Category: Manchester Days Out

Hold on to your Santa hats, everybody – the Manchester Christmas Markets are back this week (Thursday, 17 November, 2011).

I can’t believe it’s come around so fast again. Everything seems to go pretty quickly at my age, I have to admit, but nothing makes you aware of it like Christmas time. The decorations and lights are already up all over the place, including that bizarre giant Father Christmas thing on top of the entrance to Manchester town hall. It’s environmentally friendly, apparently, despite being made of 100,000 light bulbs.

I do like the markets, especially the mulled wine stalls and sausage traders – though it seems to get more and more difficult to walk around them every year! I can’t believe how many thousands of people show up. They say there are traders coming from all over the north west, as well as Europe – and even Lapland. There’s an extra area opening on King Street at weekends, selling work by local artists. Might go along and see if there are any presents worth buying – or maybe even something for my own walls.

Christmas dos will be in full swing soon too – and I’m sure all the top Manchester restaurants are gearing up for them. The wife and I love eating out with our friends during the festive season, but it can be difficult to get a table with all the office parties. I expect places like Australasia in Spinningfields will be absolutely packed, this year – and that French place on the edge of the Northern Quarter, 63 Degrees. Certainly no harm trying, though.

The wife will also be wanting to get her shopping done soon – and I know what that means. She’ll be in and out of shops all over the Arndale Centre, The Triangle and King Street while I trudge behind carrying bags. If I’m really lucky, I might get a seat outside the changing rooms in Marks & Spencer while she tries on dresses for Christmas Day. We’re having family round at ours. Just thinking about the food is making me hungry…

Gorton Monastery was designed by Edward Welby Pugin during the Victorian era and is a fine example of Victorian Gothic Architecture. The purpose built building was originally a friary for a group of Franciscan Monks who settled in Manchester in 1861. However, it ceased to be used for worship in 1989 and has since had many different uses. The Monastery still acts as a sacred space for people to visit and learn about its history and architecture.

In 1997 the building was included in the 100 most Endangered Sites in the World list by the World Monuments Fund. This subsequently led to a £6 million restoration programme and in 2007 The Monastery reopened its doors as a venue for various events and performances.

The stunning building boasts a bespoke in-house catering and events service who can theme an event for up to 600 guests. The Monastery’s natural acoustics mean that it’s the perfect venue for any musical performance – particularly choral music. Songs of Praise has broadcast from the chapel along with Aled Jones’ Choir of the Year competition.

It is also a beautiful venue to hold a wedding, as both service and reception can be offered as a package. With the Archangel Garden and Cloister Space, there are plenty of superb photograph opportunities.

Although the building was helped substantially by grants donated from the Heritage Lottery Fund and The North West Development Agency amongst others, its own trust has been set up. The Monastery of St Francis and Gorton Trust seeks to gain more money from both public funding and the events that are held on the premises. There are regular tours and talks held at Gorton Monastery detailing the Franciscan’s journey to Gorton from Assisi and the ’sacred geometry’ codes that E. W. Pugin allegedly included in his architecture.

Xtrax, the entertainment and festival organisers, are hosting a weekend of outdoor performances in Manchester. The company will be bringing together a wide array of street theatre, live music and dances for their upcoming event, Platform 4.

The Manchester festival is set to be even bigger than before as Xtrax have been able to book a large volume of acts from around the UK and Europe. The great amount of performances this year means that Platform 4 will be taking place in all the central area within Manchester. Piccadilly Gardens, St Ann’s Square and New Cathedral Street are going to be filled with street theatre and dance during Saturday and Sunday daytime.

Contact Young Actors Company, the Manchester theatrical troupe, will be putting on an outdoor performance during the weekend. The group will be showing their modern audience an old-fashioned medicine show full of mystical machines and visual treats. Another top attraction is ‘Chutney on the Street!’ where the cast of London’s successful Bombay Dreams will be singing and dancing to soca guitars and percussion.

Platform 4 continues into the night time hours at the Castlefield Arena. Friday and Saturday nights are going to have a real party atmosphere as live music and dancing will fill the arena. You can also watch top acrobats perform breathtaking circus skills and aerial shows around the streets of Castlefield. One of the main evening attractions is As the World Tipped by the Wired Aerial Theatre. Nigel Jamieson, the company director, has composed a piece where aerial performers tell the tale of the current ecological crisis.

