Category: Autobiographical

Martha enjoys drama and William is learning Spanish, so following these after-school activities, we collected the children from school. Back at our place, Martha and Oma painted rocks while William mostly walked, ran and jumped on and off the treadmill.

The last time we saw Bic Runga in concert was in a winery on Waiheke, an island just off Auckland, and that was seven years ago. So we couldn’t not see her on her first visit to the UK since then.

She appeared at The Deaf Institute in Manchester and on this occasion, we drove into town.

The support act was Silicon. Silicon is Bic’s husband Kody Nielson, Bic herself on drums and a backing vocalist, Cass. They were good, and on odd occasions, we could see them through the smoke.

Yes, the smoke machine wrangler was over-enthusiastic, and they had the machine turned off for a while.

Unfortunately, we were standing for the whole gig, but near the front. Bic performed songs from her latest album Red Sunset as well as some old favourites.

It was warm but I managed to make a single pint last for three hours. I hope I didn’t ruin anybody’s film of the show by singing along. Maybe I enhanced it?

After the show, we had enough time to queue up and speak to the star of the show. And she was happy to have her picture taken with all us riff-raff.

I was going to tell her how she and I were practically related, but in the end, there was a queue behind and we had to leave. How are we related? Bic’s sister Boh was good friends with Cherie. At Cherie’s wedding to Andrew, Boh kissed him on the cheek. Fast forward several years and Andrew became my sister Pauline’s life partner, in Christchurch, New Zealand. So, is that cousins?

On the way home, we collected Liesel’s Mom from Jean’s house. They’d been out for the evening on a pub crawl or something.

The three of us had a nice walk around Dunham Massey, where the 500-year old oak tree is still standing albeit with even more support. We saw a few deer in the distance, but they were staying well away from people.

I was very pleased with this photo from the day, but I have no idea what it is: I can only assume it was a spontaneous click of the shutter when the phone was in my pocket.

When we arrived at Dunham Massey, I warned my mother-in-law not to sit on any of the benches here, especially in this weather, otherwise she’d turn into a Bright Starts Snuggle & Teethe plush toy.

We walk by these birch trees on every visit, Liesel’s favourite trees. We have a nice picture of silver birches at home too, painted by our multi-talented friend Una.

We must have walked by this stone many, many time before, but this time, we noticed it, probably an estate or parish boundary marker. No idea whether the inscription provides useful information or is just a spot of vandalism.

The rose garden was at its best today too, plenty of colour and some scents. My hay fever stayed at bay, at least for a while. And it was good to see so many bees and a few butterflies.

Unfortunately the little bridge over the small stream is still closed. The stream is narrow enough to jump over really, but none of us risked it. Walking round the ‘long’ way gets in more steps, and we discover even more flowers.

It was fun to witness possibly this cygnet’s first diving lesson. On surfacing, it looked surprised is it shook its head.

The foxgloves are doing well this year, so many different shades of purple of a variety of patterns. Again, very attractive to the pollinators.

And, I think, this would be a wonderful design for a t-shirt.

Oh no, look what happened: she sat down.

Well, we did warn her. She is now a yellow giraffe attached to the bench with a ring.

Liesel and I had scones, well, it’s a National Trust property, after all, while Leslie, somehow restored to her human self, enjoyed an ice cream.

Martha’s cricket team played a match and we went over to Kingsway to support her. While batting, she scored a 6, knocking the ball over the boundary, in the direction of the bar. No damage though, they were playing with a light, plastic ball.

Here she is having just launched the ball into space.

After giving blood again, I joined the family at Jenny’s. Oma and Great Oma had managed to collect Martha and William from school without my assistance. Liesel and her Mom had made sushi rolls again for supper, which we all enjoyed.

According to Wikipedia, Rob Rinder is a British criminal. Oh, apparently I should read the whole sentence. Rob Rinder is a British criminal barrister and TV personality. He is also now a novelist and as his latest book, The Defence, is published, he came to see us in Bramhall, courtesy of Simply Books. The event took place in St Michael’s Church and after dining locally, we joined the queue.

Yes, we’d dined at Trunk and I think we know where the name comes from.

