Wythenshawe FM – Mick and Liesel's Antics

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.

Exciting times

What an exciting week that was. The gardeners turned up and instead of just blowing the leaves around like they usually do, they actually collected them up and took them away. A lovely pile of compost for someone.

After losing that much weight, I can hear the old oak tree breathing a sigh of relief and stretching its limbs.

What an exciting week that was. I ventured into Manchester one evening to see Margaret Atwood speaking about her latest book, Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts. She told some funny stories and was very engaging. But I found the acoustics at the Opera House a bit disappointing. From where I was sitting near the back of the stalls, the reverberating audience laughter drowned out a lot of the dialogue from the stage.

This was the least worst of the two pictures I took. I was too intimidated by the ushers walking around with their ‘No Photography, No Videography’ signs.

Oh, and the other disappointment is that the books weren’t signed by the author.

Manchester is gearing up for Christmas, and I’m sure I’ll visit the Christmas markets sometime.

Thanks to recent solar activity, the aurora has been visible from Anchorage.

The southern version was visible from Manly, NSW, but Helen didn’t witness the event, having other things on her mind.

Storm Claudia brought strong winds and torrential rain this week. So loud, and of course, no chance of us seeing any aurorae through those clouds.

Under normal circumstance, you would expect tomatoes to be bigger than grapes. This week, I enjoyed these freaks of nature.

What an exciting week it was on TV too. A few weeks ago, Channel 4 put up a few select episodes of Brookside, the only soap that Sarah and I watched regularly. I’ve just found out that STV are showing (possibly) every Brookside episode, uploading five new ones every week.

Good to see these two together again:

It was an exciting week for young Martha too. She swam one mile, non-stop, and is rightly proud of her achievement and the certificate she received.

But of course the big news this week, the most exciting event, is the arrival of Keiran Michael. Helen and Brent have been blessed with this gorgeous little chap.

My heart is overflowing with joy for you all! For a moment, after seeing you on the video call, I thought about hopping on a plane straightaway to come over to see you all those miles away in Australia. Totally impractical of course. So, welcome to Keiran, our third grandchild! We look forward to seeing you in a couple of months time. Lots of love to you all.

I’m sure Keiran is looking forward to hearing his Grandad’s WFM radio show. The latest is on the theme of Water, for Our Earth Week which coincides with COP30. Listen here on Mixcloud.

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.

Saints and Singers

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

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

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

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

Not the most comfortable bench, I must say.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Celebration of Chester, by Stephen Broadbent

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

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

Chester Castle was never successfully overrun.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Humungous fungus

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

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

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

Martha was equally impressed by the very bright toadstools.

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

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

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

Rhodeswood Reservoir with Suffolk sheep and a pylon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One two tree

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bugs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quicksand

Autumn really has clambered out of bed and got its clothes on now. It’s that time of year when the Sun feels nice on your back but there’s a cold wind in your face. Sometimes Northenden and Wythenshawe do look quite pretty. Not to mention nearby ‘hoods.

This tree is in Cheadle Hulme, and we pass it on the walk from Jenny’s house to school when we’re picking up the children. We checked, and the mushrooms were still growing at the foot of the tree over the road.

Martha, William and I were dropped off near the playground in Riverside Park. I ended up chatting with a fellow grandfather, named Fred, which was a bit off-putting: I was counting to 20 while William hid somewhere and I was meant to seek him. Oops. We got there in the end, but I think my hiding places were better than his 😉

While here, I checked that my microphone was working and I started to record a short piece, a travelogue, for Wythenshawe Radio, about Riverside Park. This is for Our Earth Week, which lasts from 11 to 17 November. You’ll hear about it on Wythenshawe Radio and many other community radio stations around the country. I won’t be in England at the time. I was dead pleased with myself for remembering to do this today. I even asked Martha and William a couple of questions. It all sounded pretty good as I was going along. Before going home, we visited Costa, mainly for the toilet. But of course, I felt obliged to buy a babyccino, a cookie and a coffee. I played back my mini documentary just to see how good it was. Only it wasn’t. I had 26 seconds of me saying, ‘this seems to be working’, a rustle as I put the phone in my pocket and then, nothing else.

After that major disappointment at my own ineptitude, I let Martha and William use my phone for a while. I didn’t realise at the time, but they took very many pictures of themselves, and of me, with some filters turned on.

