a lot this week, further (for me, at least) than any single week at home since Winter set in.

Our final breakfast, at SeaSprout, was more than satisfactory, eggs benny, but without the ham, thank you very much. We’d finished packing at our b&b and Brent and Helen took us backbac collect it and drive it around to their flat.

Unbelievably, it was Liesel’s and my 20th wedding anniversary the following day, and we would be away from each other. What a lovely surprise to receive a present from the whole family: Helen, Brent, Keiran, Jenny, Liam, Martha and William.

Grandad, Oma, Martha, William and Keiran

Yes, we are officially a pendemonium of cockatoos! This picture was drawn by friends of Helen and Brent and I was able to pack it in my case to take home.

It’s always sad saying goodbye after such a good visit. I took an Uber to the airport. Liesel’s flight was several hours after mine, and Helen drove her, later on. I’m not at all jealous that Liesel spent a few hours longer with Keiran, honest.

The airport experience was OK. The flight to Abu Dhabi was long but OK. Glad I ordered Indian vegetarian food this time.

I didn’t expect to see a camel in the airport, but life is full of surprises.

I saw more of Abu Dhabi airport this time, there was a much longer walk between my arrival gate and the departure gate. Plus, I had to go through a security check this time.

It’s a very clean place, and the architecture is very interesting. Every posh shop you can imagine is here, and I walked right past every single one. Sorry, Liesel, wedding anniversary or not, I can’t afford the jewellery here!

The flight to Manchester was OK, long, and I just wanted to get there.

A quick taxi ride home and then straight to bed, having been awake for over 30 hours. Nice to be in my own bed, of course, but not so keen on the significantly colder temperature at home.

Most of the week, I was either asleep, thinking about sleep or fighting off sleep. At the last minute, I booked a ticket for a concert, hoping I wouldn’t nod off in the middle of it.

I took a bus into Manchester and a cab back home after the show. In late 1974, I had the opportunity to see Tubular Bells performed live at the Royal Albert Hall. I didn’t go. I’ve waited half a century for this. Yes, I saw Tubular Bells performed live, in its entirety, at the Bridgewater Hall.

Part one of the show featured excerpts from Tubular Bells II and III. And a fabulous performance of Moonlight Shadow. The composer, Mike Oldfield, wasn’t here but if he were, I’m sure he would have received a rapturous round of applause. The actual players certainly did. The 7 (or was it 8?) -piece band was led by Robin Smith, one of Mike Oldfield’s long-term collaborators

Did I fall asleep? Not a chance. The music was far too engaging, even from the Gallery, which is like the Upper Upper Circle, the only section with tickets available by the time I bought one.

For some reason, maybe I was still tired and a bit more fragile and sensitive than usual, but I found the music to be very emotional. It took me back to 1974 when I shared accommodation with the two best flat-mates anyone could ever wish for, so I’m sending lots of love and positive thoughts to Ann and Chrissy 😊❤️.

That late night was followed by an early morning visit to a health professional who extracted some blood for a few tests. Did I go back to bed when I returned home? I might have, I know I missed the 11 o’clock walk!

When I did venture out, though, I was very happy to see early signs of Spring. A bed of crocuses adorns the village green.

And then, on the Friday, I dragged myself out of bed so that I could join the regular walk in Wythenshawe Park. There was nobody there. Has the venue changed? Have they changed the start time? Have they all been abducted by aliens? I waited with a coffee for a while, and then I remembered: it’s half-term and the walk was probably cancelled. Did I do the walk anyway? Well, some of it.

The blood test results were all ‘normal’ so I felt safe to book my first donation for nearly a year. I was on the bench because of all the medical tests that I had last year.

Walking on a treadmill at home is just as boring as walking on a treadmill in a gym. You have a treadmill at home? I do, now, yes. Just a cheap one. But it’s been raining so much, I often stay at home rather than go for a walk outside. I thought this piece of equipment might help me get some steps in. One big advantage is, I can listen to my own podcasts and radio shows at home, and not have to listen to the loud EDM in a gym. Watching TV would be good, too, if only the room were set up differently.

And of course, sod’s law. The day after the treadmill was delivered, it was sunny, and said to be the warmest day of the year so far. So, yes, I was encouraged to get out a bit more!

In administrative news, it took a week for me to catch up on emails. I keep unsubscrbing but I still get too many.

I prepped a show for Wythenshawe Radio and sometimes, it takes much longer to go through the process. Too many songs a few seconds shorter than the listed duration mean I have a gap to fill: sometimes a whole new song can be squeezed in, usually I pad with a mix of jingles and old adverts.

While typing on the phone, I kept wondering why the colon (:) was displaying as a semi-colon (;). Don’t tell me the shift key isn’t working? No. The solution was, of course, to wipe the dust off the phone’s screen. Just one speck exactly in the wrong place.

Maybe I just haven’t noticed it before, but this tree in Riverside Park children’s playground jumped out at me this time. Not literally, but I noted it with some surprise. The river was a little higher than usual, not surprising after all the rain. (So glad I was away for three weeks of it.)

This week, the walking group did meet up in Wythenshawe Park. A further sign of Spring grabbed my attention and cheered me up.

A daffodil. This was the first one I saw, but there were plenty more elsewhere in the park. And further afield in Wythenshawe and Northenden.

I watched Martha and William swimming, and they are both so good, much better swimmers than I’ll ever be. Then round to Jenny’s for croissant and coffee, thank you very much!

My latest Wythenshawe Radio show is Ships and Boats

but don’t forget, there are plenty of other shows to listen to here on Mixcloud. Mickscloud. Or, tune in to Wythenshawe Radio WFM 97.2 each Sunday at 4pm to be amongst the first to hear the latest extravaganza!

While I was settling in at home, Liesel was taking her time going back to Anchorage. She spent a couple of days in Honolulu with Trudi and John before flying to Seattle. One night there before the flight to Albuquerque. After a couple of days here, she flew back to Anchorage with her Mom. Temperatures are still below freezing, so although I might complain about it being cold here in Northenden, it’s not that bad, relatively speaking.

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.

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.