It was an entertaining evening, although sometimes, thanks to the acoustics, it was hard to hear what he and the interviewer, Kay Crewdson were saying. They discussed the book of course, crime, Rylan, courtroom drama, it was a wide-ranging chat.

Thanks to Kay for the photo: we were sitting too far back to take a decent picture.

Let’s have a break from our own antics. Here’s some joy from the southern hemisphere.

I attended another meeting of the WFM Volunteers, in Wythenshawe Forum. Well attended, and what a nice, warm room. Meanwhile, Liesel went over to watch Martha play in another cricket game.

Abney Hall has been on our mental list of places to vvisi for a while and today, we followed through. Barbara came and took Leslie out singing in a choir, and, even though it was a warm day, Liesel and I enjoyed a walk outside. We didn’t see inside the Hall itself, and again, this is a venue we’ll need to revisit in order to see more of the grounds.

We spent most of the time in Abney Hall Park along with 101 dogs and their owners. The coffee bar (the most important part of the visit) was very cute, with a hand-painted but useless map of the grounds on the wall.

We didn’t pay the toll when we walked over the ten penny bridge. Don’t tell anyone.

This is the World’s First Recycled Plastic Bottle Lid Mural Trail! We only saw the wasp, but on another occasion, we will look out for more of these works of art. Designed and created by Plastic Shed in collaboration with local Stockport schools. That is a lot of bottle tops.

Agatha Christie wrote two stories here at Abney Hall, and this bear is named Hercule. Coincidence?

There was a green man in the toilet, which could have been a bit scary if it were a wee bit darker.

One thing I was surprised about was the amount of bindweed growing at this place. It really is trying to take over. But that’s not my battle any more. Thank goodness.

The three of us enjoyed the drive to Buxton, apart from the ever present traffic jam as we turn on to the A6. We parked up in the station car park and walked to Baileys Bar and Restaurant. We were joined by Jenny and the family for a long and leisurely lunch. No dessert for me since I couldn’t finish my main course. I’ll know better next time.

It was a short walk to the Pavilion Arts Centre. We were here to watch The Wrong Trousers on a big screen, accompanied by a live brass band.

I first saw The Wrong Trousers at the National Film Theatre as part of that year’s London Film Festival. This was the support film for the main attraction, Kate Bush’s own film The Line, The Cross and the Curve. This featured songs from her then new album The Red Shoes. Kate was in attendance with a near look-alike who I wrongly assumed was her sister. Kate had black hair, her friend white. After The Wrong Trousers, Kate presented her own film and said she hoped it lived up to the animated one. Well, it was alright, featuring Miranda Richardson and Lindsay Kemp, but I’ve watched The Wrong Trousers more often since then. In an article in The Guardian in 2005, she referred to her film as ‘a load of bollocks’.

On this occasion in Buxton, we all enjoyed Wallace and Gromit’s adventures again, as well as the accompanying music played by The Fairey Band

As a prelude, the band played a few other tunes and Liesel and I agreed, we should go and see more brass bands in concert.

After the film, we walked back to the car park amd went our separate ways. Many people like and appreciate the cute little Derbyshire town, Buxton, and of course, it does have one very big fan.

This large fan window formed part of a pair of stations at Buxton which were opened in 1863 by the London & North Western and Midland Railway companies. The fan window, with its associated screen wall, is listed Grade II and is all that remains of the original London & North Western station.

Time for a Grandad and Oma boast. Here is our Keiran.

He’s the one at the front in the middle, in case you were wondering.

And it’s only fair to share a photo of Keiran’s cousin, William.

After picking William and Martha up from school, we took them to a local library where we read books, looked at books and in one case, decided they didn’t want the books that had been reserved. We’ll overlook the inspirational quote by JKR on the wall, but I like this one from Doctor Who: “You want weapons? We’re in a Library. Books are the best weapon in the world. This room’s the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm Yourself!” From Tooth and Claw in Season 2, by Russell T. Davies.

Ah, but what about Martha? Well, here she is with Jenny at the theatre in Buxon a couple of days ago.