One day, I’ll be in the right place, at the right time, with the right conditions, to see and take pictures of the Northern Lights myself. Meanwhile, here’s a picture from Anchorage, Alaska.

Liesel, Leslie and I joined a large walking group in Heald Green. It was a walk we’d done before, and we were warned again about how muddy it was in places, and about the five stiles we’d have to climb over. It was a very pleasant hike, nobody fell over and it didn’t rain. We greeted some sheep, alpacas, donkeys and horses on the way around the loop. But the highlight was undoubtedly the family of toadstools in the field, not quite a fairy ring.

Walk-a-Day walking group on the golf course

At about the halfway point, we had a break on the golf course. Liesel and I hadn’t brought a snack but a kind gentleman whose name eludes me offered us Penguin biscuits.

We passed by a tree from which growns nylon rope. I didn’t think such a specimen would survive in this north-western English climate, but, it seems, nature always wins.

More interesting than that though was the huge greenhouse full of tomato plants. I don’t think I’ve seen so many in one place since Sarah and I were in Guernsey all those years ago.

After a quick snack at home, I picked Martha up and we joined another session with the Wythenshawe Star Gazers group. After a fairly clear day, it was overcast when we arrived. Fortunately, the cloud dispersed and we were able to view such objects as the Moon (couldn’t miss it really), Saturn, Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, the Andromeda galaxy and the Seven Sisters. Unfortunately, our viewing conditions were less than optimal, as we were in a car park surrounded by lots of flood lights. So, thanks to Kyle for bringing along binoculars and telecopes. Martha and the other young people took part in a quiz, and they were each rewarded with a space-themed Lego set.

No, I wouldn’t normally let Martha lie down in the middle of a car park.

Martha took this picture and suitably annotated it

One of Kyle’s telescopes can be programmed to look at a specific object in the sky. It then sends the image to your phone, which builds up a picture over time. Here is one result:

Saturn, just before it disappeared behind a shed

Martha got home really late, but it doesn’t matter because the next day was the last school day of term. She was already tired from the school disco earlier on, so all in all, an exciting, exhausting day for young Martha.

Plans to revisit Riverside Park were shelved due to torrential rain, but I eventually made the pilgrimage on Saturday while Liesel and her Mom went out somewhere. I recorded about six minutes of nonsense, checking every few seconds that I really was recording this time.

At home I edited this down to just over three minutes and sent it to the Our Earth Day Coordinator at WFM. And that completes my commitment to Wythenshawe Radio for the time being. The actual weekly show, titled Happy Endings, was also uploaded to be broadcast as usual the following Wednesday at 10 in the morning.

Here’s a bonus picture from Wythenshawe Star Gazers. Thanks to Kyle and Dave for sending this:

Yes, the comet, as seen from Wythenshawe, despite being really close to the lights of the airport.

Let’s go to the seaside since it’s half-term. So we did, with William and Martha. And what a fun day we had at Formby, where we’ve not been for nearly a year.

From the car park, we walk up and over the sand dunes to the beach itself. On this occasion though, we also had to jump down a cliff, an escarpment. It looks like the tides and/or the rain have shifted a lot of sand recently.

Even though the Sun was out, the wind was quite cold, but that didn’t dampen the children’s spirits. We all wore Wellington boots but only the children wandered so far into the sea that their boots were inundated.

As the tide came in, we moved further up the beach and we finally settled near the dunes for our picnic lunch. Although it was half-term, there weren’t that many other people on the beach. Neither did we come across any jellyfish.

For a brief moment, looking south, black clouds threatened to ruin the day, but other than hiding the Sun for a moment, they were harmless. William helped(?) Martha construct a castle with a moat, and it was delightful to see the moat filled with water following one particularly large wave.

At one point, a police car was driven along the beach at a ridiculous speed, and I’m sorry to say I was hoping the vehicle would get bogged down in a quicksand.

We walked back to the car and then to the public toilets. Oh and look, the ice cream van is right next door to the loos: what are the chances? So we had a disgusting Mr Whippy and the best part, for me, were the two chocolate Flakes.

On the way home, William fell asleep on Martha’s shoulder.

We ran some errands in the evening and I finished off all the administrative taskson the PC which then left a whole day in which to pack for our upcoming trip, turn off most of the devices and run around grabbing items that we’d forgotten to pack in the first place.

