family – Page 13 – Mick and Liesel's Antics

Litter, lollies and Leghs

Northenden briefly became the centre of the universe this week. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds were playing at Wythenshawe Park, supported by a couple of other bands. From the comfort of our luxury apartment, we could hear the soundcheck early in the day. And even in the evening, we could hear the bands playing. Unfortunately, what we heard was very bass-heavy, so we couldn’t identify any particular tune. I’m sure they would have played some Oasis songs, but I was in the land of nod well before the end of the show. Friends of ours who attended later said they had a wonderful time, despite the short, sharp torrential downpour late in the afternoon.

By way of marking the occasion, Northenden Fringe Festival was organised over a couple of days. I went up and down the main road, looking for music, but didn’t find any. There was a group of people outside the theatre, but I think they’d finished. But don’t take anything away from the local shops.

Meanwhile, Jenny and family went away for the weekend. Martha and William’s other grandparents, Alan and Una, were celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary. Congratulations to Alan and Una!

Alan and Una with the grandchildren William, Martha, Emily and Annabel

This week, we walked in a couple of places new to us. Jenny invited us to join them for a walk at Errwood Reservoir, in the Peak District. I thought, a reservoir, that’ll be fairly flat, then.

From the car park, we walked along the road and then started following a track towards the woods. The incline increased slowly. William was running much of the time, mostly off the track, and both the children picked up sticks every now and then.

The fireweed was quite profuse, and if you look closely at the picture, you’ll see the flies were too.

I don’t think these were the culprits, but we were all being bitten by small, annoying, flying microdots. Legs, arms, back of my neck and my forehead were all affected. Some of the bites didn’t attract itchy attention until a few days afterwards. I haven’t been this spotty since I was a teenager.

But after walking up a long, long hill, I was becoming short of breath. My coping mechanism is to walk 100 steps, have a short break, then go another 100 steps. Well, that reduced to 50. What I should have done was have a complete rest for 20 minutes, half an hour, and start again. Liam pointed out that we were two-thirds of the way up the hill. The contours on the OS map were just about on top of each other! I groaned inwardly. Thinking of how far I’d already climbed, I knew there was no way I could do half of that again. So, reluctantly, I told the others to carry on, and I turned round. But by now, even walking downhill was ridiculously hard work. I was still stopping every few steps. At least, until I found a nice log to sit down on for several minutes. But them flies. Can’t see them flying around, but sometimes catch sight of one on your skin when you feel a sharp sting.

I found the ruins of Errwood Hall. For some reason, it hadn’t registered with my brain that it was indeed just a ruin. I’d anticipated walking around a stately home and then enjoying a cup of coffee with a huge slice of cake. Huh. Unfortunately, even the ruins are out of bounds right now.

Along the path, there was a pile of fencing and another warning: Danger, Forestry Work, Follow all signs and instructions. Well, I try to do the right thing, but try as I might, I could not find any other signs nor instructions. Instead, I followed the path all the way back to the car park where, I was pleased to say, the ice cream van was still in place. I took my Magnum back along the path enjoyed it while sitting on a bench overlooking the reservoir. Very peaceful.

When the others reappeared, Martha was very excited because she’d seen her first wild animal.

We swapped stories about our bug bites. “Guess how many times I’ve been bitten, William?” I asked. “Twenty thousand billion” was his surprisingly accurate response.

As it was quite late in the day by now, we decided to dine out. Bayleaf Lounge in Bollington was our choice and I spent much of the rest of the day trying to recall why the name ‘Bollington’ rung a bell. Days later, I still can’t remember. But the Indian meal was delicious, even if for a while, the children weren’t that interested in it!

After the meal, the owner of the establishment came over with mint chocolates for us, plus a lollipop for each of the children. He asked us to put up positive reviews, and while we enjoyed the meal, I’m not sure any of us do positive reviews for anything.

So that was a pleasant day at a new venue, and so was our next walk. We picked up our friend Michael, who we know from the regular Thrive Manchester walks, and went to Wilmslow railway station. We should have gone by public transport, but when it’s a choice between an 18-minute drive and an awkward bus and train journey that can take over an hour, what are you going to do?

We met up with a group of walkers from Stockport’s Walkaday programme. When the next train arrived, it disgorged several more, and over twenty of us walked from Wilmslow to Alderley Edge. The first mile or so took us through the residential area. We passed by the world-famous Sainsbury Mural, made by Judith Bluck in 1989.

Obviously, you can’t see the whole thing properly because so many cars are parked in front of it. But it tells the story of one of the legends that surrounds Alderley Edge: ‘The Legend of the Iron Gates’.

We saw a few birds later on in the fields and woods, but none as close nor as impressive as this one in Wilmslow.

The walk was led by Su and she knew a few interesting spots. For example, we didn’t expect to see a disused narrow gauge railway line in the woods. It’s been there so long, a tree has grown between the rails.

We were walking on peat for much of the time, enjoying the expanses of heather. There was nothing harder to negotiate than minor undulations, so I had no problem keeping up today.

Lindow Man is a 2000-year old body found in 1984 well preserved in this peat marsh. Hence his nickname, Pete Marsh. He currently resides at the British Museum but it is hoped that he’ll return to Manchester next year for the 40th anniversary. The site of the discovery is well marked. With a stick.

We finished our walk at Alderley Edge station, from where we took a train all the way back to Wilmslow, just one stop.

Liesel’s exciting day concluded with a WI committee meeting while I watched Jessica Lee Morgan performing online.

The Wednesday walk was cancelled this week, but this didn’t prevent some of us from doing it. And just as well: two people had turned up for their first time and we all did our best to make them welcome.

The Thursday walk took place as usual in Wythenshawe, and again, a couple of new people turned up to join us. The most important news I can share is that Costa has fixed the spelling of their Vegan Sausage baps.

The Friday walk took place as usual, but Liesel and I didn’t join it. Instead, we collected the children for what would be their, and our, final visit to Quirky Misfits. Sadly, this coffee shop and gothic stockist of steampunk, skulls, incense, jewellery, crystals and much more quirky stuff, is closing down. So, farewell Lydia and Maria, thanks for all the coffee and good luck for your future endeavours!

But instead of going straight to the coffee shop, we walked from our flat. And both William and Martha were keen to pick some litter on the way.

There were friendly fights over some items, bottles and cans being particularly attractive! In the end, William picked up the longest item, something off a car, while Martha picked up the largest single item, a hub cap, again, off a car.

At one point, we were discussing how disgusting some people are, just throwing their litter on the ground. William sucked on a thoughtful, yet wobbly, tooth, and opined “Why can’t people have some respect for the planet?”

Both children entered the Riverside Park playground through the back door. In other words, rather than walking around to the gate, they climbed over the wooden fence. The playground is much nicer now, there is much less litter blowing around.

We finally reached the shop, and Martha decided to buy a small, pirate’s treasure map in a jar, yes, that is very quirky, plus one of the many fascinating rocks, newly polished.

