moans – Mick and Liesel's Antics

Parking problems

When the Management Company refers to our communal car park, we assume that we, the occupants of the five flats in the block, are the community for which the car park exists. It’s not supposed to be a free facility for the local bulding industry. But we had a visitor for several days, taking advantage of the free parking opportunity.

This Niftylift HR12N bi-energy articulated boom lift also churned up what pretends to be lawn . I don’t care about its 12.2m working height and 6.1m horizontal reach nor its narrow 1.5m chassis. It just shouldn’t be there. It’s the most dangerous machine around, at least going by all the warning signs.

When the young man came to retrieve it later in the week, despite its narrow chassis, he struggled to steer it out of the car park. I do regret not having a go myself, though.

Apparently there aren’t enough pictures of Keiran here, so, by popular request, here’s another one.

Martha and William were happy to make their own snowglobes at our place. After which, Jenny and Liam joined us for an early Thanksgiving dinner which was delicious, thank you Liesel!

I’ve never been to Oldham before so, after my dentist appointment, I was happy to join Liesel on her mission. While she visited Abi the beautician, I wandered around the hilly town centre. This included consumption of a well-deserved and enjoyable egg sadwich which I washed down with a nice cup of coffee.

Spindles Town Square Shopping Centre provided some entertainment. The sign asked me whether I could ‘Seek out Susie’, Susie from Shopping Susie’s Kids Club.

While studying the picture, a young lady asked me if I needed any help. No, I’m just looking at the picture, thank you. “Well,” she said with arms akimbo, “you shouldn’t be here, there are no shops here, only offices.” I’d had the temerity to take the escalator to a higher floor. End of the world.

Northenden is slowly changing. Outside the Post Office, the postbox has been adapted to accept some small packets and parcels. It has solar panels on top, and you should be able to press a button, scan a QR code on your packet, and it opens the door so you can drop you item in. Well, it already doesn’t work, and I’m not sure you can entirely blame the layer of early morning frost on top.

As you can see, some guy tried to park inside the postbox, but couldn’t quite manage.

It’s a EⅡR box and, what are the chances? Just around the corner, I bumped into QE2, just not the real one. This little knitted Queen was relaxing on the sofa in the hairdressers while Paul cut Liesel’s hair. The motto on my coffee cup lid seems to fit, too.

Keiran’s getting about a bit. He took Helen and Brent for a walk up at North Head, Manly. It looks like a lovely day and the good news is, he does seem to enjoy a car ride too.

Another pet peeve: websites for shops that are closed but don’t tell you until you’ve spent ages placing your order. Usually we can order a pizza for later delivery, but on this occasion, computer says no. Not just closed until 5 o’clock or whatever, it was closed all day apparently. Possibly longer, it didn’t specify.

It’s been raining a lot and it’s safe to assume that every sentence from now on can be preceded with ‘It was raining…’.

So instead of spending in time wandering around the Christmas markets in Manchester, we took the children straight to the theatre and straight home afterwards.

We saw a stage musical version of the old Disney film, Freaky Friday. Thankfully, the songs and the laughter and the applause were all loud enough to drown out mine and Liesel’s coughs. Yes, somehow we’ve acquired a lurgy. So had Martha and William, to a lesser extent.

Liesel and I enjoyed a drive into Salford too, to see Count Arthur Strong’s version of A Christmas Carol. During the first half, he played Charles Dickens, and we learned absolute nothing about the great Victorian storyteller. The second half was indeed a version of A Christmas Carol, but not as we know it. With a cameo from Anita Harris amongst others. Again, audience laughter drowned out out hacking. But boy did we get through some cough sweets.

We had cause to visit Salford again the following day. We can now add Salford Royal to the list of hospitals we’ve visited this year. On this occasion, it was Liesel’s appointment and it went very well.