Platform 4 will be taking place between Friday 19th and Sunday 21st August and all the performances are free of charge. You can learn more about Platform 4’s times and performances at the Xtrax Facebook page.

The Manchester Picnic is back following its highly successful first year. The 2010 event enticed people from all around the UK with its culinary delights and live entertainment. The picnic is set to be even bigger this year as there will be a wider variety of food stalls, family competitions and celebrity guest appearances.

Manchester Picnic will take place in Piccadilly Gardens between Friday 5th and Sunday 7th of August. The central area is going to be transformed from its usual appearance into a mini festival. There will be marquees and stalls containing a wide array of cuisines taking the place of any usual sights. The Gourmet Gastro garden is set to be popular part of the picnic as people can enjoy quality dishes from the top restaurants in Manchester. There will also be a barbeque smoking away all weekend, a spicy Paella cooking on a traditional pan dish and a crackling hog roast. You can also snack on cream teas and the handmade ice cream which will be served from an old fashioned ice cream van.

For those who are going to Manchester Picnic with young children, the family oasis serves foods which all age groups should enjoy. There is also the teddy bears picnic on the Sunday where Baby Ballet’s Twinkle the Bear will be making a special appearance. The main event of the weekend will be when UKTV’s Monster Munchies film at the festival. The programme’s host, Matt Dawson, is going to be looking in the crowds for people to partake in a giant spring roll competition.

The charity, Forever Manchester, will also be getting involved in the Manchester Picnic. The charity has gained plenty of good publicity and many charitable donations since its successful online campaign with Manchester digital agency, Juice Digital. Fundraisers will be setting up a stall selling a wide variety of local and homemade foods. The charity is also going to be hosting competitions throughout the weekend with a range of prizes for winners. There will also be some secret special guests at the Forever Manchester stall so try and spot them during your visit to the Manchester Picnic.

As summer approaches many families begin looking for North West days out and things to do in and around the region. The six week summer holiday can be a large amount of time to fill and keep young children occupied. Luckily for northern families there are a great deal of activities and things to do in the North West.

For Merseyside families they don’t even need to travel too far in order to take part in great events for the whole family. The Crosby Lakeside adventure centre is based on the coast in the Merseyside area of Waterloo. It’s easily accessible by road and rail alike and proves a perfect day out for families of all ages. If visitors are coming from further afield, in search of a break away there is accommodation available in the contemporary Lodge. If a day out extends into the evening, there is a Bistro on site where visitors can experience fine food while relaxing.

The activity centre has lots to offer with an array of water sports available. Visitors can use the lake to waterski, windsurf, sail, powerboat and canoe. In addition to these regular activities there are also special events held at the centre, encouraging families to be active and get involved in energetic pursuits. Such events include a Dualathalon, which sees families and children of all ages competing in the areas of cycling and running.

The centre makes a great day out for families, but if visitors do choose to stay at the Lodge there are a great many days out around the surrounding North West area. With the nearby seaside resort of Southport and both coast and countryside just a stone’s throw away, there’s never a dull moment during a break away in the North West.

Sunday 15th May 2011 saw the return of the annual Bupa Great Manchester Run. The event, which started in 2003, has grown to be one of the largest mass participation runs in the UK. Each year it has grown in popularity and this year 38,000 runners took part.

The track, which was 10km long, started on Portland Street in the City centre and finished on Deansgate passing sites such as Old Trafford on the way. Runners were entertained by bands positioned at various points throughout the course and celebrities including Amir Kahn were onboard to encourage the athletes.

The highly popular event brought an added positive atmosphere to the already friendly city. This year the day was an especially sporting occasion for the city as it also held the second British Gas Great Salford Swim. Both events were covered by the BBC in four hours of coverage focused on the city. In view of the Olympics the BBC has started the Big Splash campaign, aiming to encourage Britons to learn to swim. In association with this, Blue Peter presenter Andy Akinwolere took on a swimming challenge, with the end goal of taking part in the mile long swim in Salford – a feat that he completed live on television.