We met up with the children and their parents for an evening meal at Albert’s in Didsbury. Again we bemoaned the fact that Greens has now closed for business. But Albert’s was good, as usual.

In the morning, our cab arrived punctually and we arrived at Manchester Airport in very good time. If we’d been a couple of minutes earlier, we would have spent less time in the check-in queue because we would have beaten the large school party from Derby! Hello Littleover Community School, we hope you have a great time in Iceland. No prizes for guessing our final destination.

Miles and Masks

Usually when we drive over to Sale Water Park, it’s to catch the tram into Manchester. This time we were joining an organised walk. We arrived in good time, as did a few others. The one person who didn’t make it was the leader, thanks to problems on the tram network. So the rest of us improvised, walked along the river to Chorlton Water Park for a nice stroll around the smaller body of water.

While the others continued their walk, Liesel, Leslie and I walked back along the river and had a well-deserved rest in the pub, Jackson’s Boat. I enjoyed my half of bitter shandy. The cheese and onion crisps were far too salty, but we persevered and finished the packet.

The drive to Lyme Park was long and slow. Everyone else was out for a drive on this beautiful sunny day too. We’d arranged to meet Jenny, Liam and the kiddoes for a walk here too. But only after coffee and scones and a fraught walk to the café from the car park. Fraught? Mainly because Martha and William were running down to and jumping through and across the stream. Neither of them fell in or fell over, so I would have lost that five bob bet if I’d been able to place it.

Plans to go for a longer walk around the grounds were shelved. Instead, we visited the children’s playground where we adults had plenty of exercise following the children around from swings to roundabouts to slides.

We didn’t see any deer at Lyme Park on this occasion, but our desire to see big, scary monsters was satisfied at home a couple of days later.

Yes, this huge spider appeared in our bathroom, in the middle of the night. I watched him walk around the room a couple of times, worried that he’d fit through the gap under the door and invade our bedroom. Poor old thing exited via the window during a torrential downpour, but I knew Liesel would be pleased.

Sometimes I find Noel Coward a bit twee, but sometimes he’s very funny. The three of us met up with Sue from the Thrive walks and we went to see Hay Fever at the local Northenden Theatre. This amateur group put on a very good performance, and there were some funny lines in the play. But as I said at the time, none of the characters were particularly likeable. Which can only mean it was well written and well acted.

As well as there being loads of spiders around (some indoors) and lots of cobwebs outside, it also seems to be fungus season. We’ve had mushrooms growing on the grass in our communal car park. They appear overnight and disappear just as quickly. The ones pictured are growing around the base of a tree that we pass on the walk from Martha and William’s house to their school. Martha noticed that there were at least two different kinds of mushroom here, too. She also knew that it probably wasn’t safe to eat any of them.

From school, we took them to the exciting shopping centre that is Wythenshawe, the so-called Civic. While they browsed in the craft shop, I wandered over to the pharmacy to pick up some meds. They couldn’t give me everything, so I said I’d return in a couple of days. Which I did.

Back at our home, William and Martha enjoyed decorating their masks so it was very difficult to tell them apart afterwards… no, not really.

I was discumgalligumfricated when Liesel sent me a photo marking the occasion of our car coming of age.

I was hoping to be a passenger as the odometer changed from 99999 to 100000 but instead, I found myself at home while Liesel was driving home from her physio appointment. I’ll just have to wait for 200,000 now. Still, who’d have thought our old but faithful jalopy would make it four times around the planet?

I had a bit of fun with the newly installed Google Assistant on my phone. I think all these so-called Artificial Intelligence things should be treated with a large pinch of salt. By the way, I didn’t ask for it, it just appeared during the latest software update.

The aurora borealis has been visible a couple of times this week but not from our apartment. The combination of bright lights in our communal car park and a big tree blocking out much of the sky means that we don’t stand a chance of seeing any fascinating celestial phenomena in a northerly direction. But we did have a couple of pretty sunsets though, better in real life than these photos of course.

But I’m pleased to say the aurora was captured by our friends over there in Wythenshawe.

Thanks to Wythenshawe Star Gazers.

Back on terra firma, Northenden and Wythenshawe haven’t changed much since last week. Although someone and their bad driving have rearranged the street furniture just along the road from where we live.

And finally… a big welcome to baby Foxy, lots of love to you, sister Gypsy and Mum and Dad Bambi and Brett from all of us here in the old country.