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I have just discovered a great app for your iPhone or Android smartphone. It’s a full-featured satnav for cyclists and pedestrians. This means it will navigate a route on cycle paths and quiet roads and use bike-friendly cut-throughs and short-cuts where available. It even avoids hills if possible, and will show you A to A leisure routes from and back to a specified location. It’s free from Bike Hub thanks to a voluntary bike industry levy. After recent heavy rain my local nine-hole golf course is suffering from partial flooding. Two holes are unplayable. Immaculately manicured grass is now under a sheet of water which shows no signs of subsiding. And there in the middle of this new pond, looking content and perfectly at home, glides a solitary snow-white swan. I was one of those kids who sends off for free stuff from companies. You know – samples, information packs, promotional material, posters for my bedroom wall. One such firm was Adana (Printing Machines) Ltd in Twickenham, England. I could not resist the coupon for a free sample of printer’s type. They sent me nine characters which spelled the words ADANA TYPE wrapped in a plain piece of paper, together with brochures for their printing presses and accessories. I took these curious shiny rods of lead (exactly 0.918 inches or 23.3172 mm high) with the mirror-writing letters on top to primary school with me, where I would carefully unwrap them and show to friends and teachers. At first that was the extent of my interest in printing, but
… more → Want to know where you can be amazed, amused, disturbed, delighted and confused at the same time with no cost to yourself? Make sure you get on down to Manchester Art Gallery and catch Ron Mueck’s sculptures before Sunday 11 April 2010. They are so astonishingly lifelike that you almost wonder
… more → On 31 October 2003 I was one of 10,000 spectators who waited patiently in the cold at Manchester Airport to watch Concorde G-BOAC land for the very last time. Today I went on a Technical Tour of that same aeroplane which, after five years standing out in the open, is now housed in the Concorde Centre. (Whilst this purpose built hangar protects the iconic plane from the wind and rain, it is unheated. The seven of us on our tour were bitterly cold for most of the 90 minute experience. If you are considering a tour, wait until spring!) … more → It looks like Manchester’s Urbis gallery might become the home of a National Football Museum instead. Good. Not that I have any appreciation of the game. I watch a football match on TV with the same level of comprehension as our cat. We can both see coloured shapes moving around on the screen but that’s about it. But Urbis has been a white elephant from the start.
… more → At 7.30 we went off for a pre-breakfast walk to the top of Symonds Yat Rock. It was a lovely morning and we had the place to ourselves. It’s a steep climb up through the woods, where we bumped into a regular from the White Lion in Ross-on-Wye. There is a walled viewing area at the summit with a perfect view of the rocks where peregrine falcons nest. You can also see the vast sweep of the river as it doubles back on itself – something you are not aware of when canoeing. Dave and I were ready for breakfast by the time we returned, but once again we were frustrated; breakfast at the Saracen’s Head was served to residents only, and the landlord refused to be persuaded otherwise – even though there were plenty of empty tables. … more → Woke to another fine morning with noisy house martins busily flitting back and forth to their nests in the eaves of the White Lion. We had an excellent cooked breakfast there on the terrace, watching swans gliding back and forth along the river before Mark Simons from The River Wye Canoe Hire Company arrived to issue us with our equipment. He also gave us a safety briefing and instructions for dealing with various hazards and features along the river. It was a lot to take in, and one person in another group was so fazed she changed her mind and decided not to canoe. … more → Our adventure down the River Wye from Mordiford at the end of July had been cut short at Ross-on-Wye due to the dangerously swollen river. But Dave and I were still keen to do the second section, from Ross down to Redbrook. This time I took the train, a direct service from Stockport to Hereford where Dave picked me up. We drove to Ross-on-Wye and pitched our tents at the White Lion once more. … more → Years ago we visited Manchester Airport’s Aviation Viewing Park. What a grandiose name for a couple of earth mounds and a Portakabin near the runway, we thought at the time. Since then, they have acquired Concorde (I watched its very last landing) and have added several other planes. So I thought it was time for a return visit. Now I don’t suppose everybody enjoys watching aircraft taking off and landing, but I find these commonplace machines awesome, exciting and beautiful. … more → |
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