Because William couldn’t find anything here in Quirky Misfits, he chose a Pokémon magazine in the Co-op next door. I think the main attraction of this magazine was its twenty thousand billion stickers. While in the supermarket, William also decided on what to buy for lunch and take home. Including a water melon. A very heavy water melon. Heavy, yes, but in the end, really juicy and sweet and tasty

The theme for this week’s radio show was Emergency Services, so plenty of sirens and emergency situations. Two hours of fabulous, eclectic music, as heard on Wythenshawe Radio WFM 97.2 on Friday at 2pm. But if you missed it or want to listen again, here it is on Mixcloud.

Usually this blog is written and delivered on a Saturday. But this week is different. Martha was very disappointed when she realised she’d left her treasure map at our place when we took her home. So we invaded their space on Saturday morning to return the bottle and we loved watching both children’s swimming lessons.

As it was such a beautiful, warm day, we decided to go for a walk at Lyme Park. Ironic how hot, Summer days arrive with September, just as the children are about to go back to school.

Lyme Park was very busy, there was even a queue to get in. But we got there in the end. As usual, we walked up the hill towards the entrance of the house. It’s a short but steep slope, and a good indicator of whether my SoB issue will rear its head. It didn’t. And we had a nice wander around the gardens.

We had an ice cream, sea-salted caramel for Liesel, and raspberry ripple for me, if you’re taking notes. We waited on a path for a family to take some pictures, and as we passed them, I prepared to take a photo of my own. “What are you doing?” asked a worried Liesel. “Taking a picture of the house,” I replied. She thought I was shooting the family who were celebrating a young person’s birthday. No, no, I wouldn’t do that. And this is the picture that I took following this exchange.

Not a bad picture, right? There’s only one way it can be improved.

After a well-earned coffee and sandwich break, during which time I admired paintings by the Legh family, former occupants of this, the biggest house in Cheshire, we carried on walking, towards The Cage, down the hill again, over the stream, over the stile, and through the woods.

Some work had been done in these woods, with a bridge over a particularly damp and muddy section. I was a bit short of breath, but nowhere near as bad as at the reservoir a few days earlier. I paced myself, and took advantage of some logs for a bit of a sit down.

We went home and after a refreshing shower, I made a start on the blog. Then we ate supper. After which, I felt ridiculously tired and couldn’t bring myself to continue. So I didn’t.

This morning, we made our way over to Jenny’s quite early and then followed them to Hazel Grove. Today is the start of the Tour of Britain bike race, and today’s stage was from Altricham to Manchester, the long way round, just over 100 miles.

We decided to witness the first, and only, sprint at Hazel Grove.

We arrived at the right time, we had a great spot right by the sprint point. We watched the marshals putting the finishing touches to the barriers, making use of cable ties. Then we watched the man mark the finishing line on the road with white tape. I always assumed those lines were painted.

The children kept themselves busy while waiting for nearly an hour for the race to turn up by playing video games on parents’ phones!

The crowd cheered most of the every-day cyclists who passed by minding their own business and I took advantage of them to practice taking action shots with the phone. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to discover that when I do a burst shot, I only get 30 pictures. On the old phone, a burst would produce 100 images. Maybe there’s a way to change this number, I thought, but I couldn’t find one.

We monitored the race online but we knew the race was imminent when a large number of police motor bikes roared by. Some had sirens going too. Then the support cars came by, some but not all with spare bikes on top.

Suddenly, after much anticipation, the leaders of the race arrived, and we had a winner:

There were five riders in this leading group, and the rest of the peloton came by just over two minutes later. Far too fast to be able to identify any one individual. It was just a blur of cycle jerseys.

And that was it. Away from home for three hours altogether in the end, for a mere couple of seconds of action! That is the nature of bike races. Back at home, of course we watched the rest of the race into Manchester on TV. But if you were hoping to see footage of our family at the first sprint point, you’ll be disappointed: the camera was concentrating on people on the other side of the road.

As you are now reading it, you’ll be aware that I wrote and published the blog.

That’s all folks!

Trouble with lifts

After much prevarication and decision-making, weather-watching and umming and ahhing, Liesel and I drove over to Alderley Edge where we met up with Jenny and Liam and the children. We had a nice walk, Martha and William had a nice run, and it stayed dry for us. They are very adventurous but sometimes, when they’re close to the edge of a sharp drop, over the edge, so to speak, at least one of us will tell them to stop running, to step back, and generally stop giving us heart attacks.

The adventure playground was quite challenging, and both the children made the most of it. Martha’s other main activity was collecting fir cones. The acorns were still very small, but later in the year, she’ll be fighting the squirrels for them.

William was very proud of his new wellies, so coating them in mud was of course top of his agenda. He also enjoyed his time halfway to the centre of the Earth, in a big crevice.

One reason we like Alderley Edge is that it’s hilly, and it’s interesting geologically. And there are some nice views too.

We are watching Designated Survivor on TV at the moment. The first series was good, as tense and gripping as the first two or three series of Homeland. The second series is good too, but there are more holes in the storylines and bad script decisions. We’ll see it through to the end of the third series, but after that, they don’t need to make any more episodes just for us, thank you! There goes my new career as a TV critic.

We were up early to collect the children. The plan was to go into Manchester by bus, but after waiting for over twenty minutes, we resorted to Plan B. We drove to Sale Water Park and caught a tram into Manchester. There have been strikes on our local buses, but we shouldn’t have been affected today. William’s first response on being told we would travel by tram was, ‘I don’t like trams’. As soon as he saw one, ‘Oh, I really love trams’. It was their first journey by tram, although we didn’t realise that at the time. No seats available at this busy time of day, and presumably many other people whose buses had gone AWOL, so we had to stand, and the children were just as excited about that as they were about being on a tram in the first place! Martha was also fascinated when the tram went along a road, with cars and everything.

Our first port of call was the Castlefield Viaduct, but we were too early, it wasn’t open. We decided to come back later. Let’s go down to look at the Roman ruins then. William wanted to go down in the lift. So we did. A very slow, ricketty lift. At ground level, the door opened, but we couldn’t get out. Someone had forgotten to take the padlock off the outside gate!

As Martha so succinctly put it: what’s the point of going down in a lift if you can’t get out? We went back up in the lift, and walked down the stairs, 60 of them, like we should have done in the first place!

Our next port of call was the Science and Industry Museum where we revisited the hands-on exhibits on the first floor, before having lunch.

William lost interest in the Red Arrows simulator very quickly, not one of the best exhibits really. But he did enjoy causing earthquakes to demolish buildings, or, in his case, stacks of wooden blocks. He enjoyed getting ping-pong balls to defy gravity, floating on a stream of air.

The main event of the day though was Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition, You, Me and the Balloons, that Liesel and I saw a few weeks ago. Martha had learned about Kusama at school, so she was very happy. They remembered the main rule: don’t touch the balloons.

I let Martha use my phone and she took some pretty good photos.