Spontaneously (or was it?) on the way home, Liesel suggested visiting the Trafford Centre. I made notes of which postcode area we parked in before dining at Wagamama. That hot, spicy soup cleared a few nasal passages, I can tell you, phew!

I think the only shop we visited was Marks and Spencers, but that was enough excitement for one day.

And that was it. Liesel’s short visit home was over. It still seems strange to have a short visit to your own home, but that’s the way the universe is right now. I dropped her off at the airport for the flight to Atlanta. Then onto Albuquerque for for night. Then she’ll take her Mom back to Anchorage. Next time I see Liesel will be in Australia.

Oh, alright then, here he is again.

Fun with the Grandies

There is no doubt about it: Keiran is the cutest baby, ever, in the history of the universe. He’s doing very well, eating, sleeping and getting to know his parents. He’s gaining weight, which is great, but I must admit, I am a bit jealous of his luxuriant, dark hair.

It rained torrentially all day, so I was considering taking a taxi to Bramhall. Fortunately, the rain eased off, so I drove, passing by, or through, several large puddles on the way, and I parked around the corner from Simply Books. I was here to see Janina Ramirez talking about her new book, Legenda. I was just in time, but what I didn’t realise was that the event had been put back half an hour, to allow everyone, including Janina, to reach the venue despite the flooding in the area.

While hanging about, I looked at some of the books on offer. I enjoyed Gavin & Stacey on TV but I probably won’t get around to reading these two books, described thus on the covers:

• Joanna Page: Lush! from Swansea to Stacey and everything in between.
• Ruth Jones and James Corden: When Gavin met Stacey and everything in between.

Janina Ramirez is very bubbly, enthusiastic about her subject and very friendly. Her talk was fascinating of course, and I look forward to reading the book.

She very kindly recorded a message for Liesel which will, I’m sure, be treasured!

Keiran and Helen returned home on Brent’s birthday and he’s already gadding about town.

Liesel arrived back home in Northenden after spending a night in Albuquerque where her Mom will stay with Buzz, Neil and Gabe for a couple of weeks. Manchester Airport Terminal 2 is very modern, but I find the road signs confusing and/or misleading. And sometimes, Google Maps doesn’t help much, either. I circumnavigated more than one roundabout.

Liesel wanted to be home now so as not to miss William’s birthday again. So we visited a couple of bakers to get the requested cakes for the birthday celebration. Due to heavy traffic everywhere, we arrived at Jenny’s later than planned, just before school pick-up time. We walked to school with Jenny and the children were very happy to see their Oma.

Sometimes, when you have a baby, you end up ‘feeding’ other members of the family too.

The first major excursion that Liesel and I took was a shopping expedition. We went to John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Tesco. Hours of fun, but we found everything we needed. We’re only a few short weeks away from Christmas so it was quite exciting to see these creatures in the shopping centre.

Liesel made two kinds of salsa that, next day,we took over to Jenny’s for William’s family birthday celebration. They were the perfect accompaniment to the bean chili that Jenny made for us. For his birthday, William received a few Minecraft themed Lego kits, and boy, is he quick at construction. He asks for help but doesn’t really need any, I think he just likes the company.

Liesel and I joined the other grandparents, Una and Alan along with Aunty Andrea, Uncle Paul and cousins Emily and Annabel. Annabel is a bit older than Martha but to her delight, she’s already taller than Liesel!

And because you haven’t seen him for a few seconds, here another photo of our cute little gransdson Keiran.

Before Liesel arrived, I was able to get a bit ahead with the radio shows, so I won’t have to lock myself away in the studio slash office slash spare room slash so-called third bedroom while she’s here.

Don’t forget you can explore/enjoy over two year’s of Mick’ Music Mix on Mixcloud.

The latest upload was comprised of ‘Songs with Monosyllabic Titles’. Catch it right here on Mixcloud.

