A Jaunt To Manchester

  

Last Wednesday was my youngest boy's 13th birthday and as he received mainly money as gifts we had promised him a day out in Manchester so he could have a spending spree. The shops in our local town centre are dreadful. It's all mobile phone shops, charity shops, coffee shops and the rest are left empty because the rents asked for the shops are too expensive. It was only my son, husband and myself on this day out because the my oldest boy didn't want to come (he absolutely hates shopping) and there was no chance that we could manoeuvre Little L's pushchair around most of the shops (we tried that on a previous shopping trip in Manchester)

The place my son was really looking forward to going was Afflecks. The photo above is the side of the building. He has only been in once before and fell in love with it. It is a massive old building with 4 or 5 floors which are full of stalls selling all sorts of things from handmade, one off clothes, vintage clothing, ex army gear, Gothic clothes, cute Japanese stuff.

Both my husband and myself used to go there years ago when it was called Afflecks Palace. I first started going in the late 80's so when I walk round there now I feel positively ancient. They still have a tattooist, barber and cafe but the stalls then used to sell a lot more vintage clothes but I think the clothes probably had the less posh title of second hand then.  The walls are still plastered with band posters and flyers for events but its more colourful with art painted on doors and walls now.

There is wall where you can leave your mark with the tub of pens and markers left near by. My son was slightly dubious of being encouraged to do this but here he is (yellow cap) having a bit of a doodle. After he had bought a few things from here we were off for a wander.

This mural is on a building on the same road as Afflecks. My son loves cameras so we went to the Lomography shop where he bought a Fisheye camera then we popped into a couple of vintage shops which my son also likes, he loves having a rummage through stuff. Then off to Forbidden Planet which I had forgotten he had never been in to before. I have also been coming here for years but as it was new to my son and sold everything he is interested in, comics, manga, figures, he was so excited.

We headed off for something to eat at The Printworks which is mainly bars and restaurants (we didn't eat here, I just liked this photo I took there). Having settled on burgers, after eating just half of his burger my son was struggling and had to leave it. If we have take away food at home and he has a burger, he cuts it in half and he eats it in two sittings. He does have a point. Some burgers are ridiculously big.

My son wanted some more Fimo clay so we went searching for a craft shop and didn't find one. There has got to be one hiding somewhere in Manchester. After six and a half hours of shopping, we decided to head for the train station and back home. The journey back on train takes just under an hour and I had to fight sleep. Trains always make me want to have 40 winks. My boy said that he had a great day but had achy feet.