Runners and swimmers came from across the world to take part in both events. Haile Gebrselassie from Ethiopia won the run for the fourth year in a row with a time of 28mins 10secs. The female winner was Helen Clitheroe who completed the course in 31mins 45secs. Wheel chair athletes also took part with winners being D Weir (mens) and N Emmerson (womens). Elite athletes and celebrities took part in both events on the day, raising money for an assortment of charities.

Manchester cinemas may well be heaving this weekend after the annual industry love-in that is the Oscars wrapped up last weekend, with British film The King’s Speech winning four of the little gold men. Colin Firth’s portrayal of King George IV will no doubt bring plenty of punters through the turnstiles in the coming weeks but there’s also some other Oscar winners and nominees worthy of two hours of your time.

The Social Network, a film based on the founding of Facebook by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, has been one of this year’s biggest films, winning multiple BAFTA and Golden Globes. It charts the inception and early development of the now-iconic site. 127 Hours is another film also on the end of a number of superlatives, receiving six Oscar nominations. The film follows the true story of how Aron Ralston became trapped by a boulder whilst exploring canyons in Utah and then, after being stuck for five days, chopped the lower part of his arm off to free himself. Aron described the film as “so factually accurate it is as close to a documentary as you can get and still be a drama.”

If you prefer your films to be less geared towards limb removal, other big hitters this year have been science fiction success Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, a remake of classic western True Grit and boxing drama The Fighter, starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, which chronicles the life of boxer ‘Irish’ Micky Ward.

Failing all that, if you just fancy a mindless coup0le of hours of fun, you could always go and see Toy Story 3.

The Home Office this week launched a new website that contains information on all reported crimes throughout England and Wales, making them the first two countries in the world to do so. The site revolves around an interactive map (yes, like Google maps) that features spots of numbers in areas where crime has been reported. The spots don’t appear in exact locations – for example on someone’s house – because they didn’t want to draw attention to specific victims of crime, but they are accurate to within about 12 houses.

As with all things concerning crime, the police and government actions, this has inevitably caused quite a reaction, not least because the site didn’t actually work for the first two days. Too many people visiting it, was the excuse. We’ve wisely left it another day before exploring a little and had a look, naturally, at Manchester. It’s interesting viewing – to a point. The gripe some people have with it is that it will drive house prices down in areas where there’s a lot of crime. That might have some validity if the statistics were in any way specific, but they’re not.

They’re categorised using six headings, for a start: burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, other crime and anti-social behaviour. See how they’ve sneaked ‘other crime’ in there, to literally cover a multitude of sins? This ‘other’ category includes sex crimes, theft and shoplifting, in an effort to ‘help protect the identity of victims.’ ‘Other’, in other words, could mean just about anything. The general nature of the ‘crime clouds’ that appear on the map also make the statistics confusing in many areas. The local media was of course onto all this straight away, the MEN reporting yesterday that the biggest ‘hotspot’ for anti-social behaviour in Manchester was Chicago Avenue. Never heard of it? Well, you wouldn’t – it’s an empty strip of road next to Manchester Airport, a hotel on either side and not much else besides.

So why is this street showing up as being such a flash point for crime? Reasoned wisdom assumes that it’s the address all airport crimes are reported against, meaning this deserted stretch of grey tarmac clocks up some mean statistics. Second on the list, incidentally, is Withy Grove, in the centre of Manchester – also known as The Printworks. No explanation needed.

Ultimately then, what does this all mean? Do the people who claim it’s going to have a negative impact on house prices have a point? What about the Home Secretary, who says it will make the police more accountable? Or is it all just dots on a map – imprecise dots on unspecific areas of a map showing vague categories of alleged crimes. We’ll probably have all forgotten about it in a week.

Manchester is a good place for many things. Culture: we’re pretty good on that, all the art and stuff. Shopping: lots of shops. Bars and clubs: a good night out is never too far away on the slippery streets of Manchester. Football: lots of people seem to make quite a fuss of this every now and again, so I’m guessing that’s a good thing. Music: forgetting the Madchester/Hacienda days (we get it – it was good fun) Manchester’s pretty good on the old music now too – decent venues, a good ’scene’ and a band or two who sound all right. Finding love: err … what?