Ooh, I haven’t had a moan about technology yet. This week I finally caved in to the nagging and upgraded my phone’s user interface. Always a nightmare because such updates change things and you often don’t find out what until much later. On this occasion, it took away the spelling suggestions/autocorrect facility from the keyboard. But the most obvious change (that I’ve seen, so far) is the bright yellow keyboard that you can see from space.

Grrr.

Walking boots

Each school holiday the parents of a local primary school, Broad Oak, run a Hearts Trail in Fletcher Moss Park. This lets children explore and get to know the park and is always on a different theme. There was a Halloween theme this time, and Martha and William enjoyed the walk around the park, looking for spooky hearts. Plenty of other families were out for a walk too.

But I think more exciting even than finding hearts was testing the waterproof properties of their Wellington boots.

After the walk, I fancied a coffee (of course) but the queue was longer than we’ve ever seen it.

Autumnal colours shone through, especially given the exotic nature of some of the trees and shrubs in this garden.

One thing I didn’t have on my bingo card for 2025 (don’t you get fed up seeing this formulation on social media? I do and yet here I am, using it myself) was seeing William on the shoulders of a lacrosse player.

This is just one a few decorative park benches in Fletcher Moss Gardens.

Later in the afternoon, the children went roller-skating with their cousins Emily and Annabel. I went home and thought about going out litter-picking but, well, let’s just say, it’s the thought that counts. I did some stuff indoors instead while listening to the radio.

The management company warned us it was coming, but I was surprised when a large vehicle parked up in our communal car park.

I think it’s a cherry picker but really it’s a JLG articulated boom lift, probably a JLG 340AJ model.

It’s a noisy beast and it followed me around the flat as the young painter decorated the exterior of the building. A bit disconcerting when you’re sitting there when the boom appears outside the window and the painter waves. You have to wave back, before ging to hide in a different room. In the end, I think it was only the woodwork that was painted. Plus a few splatters on our window. But I’m sure that’ll soon be sorted out if our window cleaner ever makes another appearance.

On my quick trip to purchase a new charging cable for my phone, I wandered through the book department. I won’t be buying this one:

Everyone knows a dice has the number 6 opposite the number 1. I don’t trust this cover so why should I trust the rest of the book? A lot of people do, though, it seems, following its publication in 1937.

Nothing much has changed in Northendedn and Wythenshawe. More leaves are falling from the trees. Posts are still being driven into. Despite all the rain recently, the river hasn’t risen noticeably. I did have some rotten luck though.

The pen I acquired from Saddlers Creek Wine last year has dried up. It’s a shame because it was one of the smoothest ballpoint pens I’ve ever used. I’ll just have to go back sometime and pick up a new one.

They’ve been going off for a couple of weeks now, but I was pleased to hear the excessive fireworks on November 5th. I can’t believe so many people, strangers, wanted to commemorate what would have been my Dad’s 100th birthday.

And as we remarked the following morning on the walk, in the olden days, the morning after bonfire night would always be foggy and cold, with the smell of gunpowder everywhere and discarded rockets all over the place.

There is nothing worse than making a cup of tea and then the milk comes out of the bottle in lumps. Yes, it was still in date, always kept in the fridge. Nightmare.

Earlier, I suggested nothing’s new in Northenden. Well, Spring must be just around the corner. These beauties have just come into bloom.

Evening? This picture was taken at about noon.

Much of my time at home has been taken up with producing radio shows. I want to get a few spare ones under my belt before Liesel comes home in a couple of weeks. Speaking of whom, a few days ago, Liesel told me that after falling for 17 hours continuously, they now have seven inches of snow in Anchorage. It takes over an hour to put on enough clothes to go outside and walk over the road to the shop. From my point of view, the longer we retain higher than average temperatures in November here in Manchester, the better I like it.

Anyway, I interrupted myself there. Last week’s show had the theme of Chocolate, but in the end, it was mostly a long chat with Tasmin Archer. You can listen here on Mixcloud. It’s an extended version of the radio broadcast, because I didn’t want to waste all the chocolatey tunes I’d found.