The queue for the Infinity Mirror Room was much longer than last time. I said I’d wait in line, and it was exciting to reach to point at which the wait was 30 minutes! Meanwhile Liesel and William looked at some other exhibits, Martha wandered round, doing handstands and somersaults.

I learned something new today. My phone camera takes a while to respond when the light levels are low. So, in the mirror room, I pressed the button while William was in shot, but it actually clicked a second later, by which time, William had left the stage!

As promised, we returned to the Viaduct. Martha and William were quite interested in the plants, but mainly, they enjoyed sitting down to draw pictures.

On this visit, neither Martha nor I could detect the smell of chocolate from this flower, although other people were able to.

The tram ride home was uneventful, the novelty of sitting and travelling backwards soon wore off for William though. Before taking them home, tired as they may have been, they welcomed the offer of visiting the playground in Wythenshawe Park. I don’t know where they get their energy from, Liesel and I just wanted to sit down and watch them running around. And climbing to the toppest top of the climbing frame.

The Wednesday walk was well attended this week, just the usual wander through the woods.

In the afternoon, I visited the Wythenshawe Radio studio from where I co-presented a ‘live’ show with Sarah-Jane. Her Dad, Roy, owned record shops in Manchester in the 1960s and beyond, and the two of them present a show together once a month. In between, S-J invites other folks to join her in the studio. I selected 16 records to play, and we had a nice chat for a couple of hours. I was reminded why I like presenting live, even if a couple of words did elude me in the heat of the moment. Tears were shed in the studio. Today is was the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s passing, and S-J’s Dad was a big fan. And after picking a Sinéad O’Connor song a few weeks ago, Sinéad passed away, which shocked us all, but I didn’t want to change my selections. You can listen to Sarah-Jane’s Happening here on Mixcloud, I make an appearance about 50 minutes in.

I then joined a few other volunteers for further training on the Myriad system, the software used to send on Wythenshawe Radio. When I got home, I was worn out. Myriad 6 Anywhere is a complete, web based interface for controlling every aspect of a radio station.

The Thursday walk was as usual, longer, through the woods and parks of Wythenshawe.

And I travelled into Manchester again to donate some blood, which is why I consumed a very creamy coffee and a millionaire’s shortbread ahead of time. Glad to say I’m still a ‘fast bleeder’ so I didn’t have to wait too long for my post-donation biscuits.

In the evening, Liesel enjoyed a birthday party for a 90-year old lady, and she didn’t come home drunk, nor full of ice cream and jelly. Happy birthday, Eve!

The organised Friday walk was cancelled this week, so Liesel and I picked Michael up from the Lifestyle Centre, and we enjoyed a nice, long walk around Sale Water Park amd beyond.

And yes, we did stop for a coffee at the pub!

Later that day, Liesel met up with a friend, Audrey, in Didsbury, for a quick chat, lasting several hours. Meanwhile, some people might have been listening to Mick’s Music Mix on Wythenshawe Radio. Ups and Downs, that was the theme of the show, and you can catch up here. That’s a lot of me on the radio this week!

Watching Matilda

Suddenly, sunflowers have sprung up all over the neighbourhood. Even Martha and William have pet sunflowers at the moment.

I like sunflowers, not only because they follow the Sun across the sky, and they bring joy whenever you see them, but they are mathematically very satisfying. If you look at the seeds and count the spirals, in any direction, you’ll always find it’s a Fibonacci number. I know this, but I still feel the need to check, just in case nature’s made a mistake.

We didn’t venture far afield this week, too busy at home. But I think we mostly got in our 10,000 steps a day, in Northenden and Wythenshawe.

And hello, Gypsy Ryan, welcome to the world, lots of love to you and new parents Bambi and Brett, friends of Helen in New South Wales. We look forward to meeting you all at some point!

Martha has been asking for a while to revisit Quirky Misfits and this week, Jenny brought her and William along. Coffee and cake were as usual welcome. William wanted to play the games, including Connect 4.

He was very nonchalent about beating me, fair and square, to the point where for a moment, I wondered whether he even realised he’d won the game!

Martha didn’t want to have her picture taken while holding the I Smell Children cushion, no idea why. But she was happy to show off her blue tongue, from the slushy, diluted blue food dye beverage.

Unfortunately, for personal reasons, this coffee shop is closing down in a few weeks time, but I hope the children can come along one more time at least.

We wandered around the corner to the playground in Riverside Park which was fun, although we were all disappointed by the amount of litter flying about. Yes, the bins were full, but some of that stuff had never spent time in a litter bin.

William likes playing hide and seek so we hid and sought for a while, in my case, taking my step count for the day to over 20,000, in case you’re taking notes.

After Jenny and the children left Northenden, Liesel and I walked home, trying to decide where to eat. We got as far as Viet Guy and thought, we’ve been meaning to try this place for years.

The food was very nice, and very filling. Next time, we’ll probably share a starter. It was good to see Vietnamese, or at least, south Asian, people among the clientele.

There’s a photo on the wall, inside the restaurant, of paddy fields. My plan was to take a picture of this, and then write about the new rice-growing paddy fields in Northenden since we’ve been having so much rain recently. In the end, I forgot. And, after such a satisfying meal, it was a long old slog, walking home.

Surprise of the Week. I’m reading some PG Wodehouse stories at the moment, and I was indeed very surprised to see this:

I thought that construction, ‘something something – not!’ was a recent American innovation. You live and learn. This was as earth-shattering to me as when I read Charles Dickens supposedly incorrect use of the word ‘literally’.

Who did we see in concert this week? Well, Martha and William as it happens. All week, they’ve been at the local Dance School, rehearsing and designing the set for their production of Matilda. We joined Jenny and Liam and the other grandparents Alan and Una for an afternoon’s entertainment. Our two did very well, but all sixty children put on a really good show. I resisted the temptation to sing along to School’s Out, and that was to everyone’s benefit.

Martha’s contribution to Matilda’s school library

Earlier, I suggested that’d we’d been quite busy this week. Well, Liesel was doing some actual work, while I was putting together a radio show. At Liesel’s suggestion, the theme this week was Rain. And between us, we came up with over 4 hours of songs about Rain. What to discard? Well, in the end, none. I sent a two-hour show to Wythenshawe Radio as usual, but I uploaded a much longer edition of the show onto Mixcloud. If you have nothing better to do, you can listen to four and a bit hours of Rain-soaked music here.

Imagine my horror and disappointment then, when, watching TV a few days later, they played Joe Brown and the Bruvvers singing Teardrops in the Rain. That would have been a perfect song to play in my own show, if only I’d remembered it. Oh well, listen out for Volume 2, I guess — not!

PSA: I am still trying to work out why for some people, on some devices, under some circumstances, sometimes, my images appear distorted. As an experiment this week, I have not edited the pictures after uploading them to WordPress. Please let me know if you experience changes. Thank you! If the pictures still appear in the incorrect aspect ratio, then I know I can point the finger at WordPress. Please let me know one way or the other, thank you!