After dropping the grandchildren off at their home, Liesel, Leslie and I drove into Salford, yes, another visit to The Lowry. We had a meal at The Banana Tree which was OK but maybe a bit fast-food-ish. This time, I planned ahead, saved my self for dessert.

In The Lowry we settled down for The Ballad of Johnny and June, the story of country singers Johnny Cash and June Carter. We were to one side of the stage, so maybe not the best view, but the story was told well, from the point of view of their son John Carter Cash.

The fact that I tripped up the stairs before the interval, in the dark, is totally irrelevant.

But the music was good: I sang along occasionally despite the uxorial elbow in the ribs.

We’re all looking forward to the 2048 Olympics, and following the maiden voyage in our homemade time machine, we have an exclusive photo of the first gold medal winner from that year’s event.

Our second night out in a row this week was to our local theatre, just up the road from home. Northenden Players Theatre Club put on a performance of Dracula, the Bloody Truth, by John Nicholson. Four actors played forty different roles and they did a great job. Being on the front row could have been intimidating but it was no problem.

The costume changes were very quick, I reckon they rehearsed a lot. It was obviously derived from Bram Stoker’s novel, but it wasn’t at all scary.

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Haworth has been on our mental list of places to visit for quite a long time. And while Barbara took Leslie out to the seaside, Liesel and I drove over to Brontë country. It was a beautiful day for a walk around the village, following a really old route map.

Yes, an old postbox was the first real splash of colour we saw after parking next to the railway station.

This picture looks like a toy trainset, but that’s just because we were looking slightly down on these old things. There were a couple of engineers at work too: always good to see people working hard when I don’t have to!

It was a nice wander through the countryside, a few inclines but nothing too bad. Does the wind turbine ruin the view?

Well, having only one didn’t seem to be a big problem, to me. Except, it alone won’t generate much electricity! But later on, from a different perspective, we noticed there were in fact quite a few more.

Would you like to see a picture Liesel standing on a cute little stone bridge, watching a train go by? Here you go:

We passed by the house that features in the film The Railway Children, The Three Chimneys, known as Bents House in real life.

And then we passed through Perks’ Stile, not a real stile at all, just a gap in the wall. But this was a mistake. Thinking we were still on our intended route, we forced our way along an increasingly narrow path, being very intimate with all the overgrown vegetation, including nettles.

We passed by a few signs like this, so it seems the locals aren’t all that keen on wind turbines, after all. But I think on a really windy day, when you see those blades whizzing round at 45rpm, you could say, “Wow, look at them turbines, they’re wuthering well today”, thus bringing back that lovely old word into common usage.

So, having realised our mistake, we plotted our replacement, emergency walk back into Haworth itself. And yes, of course we enjoyed the views. And we’ll have to come back to Haworth sometime to follow the whole route correctly! I haven’t read Wuthering Heights since I was at school, maybe it’s time to read it again.

And another splash of colour, although sometimes when the blooms are in direct sunshine, the phone camera doesn’t always see the finer details.

We had time for a quick lunch at the pub before walking through Central Park and back to the station.

Ten years on and I’m still having work-related dreams. Total nonsense, in which the location doesn’t match the job and it’s the wrong manager for that company. Most days, I can’t remember my dreams, so it’s really annoying when I do remember and it’s this crap.

We drove to Didsbury, Liesel dropped me off at M&S, collected a lady with a cake, and they drove off to the WI coffee morning at the Metropolitan. I dropped a bag of CDs off at Oxfam, bought some bread and walked over to the Metropolitan where, after breakfast, Liesel drove us back home. Then, more excitingly, in the afternoon, we visited RHS Bridgewater again for a bit of a wander amongst the flowers.

We ate lunch outside, regretting that we hadn’t arrived at this restaurant just a few minutes earlier: then we too might have enjoyed shelter from the Sun under the home-grown parasols.

It was a very popular venue today: must be the weather. We sat down on a bench for a while to contemplate, watch people and just enjoy being outside. A hundred and one things to do at home but… they can all wait.

