Manchester has a pretty big Chinatown (hence the Chinese Arch, which has made it onto the blog three times by now). The lanterns hung in Albert Square around this time of year (see also here) are also good for a shot each year.
There he was, playing the theme from The Godfather. And happy with it. I make this only the second busker to appear on the blog.
Perhaps I could have got a photo to mark Joe’s birthday, 12 years old today. Never mind, let’s mark it anyway.
James Fraser was Bishop of Manchester in the 1880s and like other prominent local men (always men) of that time is commemorated with this statue in Albert Square. Apparently he was pictured looking away from the Town Hall (behind) because he disliked it so much. Right now he can look at the Chinese lanterns that are dangling from the nearby trees in preparation for Chinese New Year in a couple of weeks. No festival celebrated too early.
Full-on day of work today, both in Manchester during the first part of the day and in Hebden Bridge on into the evening. Very few chances to snatch photos of anything, and they were all snatched in transit from one meeting to the next. These guys were taking life rather easier than me today, but I still like the juxtaposition of their gathering with the sign in the windows of the Town Hall behind them.
Posted purely to wind up any Manchester United fans in the audience. I dislike Manchester United because of:
Anyway the drama of Sunday’s game (which I missed altogether, being on a plane back from Copenhagen at the time) was too good for it to end any other way. Well done, City.
Let’s think about it: will either David Cameron or George Osborne will have a statue erected to them in a hundred and twenty years’ time that will extol their contribution ‘To The Public Good? Considering the ideological stance of their party is that there is no such thing as ‘the public good’, I doubt they would want to see such a memorial.
On the other hand, considering that Mr. Heywood’s era resulted in Manchester becoming one of the most powerful and successful cities in the world, and built art galleries and universities and football clubs, and Mr Cameron’s era in Manchester is largely characterised by the closure of all but one of the city’s public toilets, it should be easy enough to predict the answer to the question posed earlier.
It’s Joe’s birthday this weekend. For the first part of his treat, went into Manchester to see Oliver!, courtesy of my sister. But we had pictures from the theatre last weekend, so let’s vary the scenery. I like Albert Square, it’s about the only part of Manchester which is picturesque, at least, on the few days a year when there’s not a bunch of tents, market stalls, traffic cones or something else covering the cobbles.
This (on the right) is Boris, one of my colleagues from Moscow (see October 23-27), visiting Manchester for a couple of days. He is well into his 60s but has a 6-year-old daughter, which I find kinda sweet. A nice guy, if you don’t enquire too deeply into what he did in the Soviet era.
I also quite like Manchester’s German-inspired Christmas markets, which achieve the (for me) astonishing combination of being both highly Christmassy and yet not twee nor over-commercial. I like this shot because of the stallholder’s pleasant look of satisfaction as Boris decides whether to get a gift for his daughter.
Being 42 