Four gigs and a cyclist

I’m sorry Liesel’s missed out, but it’s pure bad luck that some of our favourite singers have chosen to visit Manchester this month, within a few weeks of each other, and while Liesel’s anchored down you know where.

The last time we saw Eddi Reader, she was in a cave with bats flying round. This time, I saw her at the Royal Northern College of Music, RNCM.

I have a bone to pick with RNCM. The ticket said the show started at 8.00pm. So the fact that the bus made very slow progress through traffic didn’t really matter, I’d arrive in good time. There were lots of students on the bus and then, later on, we were joined by a horde of half-dressed, half-cut, young ladies on their way to a hen-do.

So I arrived at RNCM at 7.40. But the show had started at 7.30. The ticket, which I’ve now named Boris, lied. I missed ten minutes of the superb support act, one Eilidh Patterson. Her name is pronounced to rhyme with Kylie, rather than the usual Daily. So confusing. But she’s a wonderful singer,

She sold her own merch but I’m trying to download music these days rather than buy more CDs. There are exceptions of course.

Eddi Reader never performs the same set twice, and there’s always one or two songs I’d like to hear that she misses out.

Her band, which includes her husband and Boo Hewerdine, was ace.

Again, it was a nice mixed aged audience.

I should have moved into RNCM, actually, because a few days later, I returned to see O’Hooley and Tidow on their ‘So Long For Now’ tour. Yes, after 15 years of performing together, eight studio albums, four BBC Folk Award nominations, composing Gentleman Jack as the BBC drama theme tune and performing at hundreds of venues and festivals across the UK and Europe, the much-loved Yorkshire folk duo of Belinda O’Hooley & Heidi Tidow have made the momentous decision to say farewell for now in order to explore other adventures that are beckoning them. Heidi’s going back to University.

There was no support act, but in the second half of the show, Belinda and Heidi were joined by a string quartet, students from RNCM, who tonight, for one night only, played as The Polar Bear Quartet.

At the interval, the queue to buy some of their merch was ridiculously long, and I couldn’t even get close enough to see what they had on offer. Probably didn’t need anything anyway.

O’Hooley and Tidow with Polar Bear Quartet

There I was, minding my own business, watching Autumnwatch on TV, when someone rang the doorbell. That never happens. It was our neighbours from downstairs, newly moved in. Kruti and her cute little granddaughter gave me a present for Diwali, which was very kind of them. I felt bad about not reciprocating, of course.

This year, I set myself the goal of reading the Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes. Well, the stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to be precise. I have succeeded in this endeavour. The 12-year old in me appreciated the use of the phrase ‘He ejaculated’ 26 times during the four novels and several collections of short stories. But there was not one single use of ‘No shit, Sherlock’, which I find baffling. In the early stories there are a few female characters named Mary, including one who became John Watson’s wife. Later on, the Marys seem to fade away. Very enjoyable, but when you read them all like that, one after the other, you realise how formulaic the stories are, and how ridiculous in some cases. For ‘deduction’, read, ‘a series of random thoughts, non sequiturs’.

Since I requested to delete my Microsoft account, I have been bombarded with even more marketing emails than before, and since I can’t unsubscribe without cancelling my request to delete the account, I’ve set up a filter so I never have to see them again.

And I’m sure I’m not the only one playing Whac-a-mole with Microsoft’s efforts to thrust its AI Copilot on me. I don’t want it. It’s even popped up in the noddy utility Notepad. Whinge of the week.

I don’t see the results of a car crash every single time I go for a walk in and around Northenden, but it happens quite a lot. I used to post all the photos to Instagram, but I can’t be bothered to do so every time any more. I think the novelty’s worn off.

More music in Manchester when RNCM took over Band on the Wall for the day. The city was very busy, but at least the rain held off as I walked to the venue. I bumped into Hayley, from Radio Northenden and Wythenshawe Radio. The musicians played alternately on different stages so that was a good way to get some steps in, walking backwards and forwards.