Banksy is maybe the Marmite of artists, you either love him or you don’t. In Manchester right now, there’s an exhibition of his works: The Mystery of Banksy: A Genius Mind. Unusually, we travelled into Manchester by train, from Gatley, since the venue, Mayfield Depot, is just a short walk away from Manchester Piccadilly. And we didn’t want to get too wet if it were to rain!

As the poster says:

BANKSY once said “I like to think I have the guts to stand up anonymously in a western democracy and call for things no one else believes in – like peace and justice and freedom.”

There is no need to talk about BANKSY’S creations any further since they speak for themselves louder than any description text ever could. Enjoy the experience, don’t look the other way and stop leaning against the wall – it’s wet.

Curator Virginia Jean.

Well, thank you, Virginia, we did indeed enjoy the experience, the skill, the humour and in a couple of instances, the absolute nonsense.

The “Barely Legal” exhibition was one of the most important moments in Banksy’s artistic career. He received both criticism and significant attention for this show. “A Three Day Vandalized Warehouse Extravaganza”, as it was called, was held in L.A. from 15th to 17th September 2006. “Barely Legal” took place not in a gallery, but in an industrial warehouse. The centrepiece of the exhibition was a 3.6 ton live elephant covered with red paint and a fleur-de-lis pattern matching the wallpaper of the exhibition. Distributed flyers read “There’s an elephant in the room… 20 billion people live below the poverty line”, an exaggerated metaphor for a problem that Banksy felt was not being addressed. The central theme of the exhibition was a critique of consumerism and the capitalist model which is also strongly represented in Banksy’s “Barely Legal” collection of images. Many of the pieces had been seen before on the streets of London and other cities, in books about Banksy’s work and on his website. Jude Law, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were among the most prominent Hollywood celebrities who attended.

This is of course the caption at the show, not my words, but it was all new information for me!

I seem to remember seeing this near the National Theatre in London many years ago, when he was just another street artist or graffiti artist, depending on your point of view.

Daisy Buchanan is a character in The Great Gatsby (another book that I should probably read again), but there is a writer who shares that name. I had the pleasure meeting her at Simply Books at the launch of her new book, All Grown Up. Much of the action in the story takes place in Bramhall, and Simply Books itself is mentioned in the narrative. So, I look forward to reading it, although I wonder whether I should read Little Women first, since that was its inspiration?

While in the shop, I couldn’t resist buying another book. So, the TBR pile continues to grow, while at the same time, we’re trying to reduce our book collection. Weird, eh‽

The regular Wednesday walk was attended by about 16 people, even though it had been raining torrentially, earlier on. I visited the dentist on the way and wished Sharon a long and happy retirement, we’ll miss her.

The old TomTom satnav device was still in the car: we’d totally forgotten about it. Within a few days, it found a new home via Freegle and I hope it doesn’t lead the new owners into trouble.

Last year, the Lowry 360 Show was fully booked so my visiting sister and her partner, Pauline and Andrew, missed out on the opportunity to live briefly inside LS Lowry’s iconic painting, Going to the Match. We were of course at the gallery/theatre complex named in his honour, in Salford.

I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, so here’s an official one.

It was a bit disconcerting watching the whole picture move around you, zooming into the crowd, panning around the stadium of a 1953 football match. The narrator sounded like Diana Morgan but was in fact Bolton-born Sophie Willan.

After waiting nearly a year to view this extravaganza, it was over within 6 minutes, leaving us plenty of time to view some other paintings. You can’t help but notice the spectacular wall painting by Camille Walala. As the description says, her eye-catching, colourful geometric designs have appeared around the world. Often inspired by cityscapes, she turns everyday places into bright, positive spaces for all to enjoy.

For Square Eyes, Camille responded to the unique views of MediaCity across the water and wanted to mirror the panorama by creating her own joyful metropolis.

And after Media City, we drove to the Trafford Centre, primarily to visit M&S, but why not have a late lunch slash early dinner here? There should be a single word that describes such a meal, equivalent to ‘brunch’ which comes between breakfast and lunch!

Manchester Jazz Festival is an annual event that, for one reason and another, we’ve totally managed to avoid since we moved up north. But this year, we made the effort and travelled into the city, by tram.