Weather or not

In the quaint and charming society of Britain, where genteel manners and civility reign supreme, conversations about the weather dance gracefully amidst the exchanges of social niceties. As the Sun rises and sets in its majestic cycles, so does the topic of weather occupy the parlours and drawing rooms of esteemed households and luxury apartments.

With great propriety, British people find solace in discussing the ever-changing skies, for it is a topic both universal and safe, bridging the gaps of acquaintance and forging connections anew. And British people like a good whinge too. Especially when precipitation persists perpetually day after day. The subtle nuances of cloud formations and the gentle caress of a Summer breeze invite observations and reflections, inspiring lively discourse and fostering a sense of community amongst diverse acquaintances, whether out walking in the rain or skulking inside gazing at the latest boxset.

As ladies and gentlemen, or Liesel, I and several strangers, gather for afternoon tea or an evening soiree, the weather is the ballet of our conversations. “What a terrible day we have today,” one might exclaim, to which another replies, “Indeed, the Sun hides behind the clouds like a frightened child.” Like the waltz of an elegant ballroom, these exchanges follow an unspoken rhythm, harmonizing the social symphony.

Yet, behind these seemingly mundane discussions lies a shared understanding — a tacit acknowledgment of the weather’s influence on daily lives. Rain or shine, it governs outings and pastimes, and its unpredictable temperament becomes the muse for plans and diversions.

And so it proved to be as Liesel and I did attend afternoon tea at our local church, St Wilfrid’s, all part of a borough wide campaign to help feed the local community. We chatted with the curate, Andrew for a while, as well as some of the other tea drinkers and scone scoffers.

On the walk home, we took a diversion to visit the new, vegan coffee shop by the Riverside playground. After all this time, the long closed public toilets have a new lease of life.

After all the rain (sorry, more weather), the water pressure in the fast flowing waters of the Mersey had pushed over some of the bushes on the part-time island.

Wythenshawe Hall was damaged by fire a few years before we moved to Northenden, and after being repaired and refurbished, it has been opening to the public once a month. And for the first time this month, we had no other plans, and we remembered to go.

We met our walking buddies Dot and Chris on the way to Wythenshawe Park. Our deliberations on the parlous state of our weather recently were only interrupted by the need to have a moan about how difficult it is to get to the park, when it comes to dealing with major crossroads where the traffic lights really are not in the pedestrians’s favour.

Chris, Liesel and Dot in Wythenshawe Park

The volunteers at Wythenshawe Hall were dressed in costume, and when asked, they related stories of the Tatton family who lived there.

We wandered over to the coffee shop where Chris ordered a slice of Victoria sponge. It was a huge slice. Liesel helped her finish it off.

Back at home, Liesel asked what the puddle on the floor was? No idea. Eventually, we found a leak from the pipe taking mains water to the cistern. Another nightmarish plumbing issue. We turned the water off, called a plumber and the leak was fixed the following day.

We picked Martha and William up from their home and we drove to Catalyst near Widnes, a science experience centre and museum that we’d taken them to years ago.

Before going inside though, we had a lot of fun in the playground.

The children enjoyed all the hands-on equipment inside, as well as iron filings and magnets, bubbles in a big tube of viscous fluid, small hankies travelling along vacuum tubes. William enjoyed using the elevator, refusing to call it a ‘lift’. And their short stop-action movies were very impressive.

In fact, we took the lift up to the top floor from where you see it raining in every direction.

Of course, the Mersey is much wider here than it is in Northenden, and from this distance, we couldn’t see any discarded tyres or fridges or couches.

We’d also booked a workshop where they learned about bees, the different species, the stings, and about making honey.

They both had a go at weather forecasting, but their predictions were no better than the real thing.

It was fascinating watching them both satisfying their curiosity, trying things out and, especially in William’s case, getting more and more tired through the day.

The rest of the week, we walked here and there, hardly mentioned the weather at all, he lied. What we didn’t expect to see in Wythenshawe was new trams that have been introduced as part of the new Bee Network, integrated public transport for Manchester.

The radio show this week was a wander through an Enchanted Forest: songs about Trees. If you missed the show on Wythenshawe Radio, you can catch up here.

Waters and daughters

Water, water everywhere. That was the weekend. Two days of almost constant rain. Our gutter continues to drain in the wrong direction, and there are now at least two other problem gutters on our building. I’m so glad we’re keeping up payments to the management company, I’m sure they’ll send someone to fix the gutters one of these months.

In more watery news, we went to watch the children’s swimming lessons, and we are blown away by how good they both are. I didn’t successfully swim my first stroke until I was 14, and that was in the sea at Hastings, where I benefited from extra buoyancy in the salty water. And I’ve never been able to dive to the bottom of a pool to retrieve a block. In that respect, Martha is like a little mermaid.

Did we go out for a walk this weekend? Of course not. Instead, we re-watched the whole of The Night Porter on TV. And that reminded me, it’s about time I read another John le Carré book. Although I am enjoying a Jeeves story right now. Liesel enjoys the way the bed moves when I’m chortling at PG Wodehouse’s finest work.

But not everyone is averse to being out in the rain. William enjoyed playing football in extreme conditions. Did we go and watch? What do you think?

It stopped. We went for a walk along the river, commenting on high the water was, and how fast-flowing. Hope it calms down a bit before the annual Northenden Boat Race at the end of August!

As soon as we left the flat, Liesel regretted not bringing a coat, it was a little chilly. By the time we got home, we were glad not to have the extra weight, it was warm, hot even, almost like a proper Summer’s day.

It was a nice long walk though, through Millgate Fields and on to Fletcher Moss with its botanical gardens.

After a coffee, we walked into Didsbury and bought a loaf of bread at the newly opened branch of Gail’s the bakery. We’ll still frequent La Chouquette of course, but it was closed today.

We successfully avoided being splashed as cars drove through puddles next to the pavement. I did suggest to Liesel that I carry a large building brick to act as a deterrent, but she vetoed the idea.

My visit to the dental hygienist was uneventful. Don’t know why I mentioned it, really.

It was the last day of Martha and William’s school year and the other grandparents picked them up from school. Liesel and I decided to go to the zoo. Our first plan was to visit a castle, but we thought, it looks like a nice day, ideal for a wander outside. And we did indeed have a good time. True, it did started raining lightly later on, but we visited parts of the zoo that had previously eluded us. And it wasn’t too busy: that was another reason for going today, it’ll be much more busy during the school break.

We wondered why many of the big cats were having a lie down, it was warm, but it wasn’t that hot! It was nice to see some animals for the first time, usually we’re concentrating so much on chasing the children around, we don’t get so far afield.

I went to Wythenshawe for the regular walk with the best of intentions. But by the time we’d all met up, it was raining again. Quite hard, so we decided instead to go straight to the coffee shop. Well, it passed the time, the precipitation continued, teasing us by easing off for a few minutes now and then, but returning with some force. I briefly thought about walking home, but no, I didn’t fancy getting that wet today. Another time maybe.

