Category: Manchester Days Out

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.

The Northern Quarter has been awarded a national award, naming it ‘Britain’s Best Neighbourhood.’ The area, which can be loosely described as centring around Oldham Street, just off Piccadilly Gardens, has been increasing in popularity over the last decade or so and is now a firm favourite with the city’s scenesters. Cocktail bars abound where once there were pet shops and beatniks; you’re more likely to get run over by a fixie than bump into any authentic bohemians these days. So where did it all go right for The Northern Quarter? And can it even be described as a ‘neighbourhood’?

Manchester expert and serial go-to man for Manchester media opinion, Dave Haslam, thinks not. “For me, a ‘neighbourhood’ should be a fertile, intriguing, comfortable mix,” he said. “The fact is you never see children in the Northern Quarter – or old people.” He’s got a point about the children. Not sure about the old people though – there’s plenty of them propping up bars in traditional pubs long forgotten by the youth – the Dry Bar, for example.

Haslam also identifies a number of amenities lacking in the Northern Quarter, like a school or nursery, a park, a friendly corner shop, a youth club, a church, mosque or synagogue. There might be something in that – it’s not presenting itself as very neighbourhood-like, is it? So what does the Northern Quarter have, if not these things? Well there’s a bar or two. Or three. Or ten. A few restaurants, take-aways, cafes. The odd clothes shop, a couple of hairdressers, a bike shop … that’s about it.

It’s not always been that way though. The Northern Quarter has long been an area of Manchester that attracted people, for different reason. In the Victorian era it became a centre for pet shops and developed its bohemian image, being a favourite hangout for artists, writers, thinkers and debaters. It was that image that initially spurred the current popularity, on the back of a surge in the late 1990s when it became the final hub of the dying Madchester music scene. Places such as The Dry Bar and the Night and Day Cafe held the torch for live underground music in the city and it was around these venues that the Northern Quarter of today was born.

The pet shops, pickpockets and philanderers of the Victorian era would no doubt be aghast at the Northern Quarter of 2010. ‘An extension of the Printworks’ is one description Haslam has used and it is this popularity, this evolution into a ‘place to be seen’ that has turned the area into one that gets noticed and wins award such as this. Comparatively, this has also contributed to some bemoaning its status as ‘the cool place’ and the loss of its bohemian, alternative roots. The trend setters may be moving out, looking for the next Northern Quarter, but for the time being it seems this popular area of town – this neighbourhood – maintains its long held popularity.

We’re very proud of our musical heritage here in Manchester so it is with some delight for many that Happy Mondays star Shaun Ryder recently embarked on a long haul flight to Australia to take part in the popular ITV game show I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. The game show is often loved and derided in equal measure, with monikers such as ‘I used to be a celebrity, help my career out’ being applied by those with a sceptical view of the show. The minor status of some contestants leads many to question the ‘celebrity’ tag afforded them but with Manchester music legend Shaun Ryder, there can surely be no such qualms.

The new series, which started on Sunday 14 November 2010, also features nine other ‘celebrities’, including athlete Linford Christie, TV diet witch Gillian McKeith, former MP Lembit Opik, actress Brit Ekland and X Factor finalist Stacey Solomon, as well as the obligatory ‘blonde one’ (an ex-playboy model) and the ‘normal one’ (an actor). Mr Ryder’s presence on the show has got many people hoping for some entertaining viewing from him and it got us thinking – what would be the ultimate Manchester legends reality TV line up?

Bez
An obvious sidekick to put in alongside former band mate Shaun, Bez has done his share of reality TV in the past but never with a fellow Madchester stalwart. With Shaun egging him on though we’re sure things would definitely get a little crazy.

Peter Hook
Sticking with the ‘Manchester music legends’ theme, you’ve got to stick old Hooky in there, haven’t you? He might insist the show was called FAC252 Get Me Out of Here, but for banter alone it might be worth it. Especially if you also put in …

Mani
The Primal Scream and former Stone Ross bassist recently had a very public spat with Peter Hook over their (now ex-) collaborative project Freebass. That would certainly make for some interesting viewing – maybe they could have a bass-off?