This is exactly what one young lady has done, a certain Jennifer Grace Cook; all the way from the good ol’ US of A, California in fact, to find love in Manchester. She’s here for six months. This poses many questions, the most immediate being: Why? The next immediate being: Why Manchester? The next (you get the idea): What’s wrong with America? And lastly, how?

All of these, and more, have been handily answered by the lady herself through her blog, twitter account and the few press things she’s done in the last week or two – used, presumably, to enhance her chances of finding ‘love’ and not just sitting around Manchester on her own for the next six months, which would be pretty pointless and completely un-newsworthy (although the MEN would probably still cover it). Through these sources, we have the following snippets of information from the Manchester Love Seeker (as we’re now calling her – MLS for short.)

“I gave up my home of 18 years in Los Angeles, sold most of my things, put those things I value into storage said farewell to my family and friends and have come to a city in a foreign country where I have no friends and no history. All I have is what I’d like to think is the most noble of intentions. I have come to Manchester to find my future.”

Translation: she got bored of American men and wanted a long holiday so thought up this genius idea to get her a) out of America and b) make it look like she’s sort of working, in an intrepid journalist sort of way, while basically being on the pull. Bravo, we say. We’re also given this:

“I have no idea where or how we will meet. I have no idea how this journey will end but it will end with a beginning and I think it’s going to be kind of fun.”

It’s all a little over-egged for our liking, but we appreciate the sentiment and it’s fair enough – we like doing stuff cos it’s fun too, so why not. We thought we’d put ourselves in your shoes and come up with some ideas of what we might do if we were in your position. Consider this a sort of ‘insider’s guide’. A Guide to the Inside, if you will.

Getting to know the city

Manchester is best seen either on foot or bicycle, so get a bike or some feet and go exploring. If you end up in a largely deserted estate, many of the houses boarded up and a pub that looks like it shut years ago but is actually open, that’s the point – real life!
NB: Don’t go in the pub.

Where to meet men

OK, our list isn’t exhaustive, we’ll give you that, but we thought we’d cut to the chase. Bars and that, mainly. You could wander round an art gallery, smile coyly at the bearded young man sizing up a post-modern sculpture and hope that he massages you into a conversation about working with wood and the vulnerability of aluminium, but you’ll probably end up hitching a lift to the Northern Quarter on the back of his fixie and drinking fruit beer while someone plays a banjo in a corner.
NB – If this is your idea of fun, obviously hit those galleries!

Otherwise … oh, who are we kidding, we’ve no idea where you’d go to find love in Manchester. There’s no formula to it – just live your life in this wonderful, rainy, grey, inspiring, lively, beautiful city for a while – something will happen soon enough.

For anyone reading this outside of the UK, here’s some news for you: it’s cold at the moment. Not news, you say? It’s winter, it should be cold? Yeah, well try telling our national media that. And everyone other person you speak to. We are, as a nation, obsessed with the weather, so say some people, and it’s at times like this that you can see why.

If it’s not the actual temperature or amount of snow fall that’s filling the front pages of the eager tabloids at the moment, it’s that other great British pastime – moaning about its effect on transport. Snow and ice naturally disrupt things to an extent but not a day … no, an hour goes by without mention of the length of the queue outside St Pancreas station or the number of people holed up in Heathrow. It is of course the airports that are most greatly affected at times like these – I mean, I’m not keen on flying at the best of times but if the runway’s covered in ice, I’m definitely staying in contact with terra firma, you know?

Manchester Airport, it seems, is making itself something of an exception in these turbulent times. They’re not doing anything out of the ordinary, it would seem – they’re just getting themselves sorted out. Clearing the snow, in other words. While Heathrow and Gatwick lie under a blanket of white stuff and strain against a barrage of disgruntled would-be-passengers, Manchester Airport is not only operating close to normality, it’s taking diverted flights from elsewhere, to ease their pressure.

So what is it that makes Manchester Airport so good in the snow? Perhaps we’re just a bit more used to it up here. My parents, who live near the south coast, emailed me in raptures the other week with photos of their garden under three inches of fresh snow. “Look,” they said, “at all the snow we’ve got!” Snow? I replied. That’s not snow – we get more than that up here in August.