Liesel joined the walk the following day but I had other plans: I walked over to Didsbury for a massage. Marie Louise Gardens was nice and quiet, I wandered around for a bit, watched the people and the dogs and the squirrels.

And guess where I went for a coffee after my lovely, hard but relaxing massage?

The radio show this week was titled ‘Fathers and Daughters’, so songs by Fathers about their little girls, and by girls about their Daddies. Plus a few Father-Daughter duets. You can catch the show here.

Dear Reader, if the photos appear distorted, in the wrong aspect ratio, please let me know. Tell me how you’re reading the blog, PC, phone, whatever, which browser, and if it’s a recent issue. I’m trying to work out what’s changed in the last few weeks. Thanks very much!

Stench and the Dial of Destiny

One of the things we like about living where we do is the oak tree outside. It sheds dead wood now and then, but so far, the falling logs haven’t bonked anyone on the bonce. Nor did that large branch land on the car parked in the wrong place in the communal car park. We enjoy watching the magpies at play and sometimes fighting, or is that foreplay? And the squirrels: I think there are at least two, one of whom sits sedately when we walk by, while the other one scampers up the tree as soon as we appear. We don’t see many acorns, maybe the squirrels grab them and hide them first. But this week, our tree sprouted something very unusual.

It was meant to be a night out for Liam’s birthday, but sadly, he and Jenny weren’t feeling on top of the world. So Liesel and I used the tickets. We enjoyed an evening of The Best of British Pop Music, played by the Hallé Orchestra, at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Pop songs from the last 70 years. We enjoyed it although I personally wouldn’t label some of the chosen songs ‘The Best of British’.

The MC was a certain Ken Bruce, who broadcast on BBC Radio 2 for over thirty years, before recently jumping ship to Greatest Hits Radio. It was good to see him, and he was quite funny.

The vocalists were Laura Tebbutt (who I’ve heard of) and Jon Boydon (not sure) and they did a good job of interpreting the songs. The orchestra was conducted by David Arnold, composer of many James Bond tunes, musical director for the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics, not to mention being on Björk’s first album, Debut, and all-round good egg.

Laura Tebbutt, Jon Boydon and David Arnold

Yes, I feel bad that Liam and Jenny missed the show, but we’re glad the tickets didn’t go to waste!

More live music was seen the following afternoon at Boxx2Boxx. The big surprise though, in passing, was seeing the local Tesco Express all shuttered up.

Later in the week, there was hoarding all around the site, so I think some refurbishment must be taking place, although I’m surprised we didn’t see any publicity in advance.

Anyway, back to Boxx2Boxx, where Zha Olu played for two hours, with a break at halftime, and despite the intermittent rain.

She performed a wide variety of songs, including one by Oasis, two by the Bee Gees; Fleetwood Mac, Britney Spears, Cher, Katy Perry, Amy Winehouse, Killers were all represented.

Quite a few of us were sitting outside, and the rain didn’t deter us. Those two, like me, didn’t have coats. But someone walked down the road and acquired ponchos at the Pound Shop. I assume the hats came from there too. It was a great atmosphere, and I hope there’ll be more music here sometime, and I hope we get to see Zha Olu again at some point. Look her up on YouTube!

This picture was put up on Instagram later: see if you can spot Mick.

We haven’t had visitors for a while, so it was nice to collect Helen and Steve from Gatley Station, so much easier than from Manchester Piccadilly. They’d been in the Lake District for a bit and even as far afield as The Isle of Man.

We ate dinner at The Metropolitan in Didsbury, a nice veggie burger in my case, since you ask. But have some sympathy for Helen and Steve who both wanted fish and chips: alas, the restaurant had sold out!

Why did I take this picture of an old advert hanging in the toilet? Because the model closely resembles my Dad at a young age, and he did indeed use Brylcreem.

Then off to Parrs Wood Cineworld where we watched the newly released Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. It was great fun, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear a Beatles and a David Bowie song in the soundtrack.

Despite the threat of wet weather, we visited Quarry Bank Mill for a bit of a walk, and a wander around the Mill itself.

The dahlias looked good in the rain, and what a coincidence: I just started reading a PG Wodehouse book in which Bertie Wooster’s Aunt Dahlia looms large.

Our visit to the Mill itself took up so much time, that our planned tour of the Apprentices’ House never happened. We’ll get there one day.

We drove Helen and Steve to Leigh where they spent one night and visited a friend before taking the train home.

Liesel attended the WI Craft meeting, with her decorated fairy door, which, I have to say, was much better than all the others on display. I’m sure the fairies prefer it too.

When we walked Hadrian’s Wall in May, Liesel grew a huge blister on her little toe. Fortunately, this was on the final day of the hike. Fast forward to this week. Her toenail fell off. There’s no other way to break the slightly gruesome news. The toe with the big blister shed its nail. Liesel put in under her pillow, but sadly, there’s no such thing as a toenail fairy.

The regular Wednesday walk didn’t take place this week: instead, I returned to the optician to repeat one of the tests. I did better this time. I hope I don’t have to bother the optician for another year.

In the afternoon, we collected Martha and William from school, and brought them home, where they decorated their own fairy doors.

After dinner, we took a pair of tired children home, and against all odds, they didn’t fall asleep in the car.

The Thursday walk was also cancelled, but we both joined Michael on a slightly truncated walk around Wythenshawe, finishing in good time for Liesel to make her physio appointment. In the end, she was so early, that she had time for a bit of a walk in Gatley Carrs. Meanwhile Michael and I enjoyed a coffee in the usual place.

Friday, I returned to Manchester University to help with someone’s MRes research, well, I hope I helped.

When I got home, the predicted rain had stopped, so we went for a walk. One thing we didn’t expect to see was someone camping on Northenden Village Green.

We walked along the river and through the woods, all the way to Wythenshawe Park. I wondered whether any of the coins that I secreted a couple of weeks ago were still available. I remembered some of my hiding places, and I’m pleased that many of the coins had been been discovered. I hope people were sufficiently curious to look up online to see what The Find was all about.

On Wythenshawe Radio, my show’s theme was Memories, songs about memories and forgetting. You can catch it here: don’t forget.

A couple of weeks ago, we went out somewhere and noticed that the car stunk of garlic. Where’s it coming from? Maybe a dropped bite from a service station sandwich? We looked all around the vehicle, but couldn’t work out where the smell was coming from.

In the boot of the car, we have a big black bag, a carry-all bag, with lots of bits and pieces in it, shopping bags now known as ‘bags for life’, our litter pickers and pink council-approved plastic bags for picked litter, plus some other paraphernalia. No, nothing in there was responsible for the odour.

Before our visitors, Helen and Steve, arrived, I took the car in to be washed and valeted inside. I thought whatever the source of the aroma would be hoovered up. The car was nice and clean. And before picking our visitors up from the station, to make room for their luggage, we put the carry-all in the cupboard under the stairs in our block. Nobody goes in there, except the electric meter reader once every six months.