We caught the tail-end of the performance by art-pop collective Dilettante while eating lunch, or late second breakfast in my case, which was disappointing. The good news is that today was the first time I felt confident enough about the weather to wear sandals.

The next band was Caraway, from Bristol, not to be confused with bands with the same name from Toronto, Los Angeles and even Manchester a few years ago. They were very enjoyable, and it was good to see someone playing a flugelhorn.

Another cup of iced coffee kept me going, and we kept our perfect seats before the arrival of the singer who was the main reason we came this afternoon: Satnam Galsian. She gave the premier perfomance of her new piece, Love or Sacrifice which explores themes of gender roles and the expectations of women in South Asian culture. Her songs are deeply rooted in her personal experiences. And her performance was very moving.

There was a Q&A afterwards and I was glad someone else asked about why she was sitting down on the floor while singing. I know I would have had cramp or pins and needles after a short while. But it’s a cultural thing, from north India.

Later on, looking at photographs of the event that other people had posted online, we were delighted to see that Liesel and I appeared in some of them. Another small contribution to our 15 minutes of fame.

Keiran tried mashed potato for the first time and he quite enjoyed it despite not quite knowing the difference been moisturiser and food.

But don’t worry, it wasn’t too long before he was able to rinse it off in the pool, with Dada.

We could have done with a swimming pool near us, to be honest, as we revelled in the hottest days of the year so far: in fact, the hottest May days since records began! And I don’t mean Tina Turner records.

What’s Love Got To Do With It? is the name given to a Tina Turner tribute show. Yes, of course, we would love to have seen Tina herself in concert but that’s not be. In this show, we heard all the hits and a couple of songs that were new to me. Leslie soaked up the music too. Holly Bannis did a great performance, with Tina’s big hair, Tina’s costumes and Tina’s singing style. The audience sang and clapped along, even when not explicitly invited to do so.

One guy a couple of rows in front of us was extremely exuberant in his dance moves, he really wanted to get noticed by the dancers. And he succeeded. He was invited to go to the front in and join in with a song and dance. After which, his moves weren’t quite as flamboyant.

I was surprised and a little disappointed that during the interval here at The Lowry, they played adverts! Never experienced that at a theatre before. OK, it was a trail for another performance here, but I really hope that’s not the thin edge of the wedge.

Liesel and her Mom went out for a quick walk early in the morning, and before they returned, I caught the bus to join the Thursday walk in Wythenshawe. Liesel hadn’t locked the door, they wouldn’t be that long, but I did lock the door. Then I got a message from Liesel saying she didn’t have her keys. They’d bought some shopping and were locked out of the flat!

So once I stopped laughing, I returned home from Wythenshawe Forum as quickly as possible, just missing one bus and annoyed that the next one never appeared, despite what the display said.

We rarely go out two nights in a row but that’s what happened this week! Last night, a fake Tina and tonight, a visit to Stoller Hall to see a Scottish band, Skipinnish. Again, Leslie dug the sounds, man. Rob Green from Nottingham was supporting and he was pretty good too. I had a quick word with him and he recorded a little jingle for my radio show.

Skipinnish were formed in 1999, so they’ve been going a while, yet somehow their music hasn’t made its way to our ears until now. But they put on a very good show, especially with their singer, Rachel Walker. The jigs and reels were great and at one point, Liesel said that she was surprised at how loud the bagpipes were.

We like Stoller Hall as a venue, becuse the acoustics are good, and there is seating, but it is also just over the road from Manchester Victoria Station, so we were able to travel in by tram. And a good night’s sleep was had by all.

And so, our adventures in London come to a close. Time to go back to reality. Back to Northenden. Packing up didn’t take too long, and after refuelling the vehicle, we set Google maps to take us home. Our accommodation was just off the A406, the North Circular Road and the last thing we wanted to do was negotiate the Hanger Lane Gyratory system, arguably the worst, most confusing roundabout in the known universe, voted the scariest roundabout in 2007. But Liesel just ploughed on, and we managed to turn off it at the right time.

The next surprise on this trip was that we were taken up the M1 before joining the M6. There were so many lorries, and all I wanted to do was take out a Sharpie and change every incidence of the word Haulage on the side of a lorry to Sausage. But would Liesel stop for me?