A very good folkie, I thought.

This band were rockin’ the joint.

Theo (if I have his name right) was a bit folky, he sang falsetto.

There were ten acts altogether but for reasons I won’t go into, I had to leave early.

Of course, I needed to complete my hattrick of visits to proper RNCM. So I went to see Julie Fowlis. She was great, but the lyrics were mostly unintelligible. Not because she’s a bad singer, but all of the songs bar one and a half were performed in Gaelic.

The songs, being Scottish, were of course gorgeous. We should get some more of her music in our collection, not just the soundtrack from the film Brave!

What I didn’t expect, when Julie walked off stage halfway through one of the final songs, was to see her come back playing the bagpipes.

After the show, again, the queue to have a chat with her was very long, so I made my way home.

This week saw the final Wednesday Walk led by Chantel for Thrive Manchester. It was very well attended, despite the dodgy looking weather. In future, we’ll risk getting lost in the woods on a Wednesday as we wander round without a leader.

Oh, by the way, I have been reading books other than Sherlock Holmes stories this year. I’ve just finished Peaches For Monsieur le Curé by Joanne Harris, a second sequel to her best-seller Chocolat. And, between you and me, I think it’s better than Chocolat.

Google Maps can be a bit annoying sometimes but I’m glad it took me to Bramhall a strange way this week, given the roadworks currently taking place in Gatley. The venue for this very popular event was moved from Simply Books to St Michael and All Angels parish church. When I arrived, people were queueing outside, and we made slow progress. And then, on crossing the threshold, we realised the queue then wound its way all round the church hall.

We were here to meet Sir Mark Cavendish, possibly our favourite cyclist of all time. He’s written a book called Believe, which I’m looking forward to reading. And there is already a short waiting list, someone’s waiting to borrow it.

I’ve been preparing a couple of radio shows this week, so I’ve probably not been out as much as I would like. The most exciting moment for me was speaking to Tasmin Archer, fulfilling a 32-year ambition! She was great and I hope the end result informs, educates and entertains on Wythenshawe Radio.

Last week’s show featured Unusual and Unexpected Duets. Listen here on Mixcloud. and feel free to sing along.

Humungous fungus

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

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

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

Martha was equally impressed by the very bright toadstools.

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

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

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

Rhodeswood Reservoir with Suffolk sheep and a pylon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One two tree

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AK, AI and AG

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It said:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Songs with Specific Numerical Times

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

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

2. “Time” (Aladdin Sane, 1973)

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

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

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

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

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

This response is Al-generated, for reference only.

I said:

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

It said:

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

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

Nah, I’m good, thanks.

So, to summarise, AI stands for Absolutely Useless.

Antipodean visitors

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

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

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

First stop though was the playground.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

King’s Ransom pub and the Bridgewater Canal

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

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

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

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

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

A quick week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What a farce. Whinge number 2.

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

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

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

Very cheap and totally realistic flowers

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

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

Sense of enormous wellbeing

The bus ride into Manchester is always a lovely, long, enjoyable ride. At an average speed not much faster than walking pace, you certainly get your money’s worth from the fare. Well, I do, with my Senior Bus Pass. What we need is an express service from Northenden that picks us up here, then doesn’t stop until we reach our destination.

It was the weekend of the Parklife music festival in Manchester and several attendees joined our bus, some of the girls wearing dresses that they’ve had since they were about 3 years old. So much flesh on display. But Parklife wasn’t our destination. Today was also the Universally Manchester festival, put together by the University of Manchester, a vibrant, free, one-day festival packed with fun, interactive activities for all ages.

Liesel and I had booked places on a walking tour of the campus and we met up with the group in the Old Quadrangle where, once upon a time, Jenny celebrated her graduation ceremonies by tossing mortarboards in the air. That seems a long time ago, now.