After Helen and Steve had left us, and a couple of days after hosting the grandchildren at home, we thought it was time to retrieve the bag. When I opened the door to the cupboard under the stairs, I was engulfed in a miasma of stench. Garlic. Aha! So, whatever the source of the malodour, we’d pretty much proved it must be in the black bag after all. And, indeed, we realised that we’d not complained about a smelly car at all this week.

We went through the contents of the bag, slowly, methodically, meticulously, one item at a time. And guess what we found in an old, padded but torn, cool bag? A clove of garlic. Why? How did it get there? Our theory is that it’s been there since we took some ingredients with us on our trip to Wales in May. May! It’s been festering in a cool bag, in a black bag, in the boot of the car, in the heat, for over two months! Phew, what a stench. The bag in question has been not so ceremoniously dumped.

My original note was mistyped:
Just one Clive og garlic

Coins, cone, kine

‘Do something scary every day.’ I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again. I also interpret that maxim to mean, ‘Say Yes when it would be so easy to just say No.’ So, when Chantel asked for volunteers to do something at 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning, my first thought was ‘no way, José’, but I actually vocalised: ‘Yes, put my name down.’

I woke up nice and early, but drifted off again before the alarm woke me up with a jolt.

Breakfast gave me the energy to walk over to Wythenshawe Park where before making contact with anybody, I found this chap who expressed my mood beautifully.

As part of Manchester International Festival, artist Ryan Gander invited audiences to undertake a quest across the city in search of his latest artworks. Hundreds of thousands of collectable coins will be hidden in plain sight across Manchester, each embellished with words offering guidance on daily decisions.

Abi from Factory International presented me with a bag of 250 coins to hide in Wythenshawe Park. As requested, I left some in plain sight on park benches, walls, posts and pillars, and many in more secluded locations, on trees for example. Some coins will be found easily, some will glint in the Sun, and attract people’s attention. Ryan Gander and I invite all of Manchester to go out and explore, look for hidden coins, right up to 16th July. I suspect some will be there for many years to come. I know of one that fell down, inside a hollow tree. That’ll confuse a future archeologist! Yes, I feel very special being involved with a work of art, even at a distance.

As well as distributing coins, I was also acquiring a good step count for the day. Compensation for those times I don’t move far from the sofa at home!

Coffee and cake were very welcome. Just a slice of Victoria sponge, please. Well, what I got in the box was the biggest slice of cake I’ve ever had to deal with in a public space. Not complaining, but I really needed Liesel to help out with her fork. She was instead with the ladies of the WI.

The local wildlife weren’t that impressed with events, so much so, they stayed out of focus.

Later on, I clapped as hundreds of people ran past, taking part in a 10km run. From their facial expressions, not everyone was enjoying it too much.

After a long walk in the park, it was time to move on. I caught a bus to Cheadle and started walking towards Martha’s and William’s school. As I was passing the Village swimming pool, I took advantage of the opportunity to use their facilities. I noticed Liam’s car in the car park and deduced, therefore, that the children were swimming. Actually, they would have just finished. So I waited for them to emerge from the changing rooms and I was delighted to hear that most searching of questions from Martha: ‘What’s Grandad doing here?’

We drove to the school and I paid for entry to their School Summer Fair. Spiderman was there and he has the ability to make small children levitate, which is a cool trick.

In the chocolate tombola, I won a big bar of Cadbury’s chocolate that, spoilers, Liesel and I polished off within three days.

Martha and William had fun on the bouncy castles, until the latter were deflated and tied down when it became too windy.

Jenny was there already and when she told me there were no hot drinks on sale here today, I threatened to complain to the committee. Don’t you dare, she warned, as a prominent member of said committee!

A splendid time was had by all, and I made my way home by bus. Two buses in fact, with another long walk between.

On Sunday, Liesel and I went into Manchester city centre. Our first port of call was the Science and Industry Museum. More specifically, the café, for a coffe and a spot of lunch. I wonder why lunches come in spots?

There’s a small exhibition here about Stephen Hawking and his theoretical physics work. They’ve even preserved his blackboard from Cambridge.

According to The Guardian: The Cambridge cosmologist, who died in 2018 at the age of 76, treasured a blackboard that became smothered with cartoons, doodles and equations at a conference he arranged in 1980. But what all the graffiti and in-jokes mean is taking some time to unravel.

Our final desination we knew was somewhere behind the museum. Down a road that Google Maps doesn’t even know about yet. The directions to Versa Studios given in the email were very precise. And when we were close, it was reassuring to see directing arrows on the black hoarding, leading us to the right place. It’s all happeneing here, in and near Festival Square, all part of Manchester International Festival.

The show we watched was Kagami, in which we enjoyed a hologram projection of Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto playing several of his compositions on the piano. We had to wear special goggles that revealed Ryuichi, but allowed you see other members of the audience as we were able to walk around the projection. Sadly, Ryuichi passed away in March so he never saw the final version of the show, but I hope he saw enough to know how good it would be.

As he began to play Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, I told Liesel that was my favourite, and it seemed to be very popular as it was the only piece to attract a generous round of applause. Clapping a ghost, hmmm.

Don’t ask me to explain why his music sounds Japanese, but it does, it just evokes the sights and smells and sounds of that fascinating country.

Yes, it is weird looking at a picture of a group of people standing around, all apparently looking at absolutely nothing.

On July 3rd, 1973, I was not at Hammersmith Odeon to witness the final one of 180 shows played by Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Famously, not only was it the last show of the tour, it was the last show they’d ever do. So announced David Bowie before playing the final song, Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide.

Well on the fiftieth anniversary of that gig, Liesel and I witnessed the Global Premiere of the Film of that Concert. Not at Hammersmith Odeon unfortunately, but closer to home, at Cineworld, Parrs Wood. Global premiere? Yes, this would be the first showing of the whole concert, including a couple of songs missed out before, and the whole of special guest Jeff Beck’s performance. I can feel Liesel’s eyes roll as I write this and I know they will when she reads it later, but these details are important.

I no longer own it, but a few months later, I purchased a bootleg recording of the show at the wonderful, atmospheric, aromatic, long gone Kensington Market.

There was a piano introduction by Mike Garson, and a panel discussion about David Bowie, but for whatever reason, we only joined the event part-way through the discussion. It was OK, but nothing to write home about. I enjoyed the film immensely, Liesel not so much, especially the long guitar solos by Mick Ronson while David Bowie took a long time to change outfits!

We haven’t seen a rainbow here in Northenden for a while, but I captured this one before it disappeared behind the bin cupboard.

I caught a bus into Manchester to help with someone’s research. So glad I got an early bus, it took ages, as it had to make a long, slow detour for some reason. And even though the windows were open, the bus ride was ridiculously, uncomfortably hot. So my first task on arrival in the big city was to buy a bottle of water. Yes, I could have taken a water bottle with me from home, but that would have entailed thinking ahead, planning and remembering to pick the bottle up. But it didn’t even cross my mind.