Vernon Kay on Radio 2 kept us entertained. But I thought the ‘Ten to the Top’ quiz questions were much easier than usual. Even the contestants on air both attained unusually high scores.

We stopped at a service station briefly and none of us could believe how much colder it was here than it had been in Ealing.

Nothing to report at home. Just 250 emails to process. And two physical letters.

We had the pleasure of collecting Martha and William from school and we drove over to Bramhall, specifically to Simply Books. I had a book token to spend (thank you Pauline and Andrew for my birthday present) and we said we’d buy books for the children too. So we all left the shop with some exciting new reading material.

On the way to Jenny’s, we stopped off at Papa John’s to order and collect our pizzas. Ordering online proved to be too hard with the 4G signal available in the area.  After consuming the bulk of the pizzas, we went over to watch Martha playing cricket, as we said we would. She is very proud of her own, real, wooden, cricket bat. But I’m glad to see they’re still playing with tennis balls.

Martha also made a good catch and later confirmed that her favourite position is batting or fielding, she’s not so keen on bowling. It’ll be interesting to see how she gets on when they start playing with a real, leather cricket ball. I was a bit of a wimp at school, I must admit, I was quite happy staying in the pavilion at school, keeping score, well away from that very hard missile.

It’s that time of year again. I had to get up early to take the car in for its MOT. While there, I went over the road to The Mess for breakfast and a coffee. Rain was forecast and I was busy at home so I missed the organised walk in Northenden. Liesel did make the effort to attend her exercise class though.

In exciting news, we received a ‘badge’ from WordPress, the hosts of mickandlieselsantics.com. We are a Globe Trotter now, because people from over fifty countries have viewed the blog. No trophy to put on the shelf. No vouchers for a spa day. Not even a real badge to pin on our t-shirts.

Your task is to identify this superhero:

Of course, it’s our Keiran, bringing villains to justice.

In local news, our car passed its MOT: we didn’t expect there to be any problem, but it’s always a relief.

In overseas news, we offer our love and congratulations to our nephew, (my sister’s boy,) Rob, who wed Cristy in Torreón, Mexico. Pauline was there along with Rob’s Dad, Tony, and Cristy’s much bigger family!

Thanks to the professional photographer Brenda Rodríguez for the fantastic photos! And thank you to Pauline too for your wonderful pictures.

There was a mariachi band at the party afterwards at Cristy’s parents’ house and I can imagine my sister and everyone else tripping the light fantastic all night!

There is a river in Torreón which is dry most of the time thanks to a dam upstream. Let’s hope there’s never a reason to dam the Mersey: although if that river ever were to dry out, there’d be plenty of car tyres, bikes, fridges, sofas, supermarket trolleys and other débris to sell at a car boot sale. But on our walk to Didsbury, we just enjoyed the serenity provided by our slow-moving river, only slightly ruined by the background noise from the motorway.

On the way to our massage in Didsbury, we saw a solitary heron on the river. On the way back, we were pleased to spend time watching a family of ducks.

Oh, and our massages were great, thank you very much and I feel bad that we don’t know the names of our massagistes, masseuses, rubbers, therapists, whatever: see, I don’t even know what their job title is.

Lyme Regis is a bit too far away despite what my mouth said, so we visited Lyme Park instead. What a colourful place, you’d be forgiven for thinking that rhododendrons are taking the place over. Today Lyme Park, tomorrow the world. It was a perfect, warm, wind-free day for ice cream too, under the blue skies.

There were many people flopped out on the lawn that leads down to the lake. A family of goslings had also camped out there.

We joined scores, if not hundreds, of people wandering around the lake, some walking in the wrong direction: weirdoes.

Some of the plants were of course not identifiable by me, but unbelievably, even Liesel couldn’t name some flowers.

But apart from people, dogs and geese, there were some extraterrestrial beings.

The weather is slowly improving, by which I mean, getting warmer. And we know wind has been blowing in from the south, rather than from the north, because our car is now covered in dust from the Saraha.

Indoors, I continue to put together a two-hour show each week for Wythenshawe Radio WFM 97.2 and you are of course welcome to tune in each week on a Sunday at 4PM.

William played his part well in promoting the 2nd Cheadle Scut Group’s annual Ram Roast. We could hear him tooting all the way from Northenden.

Meanwhile, his cousin Keiran was quite happy to let the wind blow through his copious hair.

On TV, we all (avidly) watched (some of) the snooker World Championship final, between Shaun Murphy and Wu Yize. Some of the commentary was a bit naff, but the snooker was good. Wu Yize won, and he became the second Chinese player in a row to become World Champion. I would have liked Shaun to win, purely on the basis that he listens to the same podacst as I do, Danny Baker’s Treehouse.

We also watched series 3 of The Capture, one of those stories that makes you wonder just how much of it is actually true. If not today, then tomorrow… Great stuff.

But we weren’t sitting around getting square eyes all of the time. We did leave the flat for the odd shopping trip or wander.

At school, we were surprised and delighted to find a couple of frogs in the playground.

It’s part of Stockport’s Gigantic Leap Frog Art Trail, which features colourful and uniquely designed frog sculptures sponsored by local businesses and painted by local artists. I invited Liesel to leap over the frog, a fantastic  photo opportunity, but she declined. Earlier in the day though, she had been mass producing sushi rolls.

We dined back at Jenny’s house, and although disappointed that they didn’t make their own on this occasion, Martha and William wolfed down the food. I like sushi too. There, I said it. Even though, whenever it’s mentioned, my first thought is ‘ugh’, because I still associate that word with fish (raw or otherwise) which I don’t eat. It’s a weird and annoying train of thought that I hope to grow out of one day.

We missed watching Martha at her cricket class tonight but promised to come along at the next opportunity.

I’m not at all jealous that Keiran has much more hair then I do, but I do wish he wouldn’t flaunt it quite as much.

The next time we collected Martha and William from school, we went litter picking in Cheadle Hulme. I’d like it say it’s a higher quality of litter here than in Northenden, but no, it’s the same old crap, some of it decades old.

We do know how to have a good time with our grandchildren!

Liesel and I walked to Didsbury via Withington Golf Course, just for a change, a place I don’t think I’ve visited since the pandemic. There was a goose on one of the greens, so I tried to mansplain the difference between a birdie, an eagle, an albatross and a goose, in golfing terms.

We stopped for a coffee in Fletcher Moss, where a duck started to approach us. It soon realised we had no food to give away, so it walked towards some other potential mugs. It reminded me of those chuggers you still see sometimes out on the High Street. Mmm, yes another strange train of thought. But they too back off after a dirty look.

In the evening, Liesel, her Mom and I drove into Manchester for our first concert for quite a while. The Puppini Sisters are celebrating their twentieth anniversary and they gave as a really good performance at Hallé St Peter’s.

Great harmonies, plenty of familiar songs to clap or tap along to.

Parking was easy. I used the app to pay. It cost 20p for over twelve hours, what a bargain! Actually, parking was free for the time we were there, I was just charged 20p because I used the app. Which I didn’t need to. What a rip off.*

Liesel and I drove to Oldham for a pedicure. Abi said I have better feet than most women do. She must be the best pedicurist on the planet, in my humble opinion, certainly a top judge of people’s plates.

WI friend Jean took Leslie out for a walk, but unfortunately, the heavens opened, they had rain and hail but managed to stay dry, indoors. While in Oldham, we heard quite a substantial thunderstorm.

And so, it was time to start packing for our exciting week away in London. Just the bare minimum. Or is is bear minimum?

*Yeah, there’s a word for this sort of thing: Enshittification. I’m currently reading a book called The Enshittification of Everything, by Cory Doctorow. Highly recommended if you’re like me, like a good whinge about stuff, and wonder why the heck everything is getting worse. Thank you Pauline. And it’s not just online stuff either. The parking issue mentioned above could easily be resolved by giving greater prominence to a sign saying that parking is free after 6pm, not burying that fact in page 43 of the terms and conditions in very small print. Grr.

You should have been there near Quarry Bank when Liesel and her Mom attempted to shin up this tree.

Unfortunately, I ran out of film so there’s no photographic evidence. We did enjoy the walk however, through the woods, and back along the banks of the river Bollin.

Something I’ve always wanted to see on a walk in nature is a bird box with a magic square inscribed on the side. And my wish came true today.

Each row and column adds up to 111, the total for the square is of course 666. This magic square, known as ‘The Sun’, is often associated with Western esotericism and the planetary magic squares of Agrippa.

For bureaucratic reasons, Liesel and I paid a visit to Salford. Any excuse to go for a ride on a tram. And while there, we had a nice wander around, spotting plenty of wildlife.

Actually, the fish was in the aquarium in the office at the garage where we took our car for a service.

While Leslie visited Dunham Massey with a friend, Barbara, Liesel and I paid a visit to Stockport. We visited the oldest house in the town. Staircase House was first built in 1460, with numerous extensions built over the years and centuries following. It now houses Stockport Museum too. There was a fire in 1995 and you can still see scorch marks on some of the beams. It’s very slightly interactive in the sense that quills were available with ink, so we could have a go at writing the old-fashioned way.

We are planning to visit the famous Hat Museum one day too, but this display of old hats will have to do for now.

I tried one of them on which did not impress Liesel: she just assumed that I would have picked up some new friends. (I didn’t.)

I checked the time against the old longcase clock, and it was a couple of minutes out, but two people must have independently changed the time by one hour for British Summer Time, as it was really an hour and two minutes fast.

We walked by Strawberry Recording Studios, but I don’t think this venue wants visitors. Its association with the band 10cc resulted in some of the most memorable music being produced at these Studios, Paul McCartney, Neil Sedaka, Stone Roses, The Syd Lawrence Orchestra and many others recorded here. Not complaining, but if someone cleaned the window, I could have taken a better photo.

Because she’d been away on her actual birthday, Martha celebrated here at home a couple of weeks later. It was a gorgeous day and we all gathered in the garden. During the course of the afternoon, I realised that I can no longer use a hula hoop, I’m not much good at Tetherball, hitting a ball back with a racquet, and my aim with a frisbee is absolute rubbish. Juggling three clubs is also a skill I seem to have lost. I did however make friends with a St Mark’s fly. It did not want to leave me, no matter how much I jumped about.

Happy birthday Martha!

I waited all afternoon for the right moment. Martha’s garden is under a popular flight path from Manchester Airport so there was a flight every two or three minutes. The aeroplanes kept missing the Sun, until 18.20.

Another thing I’m not much good at is Mölkky, the Finnish outdoor throwing game, comprised of wooden skittles and a throwing stick.

We still see the occasional reasonable sunset from our luxury apartment.

But where’s Keiran, I hear you ask? Well, he’s a big fan of avocado. And he quite enjoys eating it sometimes too.

It’s been a while, but it was a joy to collect the children after school again. We took them to Diamond Jubilee Park where they roller skated around and had some fun in the playground.

When Liesel and I walked over to Didsbury, we saw a few birds on the river. I hadn’t seen a heron for a long time, but it’s good to see him back. Or is it a new one? There was a nice pair of mandarin ducks and a pair of mallards just messing about on the river. Well, until the male mandarin decided to make a move on the female mallard.

We both enjoyed our massages, just a shame the cab ride home was a bit of a rush afterwards!

The three of us returnd to Dunham Massey to enjoy the floral colours it has to offer, But the first port of call was the ice cream shop. Double scoops all round, thank you very much!

Regular viewers will know that my horticultural and floral knowledge is extremely limited. But Liesel instantly recognised this tissue tree… only that’s not its real name.

Did I mention colours?

Did we have another ice cream after a very pleasant walk? Tempted, but in the end, no.

Meanwhile, back at home, I’ve been busy making radio shows, trying to sell stuff on eBay, unsubscribing from mailing lists, reading books, listening to radio shows and podcasts, doing puzzles and generally passing the time in a most enjoyable manner.

Don’t forget you can catch up with Mick’s Music Mix on Wythenshawe Radio WFM 97.2 at 4pm each Sunday, or listen to the archived shows on Mixcloud.