Manchester legends don’t just occupy the world of music though, as we’re all aware, so a few faces from the world of sport could even the line up out a little. How about Manchester United pensioner Ryan Giggs? And for balance, Carlos Tevez could represent Manchester City. We might as well stick Sir Alex in there just for fun too – now that would be worth watching.

For the time being we’ll have to stick with watching Shaun Ryder in the jungle. He’s going to be eating worms, grubs and crocodile tail next, apparently. We’re pretty sure they’re not on the menu anywhere in Manchester.

Manchester is a fantastic city with so much to do and a place where it’s virtually impossible to run out of new things to try out. As the clubbing capital of the UK, it is home to high profile clubs such as Sankeys as well as long-running nights like Funkademia; not to mention being the birth place of the legendary Hacienda.

Manchester restaurants are top class too, and while the city might have lost its only Michelin star last year (putting it someway behind Tokyo’s staggering total of 261), the eateries that line almost every street of central Manchester are among some of the finest in the North West. Last week I went to one of my favourites, Shimla Pinks.

I heard a rumour that they were supposed to be moving this year but so far (with four weeks to go until 2010), it doesn’t seem to have materialised. Nevertheless, they’re still serving up fine dishes (their onion chutney is the finest in the country) and my number one choice – the South Indian Garlic Chilli – went down a treat.

My girlfriend is always one to try new things (she picks a different thing off the menu every time we go, but refuses to eat Korma – good girl) and she had an interesting special involving little pots of various Asian dishes, beautifully presented with rice, salad and nan.

Another new thing she tried out recently involved 80 balls and some nice little prizes. Did you know that our fair city is home to Buckingham Bingo Manchester, along with all those clubs, restaurants and bars? My girl went there recently with a few of her mates.

Apparently it’s like a more local version of the nationwide chains like Mecca (as well as ones in Didsbury and Trafford, Buckingham have got a few Liverpool bingo clubs too), but you can still win the big cash prizes including something called The National, which I thought Peter Kay had invented for that episode of That Peter Kay Thing.

I asked her if bingo wasn’t a bit of an older lady’s pastime, but she was adamant that the place had a good mix of age ranges inside. I wasn’t convinced, so I ended up going along to see for myself. True enough there were all types of people in there, not the normal stereotypes you think of when it comes to bingo clubs, but the first thing that blew me away was the prices in there.

Can you believe I got a pint for £2 and a plate of chilli and chips for less than £3? Amazing. True it wasn’t the same as Shimlas but not even Wetherspoons can beat those prices! As it goes we won £50 on the night we went down – I joked to my girlfriend that I was her lucky charm but she was having none of it. She took the money and banned me from going back (apparently I talk too much during games).

If you’re looking for a different sort of night out that’s a bit of a laugh – and one that won’t break the bank like going to a top club – you could always give the local bingo club a go.

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Deansgate, Castlefield and the Northern Quarter all offer fabulous upmarket recreational bar and dining-out options for anyone staying as a guest in serviced apartments Manchester, while Salford Quays and Manchester’s newly developed Spinningfields area are two of the most vibrant business districts in the ever-growing city (the former hosts the massive new MediaCityUK development while the latter is home to several new serviced apartments Manchester blocks).

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However, most guest find that many serviced apartments Manchester do in fact offer that little bit extra in the way of optional luxuries such as private chefs, chauffeur-driven cars and VIP club entry, all of which mean that a stay in a serviced apartment is a cut above what you can expect from a hotel.

The time limit on stays in serviced apartments Manchester varies, but is usually incredibly flexible, making it the ideal hotel-replacement option, whether it’s for a couple of nights or part of a relocation plan. Most serviced apartments Manchester offer stays from as short as one night to an entire month, with some even offering accommodation for up to a year.