I saw a few new graduates around town and I resisted the temptation to high-five anyone, but who knows, maybe some of them had been taught by Jenny at some point. I also wondered whether Jenny at some point had taught the Masters Researcher whom I was seeing today. Unlikely though, as she earned her first degree in Leeds.

I found my way over to the Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology, part of the School of Biological Sciences within the University of Manchester.

The study is around factors affecting observation and imagination of computer-based actions in people with Parkinson’s and older adults. They want ‘old’ people, over 50 years of age. And they want people who use two fingers to type, not touch-typists.

I did a few tests on paper, typed a lot of words under various conditions, imagined typing words, and conducted a few other tests. I hope my results are useful. Especially if, in the end, it leads to some way of helping folks with Parkinson’s.

The bus ride home was just as long and devious and weary.

This week’s Wythenshawe Radio show had the theme: Sweets. I was thinking sweeties, candy, chocolate, honey, sugar. I can feel my teeth rotting as I write that sentence. I asked my dentist to come on and talk about teeth and, well, about being a dentist. But I was out of luck: she was about to fly off for a holiday. Oh well. If, like me and Liesel, you didn’t hear the show on WFM 97.2 on Friday afternoon, you can catch up on a slightly extended version here.

So, those coins, what do they look like? Each one in the set of three has one word on each side, which you can use to guide your future choices. Heads or tails?

Looking up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Menagerie

I don’t know if Liesel was surprised or not, but I got up in time to have breakfast and then walk with her to Didsbury, for her weekly coffee and chat with the ladies of the WI. We had a pleasant walk by the river to Didsbury. Some of the grass on the bank has been cut back, but there was a healthy barrier between the path and the river. That didn’t prevent all the dogs from jumping in the water, though.

Suddenly, amongst all the nettles and brambles and grass and thistles, one solitary red poppy grabbed our attention. It was vibrant, at just the right angle to the Sun, its intensity doesn’t really show up in the photo.

In the Metropolitan, we ordered our coffees at the bar. Where are you sitting? Liesel’s over there, with the WI ladies, and I’m over there, a few tables away. Why aren’t you sitting together? Several responses came to mind and I opted for, well, I failed the audition to join the WI.

So I sat over there, drank my coffee, studied my phone, and then walked home. On the way, I saw a tank parked up. It’s been there a long time, Liesel told me later, I just hadn’t walked along that road for a while.

A bit extreme, I thought. The potholes are bad around Manchester, yes, but an armoured vehicle is a bit OTT.

The squirrel greeted me when I arrived at home. For years, his instinct has been to run up the tree whenever he sees me. Maybe he thought I couldn’t see him, under the bush. Even when I accidently let the front door slam shut, he didn’t budge.

In the evening, we went over to Jenny’s for a Chinese takeaway. This was Helen’s last evening in England, before flying back home early on Sunday.

Liesel’s task for the day was to finish the pelican that she’d been crocheting for a long time. Why a pelican? And why the rush?

Well, Helen’s BFF Bambi in Australia is expecting a baby in a couple of months, and the pelican will be one of the young joey’s first cuddly toys.

The pelican is bigger than anticipated, it’s hard to gauge the size from a small picture. The stitch-count in the intructions should be a clue, but it just grew and grew, it sprouted feet and wings and of course, a big bill. A funny old bird is the pelican. Its bill can hold more than its belly can.

Liesel fought against finger cramp and RSI and pins and needles not to mention the heat but she’s a star. The pelican was completed, stuffed, sewn up and it accompanied us to Jenny’s in Cheadle Hulme.

Liesel’s dilemma was: could she bear to make another pelican should a request be received? Or would she prefer to stick to smaller projects. In any case, Liesel put away the crochet needles for a few days to give her digits a chance to recover.

Another problem was: Helen now had to fit the pelican into her already full bag.

Liesel and I collected the food from the local Chinese takeaway and we all had a very nice meal. I suspect some people had leftover Chinese for breakfast and/or lunch the following day!

Before we left, Helen and Jenny both gave me Fathers’ Day cards and chocolates, a total surprise as I’d forgotten it was that time of year. Thank you very much!

And as Helen flew away into the sunrise, Liesel and I wondered who would entertain us now? Mom, Jyoti, Helen, all come and now gone. No more visitors for a while. We might have to make our own fun.

Well, I wouldn’t call it fun, but the new printer stopped working. The problem was rectified within a couple of days, that’s great customer service from Cartridge Save, but HP as an organisation are pretty evil. Installing firmware in my printer, that I paid for, that detects non-HP ink cartridges and prevents it from working. Imagine Sodatreams only working with Evian water but not tap water. Or your car only running with one brand of petrol. It wouldn’t be allowed under decent competition laws. But HP? Huh. That’s my whinge of the week.

We missed the weekly Wednesday walk again. The Royal Cheshire County Show was happening, and Liesel had volunteered to help the WI in their tent. Her job was to make sandwiches. I said I’d go along with her, to offer moral support, and to wander round the exhibits.

It’s a two-day event and we were there on the second day. The traffic queue to get into the car park was ridiculously long. But we got there in the end. On disembarking from the car and embarking on the long hike to the show site itself, we were greeted by the biggest, blackest cloud ever.

At that moment, it didn’t feel like it was going to rain and of course, neither of us had waterproofs.

But it did rain. It poured. It was torrential. Liesel and I ducked into a tent with hundreds of other people, and some cattle. Teeming doesn’t cover it. It was a short storm, but long enough to turn all the paths and fields to mud. I had trainers on, but Liesel’s sandals were no match for that kind of weather. So, in a way, standing inside a tent for over three hours making sandwiches was a blessing.

We found the WI tent and, when the rain eased off, I went for a wet, muddy walk, to see what was on offer. It’s a very popular show, and much bigger than the equivalent shows we’d visited in Guildford when we were children.

The Cheshire Area of the National Association of Flower Arrangement Services had a great display of prize-winning arrangements.

I wonder how many hours work went into this one?

While drinking a coffee and eating my Bakewell tart, I enjoyed music from the Sandbach and District U3A Brass Band. Apart from anything else, it made me wonder whether we should have another go at joining U3A. Last time we did that, a pandemic ensued, so I’m not sure we should risk it again.

It was jolly decent of their majesties King Charles and Queen Camilla to turn up in their gold carriage, and park up outside the Cheshire WI tent.

Actually, it wasn’t the real King and Queen. They, the soldiers standing guard and even the horse were all scarecrows made using the traditional materials of wood and straw, with the addition of a covering of weather protecting bin bags. They are dressed in recycled clothing. The decoration and badges on the uniforms were created from bits and pieces of haberdashery and discarded jewellery.

Further afield, I found a funfair, lots of food stalls, a few charities seeking support, and lots of horses.

You might be wondering, which was my favourite horse? Well I think it’s this white one with a very long tail.

When I saw this big dish in the distance, I wondered whether it was the Sir Bernard Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank. But, looking at a map afterwards, we were probably too far away.

Eventually I did find the farm animals. A little bit stinky, of course, but nothing like the tent with the pigeons, rabbits and cavies. The wall of ammonia that I walked into there drove me away instantaneously. Anyway, back to the farm animals.

The horns on this ram looked plastic. I didn’t get too close to investigate, I’m not that brave, but I did wonder whether they were 3D-printed and stuck on.

I went back to find Liesel soon after 2pm, and we wandered around together for a bit. The only thing we bought, despite so much temptation, was gingerbread from the shop in Grasmere that Pauline, Andrew and I visited last year. Very nice, very gingery.

We ate an ice cream while watching the horse-drawn carriage driving competition. They drove round and round the arena, and there was no overtaking. It was no Ben Hur. But they were all very elegant.

Meanwhile, Helen flew home, met Bambi and Brett, and introduced them to the pelican.

Bambi said it’s the best present she’s had, but what’s nice is that the pelican has made friends already down under, by the looks of it, with an octopus, a teddy, a lion and a koala.

According to my sources (Helen), Brett entered the room and said “what, that’s awesome, where did that come from?! That’s my favourite for sure.”

Helen’s no longer sure the baby will actually receive the pelican. This controversy will no doubt be discussed and resolved at length in the weeks and months to come. Anyway, congratulations, good luck and lots of love to Bambi and Brett and bump from Liesel and me.

It was a hot walk through the Wythenshawe woods, just the five of us this week. Followed by a cold drink in the coffee shop, unusual for me, but becoming more common as the hot weather continues.

At home this week, I have been making good progress on the computer, with the long-term project known as ‘sorting out the photos’. It’s amazing how much work, much of it repetitive, is required after having one zapped SD card and having to change phones. I hope you never have to recover photos from Google’s cloud storage. It’s not intuitive, it’s not easy, it’s not straightforward, it’s time-consuming and you’re never sure you have everything. I’m so glad I had my own backup copies.

In this week’s radio show, I listed the many local Festivals that are taking part in the coming weeks. If you missed it on Wythenshawe Radio WFM 97.2, you can catch it here.

Relaxation, Adventures, and Escapes

The day after our return from Center Parcs was very laid back. Some might describe it as lazy. We did very little. In fact, some might say we did nothing. We didn’t even turn the radio or TV on. A very relaxed day, all in all. A couple of snacks, a couple of hikes from sofa to kitchen, and an early night.

So here is some news from abroad.

Jyoti’s back at home in Anchorage, watching the wildlife from her window.

Meanwhile, over there in Cheadle Hulme, William was Star of the week at football class: the coach said he’d got it for his effort this week ⭐

Meanwhile, Helen drove south to visit some old friends in Somerset and SW London, and drove past our old house several times in disbelief at what our old neighbours have done.

Jenny and Liam took William and Martha to Legoland Windsor. The theme park was great fun but later in the week, the children were just raving about the breakfast they had at the hotel, the buffet style spread was huge, and the piles of toast were amazing!

We’re now in the midst of a heatwave. Suddenly the temperature is in the high 20s Celsius. Phew what a scorcher is the over-used phrase. And then came the thunderstorms. After skirting Manchester for a few days, we finally experienced one. Torrential rain and then hail, with stones the size of peas. I later found out that elsewhere, the hailstones were the size of marbles. Nothing wrong with a nice refreshing thunderstorm of course, unless you’re caught in it outside. Which, unfortunately, is what happened to the young lady whose job it was to deliver our pizza. When I ordered online, there was no sign of a cloud in the sky, but in the 25 minutes it took to cook our pizza, everything changed. She deserved a bigger tip, really. And a towel.

For the first time in many weeks, Liesel and I joined the Wednesday walk. It was a hot day for a walk by the river, with little shade. Phew what a scorcher. But the heron was standing in his default spot on the weir, so that was a bonus.

Liesel and I collected the children from school and, instead of bringing them to our luxury but hot apartment, we took them over to the nearby playground in Bruntwood Park, a short walk from school. They had fun playing, it was impossible to run after them, and it was nice to sit down in the shade for a picnic.

They both reached the summit of the climbing frame, again, something I’m not sure I could do, but only because it’s in a childrens’ playground, not for any other reason such as cowardice or chickenry.

There is a sandpit in this playground. The following converstion did not take place:
William: Can I play in the sandpit?
Grandad: Yes, of course you can, fill yer boots!

Nevertheless, he chose to do so, literally.

Later on, Martha and a school chum played in the sandpit too. By the time we’d all walked home, I think most of the sand had fallen off their shoes. Well, I say ‘shoes’, but as you can see, William was wearing wellies. I think the kiddoes had a good brush down and a shower at home.

We had an unusual visitor this week.

Usually, we see them later in the year, so here’s another sign, maybe, of climate change.

For the first time in many weeks, I joined the Thursday walk. It was a hot day for a walk so the shade in the woods was very welcome. Phew what a scorcher. There were just the four of us this week, Mick, Michael, Chantel and Chantelle.

Jenny and Liam asked us to babysit one evening, and that’s always a pleasure. They and Helen were joining a couple of friends at an Escape Room. Martha was building a Lego model that she’d acquired at Legoland. She was doing really well, the instructions are really good and comprehensive, she didn’t really need my help. She was about halfway through completing the structure, at instruction number 140.

They ate (most) of their supper, and got ready for bed quickly after which we read some stories. Both said they missed Mummy, but accepted that Mummy and Daddy like to go out sometimes. And, once asleep, they both stayed in slumber at least until we left when parents and auntie returned. The Escape Room had been good fun but very hot.

With this in mind, I dressed as lightly as I could the following day, because Jenny and Helen’s (belated) birthday present for me was a visit to an Escape Room, not the same as last night’s.

This one is located in Disley and the drive there was very pleasant.

Our team of tomb raiders and archeologists entered an abandoned gold mine in the heart of the Mexican mountains. Our mission was to find the hidden gold. Legend says that the holder of the hidden gold of El Narangel will find the Lost Tomb. The miners left subtle clues and hints, so we used all our skills to find the hidden gold and ultimately the Lost Tomb. We had to be careful because the miners wouldn’t give up their gold easily.

I would recommend this, my first Escape Room experience, ExtremEscape, it was challenging and good fun and, contrary to expectations, the venue wasn’t too hot.

No spoilers, so no photos, suffice to say, we escaped with 8 minutes left from the original 90-minute duration of the challenge.

At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I am very proud to have been the first person to solve one puzzle in one particular way, according to our host! Even though, at the time, I was berated by children and spouse!

For lunch, we dined at Greens in Didsbury. As usual, the food was great, the service was terrific and again, Liesel and I agreed we should come more often.

At home, the latest TV series that we’re enjoying is Extraordinary Attorney Woo: very unusual to see a character on the autistic spectrum in a lead rôle.

My show this week on Wythenshawe Radio featured two hours of Cover versions, and if you missed it, you can catch up here.