The guide was very informative, giving us the history of the now 201-year old university. In fact, the hour was more talking than walking. All interesting stuff but we’d been expecting a longer wander around more of the university’s sites.

We (re-)learned about such luminaries as Alan Turing, Ernest Rutherford, Marie Stopes, Bernard Lovell, all Manchester Alumni. And of course, my daughter, Dr Jenny. She’ll get a blue plaque too, one of these days, I’m sure.

In fact, Jenny and Liam took Martha into Manchester today, and Martha enjoyed taking part in some of the demonstrations and experiments. We all met up for lunch in the Museum Café.

In the Museum itself, we bumped into Maharajah, well, his skeleton.

This poor old thing was ‘encouraged’ to walk over 200 miles from Edinburgh to Manchester in 1872, accompanied by his keeper, Lorenzo Lawrence. They didn’t fancy going by train.

William was away with his Beavers pack today, and his parents arrived just in time to meet and greet him from the coach. Liesel, Leslie and I spent a few minutes in University Place, looking at some of the exhibits. It was very busy, good to see, but what a hubbub.

Continuing our University of Manchester experience this weekend, we visited Jodrell Bank, this time specifically to see A Stitch in Space Time. This is an exploration of the cosmic threads that connect the observatory in partnership with the Royal Astronomical Society. And, literally, threads. Two quilts were on display.

Royal Astronomical Society Bicentennial Quilt

This large patchwork quilt is made from a hundred individually created fabric squares, each depicting astronomical themes such as galaxies, planets, telescopes and stars.

Homage to astronomer Ellen Baker’s 1876 Solar System quilt

Ellen Baker made a quilt nearly 150 years ago and subsequently used it as a visual aid during her astronomy lectures. This modern copy is very similar in style.

While in the sewing room, we watched a video of astronaut Karen Nyberg attempting to sew in the weightlessness of the International Space Station. All the tools of the trade are held in place with velcro

Of course, we explored the more scientific aspects of the venue as well. The First Light Pavilion opened in 2022 and the current, immersive exhibition was great fun. And interesting. I found it more fascinating than Liesel and Leslie, so they wandered off to the café.

Selfie of the day with an Infrared camera

When I joined them a while later for coffee, they recommended the lemon drizzle cake and I’m glad they did, it was delicious.

We know the universe likes to stay in equilibrium, so after the excitement of an interesting, academic weekend, we had to be brought down to Earth. I was walking along in an orderly fashion when, wham, bam, I was assaulted by even more bindweed.

Nothing I could do except cry inside, and be thankful that this particular infestation is someone else’s problem.

We picked the children up from school and took them to Bruntwood Park where the snack was, again, an ice cream. Earlier in the day, Martha had been at the Bridgewater Hall with the Hallé Orchestra. I thought Martha might have played her ukulele, but no, she tooted on a trumpet instead, ending up with achy cheeks.

At home, Martha and William made stickmen out of pipe cleaners, before we were joined by Liam and Jenny for dinner.

The Ikea wardrobe that I put together a few weeks ago needed a slight repair, to re-secure it to the wall, so that was my job for the day. Followed by swapping a toilet seat. I know how to have a good time. I’m going through a spell of getting rid of stuff, some on Ebay, some on Freegle. Both are ridiculously hard work.

Probably not as hard work as paddling a canoe all the way from Heaton Mersey to Northenden. But that’s exactly what Martha did with a group of friends, and I’m sorry we didn’t wander down to the riverside to witness the event.

Here they are, screaming as they float down the newly repaired weir.

There was a larger group than usual for the regular Thursday walk, and we walked the full distance, despite temptation to take a shortcut in the extreme heat. It was the hottest day of the year so far, and phew, there were some comments about that.

And being a hot, bright, sunny day, I thought I’d take a picture of the Sun.

Another day, another walk and we growled at all the geese for pooping on the path around the pond in Painswick Park. And then in the next park, I thought, what a funny looking squirrel: