My favourite one eyed detective

Thanks to Dominic for lending me his boxed set of the Columbo series. I think I’m going to spend the next few weeks holed up watching episode after episode. Love Columbo - he's ace.

Nettles

Thanks Netster for your gift – octopus styled beginner chopsticks. That’s genius how you made me laugh and insulted me at the same time! Can imagine me with them in Umami’s? The looks I’d get. I am so going to get my revenge. I still have to pay you back for the time you threw your stress ball at me when I fell asleep at work and scared the life out of me. Or that other time you took a picture of me napping at my desk and proceeded to distribute it. Well I’ve been looking around for something so keep one eye on your post!

The Northern Quarter – what a revelation

Lightfoot and I skived off work for a day and went to The Manchester Museum of Science and Industry and then to the Northern Quarter. The museum was cool particularly the sewers! Trust us to be drawn to where the rats used to live. I like the way they had all these mannequins in different set ups – they even had a pig. The museum is huge – it takes a huge day to really appreciate all the exhibits and stuff.


One really cool thing we checked out was the Xperiments section which is a hands on Science gallery – for kids really but we had so much fun there! And we looked out the window we could see the Coronation St set in Granada Studios. How good is that! If you look closely you can see Dev’s corner shop, Vera’s house and Clare and Ashley’s garden. Made my day I tell you.

We spent the afternoon in the Northern Quarter, drinking cocktails (non-alcoholic of course), shopping and checking out wigs. Yes, wigs. What a day. I’ve fallen in love with the NQ, its very .. alternative. We did some shopping first and went to POP and Magma and I got my POP back which I am so proud of! I’ve been coveting one of these bags ever since I saw Lightfoot’s. Doesn’t it look cool?

If you’re wondering about the wigs, we want them for when we go up to the Edinburgh Fringe. I mean where else would you get away with wearing a wig?

Scarborough – alas no proof!

I went to Scarborough and York recently and took my brand spanking new camera - I took loads of pictures but somehow managed to delete all but a few! So here they are..

Scarborough..



York..

Scarborough was fun in a tacky sell out kind of way, and York was cool - lovely little alley ways with lots of quaint shops. All in all - good day! Gutted about the pictures though.

The Manchester Wheel

My sister and I had our friend Maureen come visit us so we took her to Manchester Central (where else?!). We went to the Art Gallery and then we had a go on the Manchester Wheel. Here’s some pictures of the view up there. It was great because you could see for miles.

Sheffield with a twist of Palestine

Yesterday I went to a Palestine rally in Sheffield which was part- festival, part-demonstration and the aim was to demand justice for Palestine with an end to 40 years of Israeli occupation.
Lots of people turned up and seemed to come from every where as there were banners from Liverpool, Halifax, Glasgow, Manchester, Durham etc.They started off with a march led by cyclists, then they had a samba band play some music, followed by talks, one given by MP Clare Short who has apparently been to Palestine. I totally rate her for that.The they had some traditional palestinian dancing which is called 'dabkhe dancing' which was really cool. I thought it was a bit of a cross between latin and riverdancing. There was also a fake checkpoint with guards and there were also stalls selling goods from Palestine and an art exhibition with pictures taken by palestinian students.
I took some pictures on my camera phone, so you'll have to excuse the grainy quality.

The rally..

The had the drums going and everything and the banners looked fantastic. I'm glad i wasn't in the march bit as they were going quite fast and I'm way too lazy to be walking at that pace!

The fake checkpoint..

This is where some dude was ruffed up for getting a little fresh with the guards. He was wearing low rise jeans and as he was writhing around on the floor I saw more of him than i'd have liked. Very good acting by the actors though, guards and victims alike.

The dabkhe dancing provided by students from Nottingham University..

Overall I thought the whole thing was fun and informative without being too full on. I bought some soaps, olive oil and a palestian scarf (which i've always wanted!) all from Palesine. I also have my Palestine freedom band which I'm going to be wearing with pride! I think it goes well with the tibetan freedom band Netster gave me.At this rate I'm going to have more bands than arm space.

The great thing about this event was the number of people that turned up. It was just great to see so many like minds. I took my little sister along with me and we finished the day with a trip to the Graves Art Gallery. All in all it was a fantastic day. There's a much bigger demo in London in a month, i think i might go to it.

Going it alone

I know I already have a blog with Lightfoot but i'm going to use this space for personal stuff and non-shared interests. So here goes...