Manchester I

Playlist
Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music – Street Life
Various – Manchester CD Purchases

Up just after 7 and packed and breakfasted and away by 9:20...

Drove through a horrendous rainstorm to arrive in a sunny Manchester at 11...

Luckily, we were able to check in straight away rather than waiting until the advertised time of 3 pm...

We dumped the bags and immediately set out for the shops...

Vinyl Exchange on Oldham Street was my target and, as was the case during my visit here in June for the Pet Shop Boys, I partook of a goodly number of £1 and 50p promo copies of CDs by people I’d mostly never heard of...



28 CDs for £19.50 – if I’d actually wanted these and bought them on Amazon, it would have set me back £240 (ok, this doesn’t justify adding over 20 hours of music to the collection in which I had little or no initial interest other than that they were ludicrously cheap)...

A quick visit to FOPP provided the opportunity to purchase an expanded 2CD set of early Uriah Heep material (I already have the original 1CD version) for a further £3...

In Clas Ohlberg I bought three new pairs of reading glasses for a paltry £3.99 – amazing...



And, in Boots, a new pair of hair clippers (yes I do have some hair) was also purchased...

Met up with Anne over the way from the Arndale Centre...



...at the two old pubs which were moved along the street around 100 metres brick by brick to make way for the Centre...

Outside, the Manchester early afternoon swung from warm and sunny to a further rainstorm bouncing off the streets...



I must now refer to our lunch venue as “Now That’s What I Call A Pie” as the pie, mash, veg and half a bottle of Cab Sauv left me stuffed and steaming with no need whatsoever to eat again today post 2pm...

Sun and rain alternated as we made our way "home"...







Back at the hotel, I sampled the first track of each of the Vinyl Exchange purchases, proclaiming all but one to be “not bad”, with a couple even having the potential for an “excellent”...



This is how I stave off buyer’s regret...

Later, we struggled to find the venue for a Stand Up evening, Tib Lane being miles away from Tib Street, but we were eventually successful and enjoyed a good few beers at The Townhall Tavern along with eight Stand Ups at “Show Us You’re Funny”...

Then the short walk home to our hotel...

An excellent day...

Highlight of the Day : Vinyl Exchange....and the Pie