Valentine's Day In Manchester

Anders managed to book Valentine's Day off work so we nipped in to Manchester. It's always a treat to go on our own because we like different parts of the city to the children. They would happily stay in the Arndale Centre all day while we tend to favor the Northern Quarter. I think that harks back to my younger days when I'd jump on a train most weekends just to go and rummage around Afflecks.
Opie was dropped off at my Mum's for a day of being spoilt rottten then we set off. It was spitting with rain when we arrived but I wasn't prepared for the bitterly cold wind, it was freezing.

Some street art that we spotted near the car park.

The first thing we did was look for a building which was used in a film (Habit) that we watched last year. I wanted a photo because you never know how long these old building will remain. 
Then we were off for a wander around.

In to the Empire Emporium to rummage through the vinyl and books.

I went in here to look for books but there was more porn than paperbacks.

Then off to Afflecks (I'll never get used to all those stairs)

I love this sculpture of Pan/faun from Pan's Labyrinth. It was created by local artist Lee Nolan using recycled rubbish from bins and skips. It was featured in an exhibition last year but now has a permanent home in Afflecks.

On the way by to the car I spotted this door, a bit of a gaudy colour and the graffiti does it no favours but the lion heads reminded me of the gargoyle door knockers from the film Labyrinth.

We had a great day even if we did get bit wet and windswept.

Manchester Museum

Well we had typical Bank Holiday weather here for the weekend, rain. After being stuck in doors for most of it we wanted at least one day out and opted for a day at Manchester Museum. So back to Manchester, twice in less than a week. As long as the traffic isn't bad it only takes about 30 minutes to drive there.

The admission is free and we managed to find a car park near by which cost £2 for the full day (much better price than last time). The museum was quite busy and I expect most people like us wanted to find an indoor activity due to the weather.

Dinosaurs were what Little L was most looking forward to seeing.

The T Rex is named Stan.

She was also impressed by the mummies in the Ancient Egypt collection. I don't think she could have got any closer to them when she was peering in to the cases.

The zoology collection was massive and houses one of the largest shell collections in the UK. 

Another thing Little L wanted to see after we had been reading about the museum was Maude the Tigon. Her father was a tiger and her mother a lion. She lived at Belle Vue Zoo in Manchester until 1949. When she died the skin was preserved and given to the museum. The skin was only mounted and displayed in the museum in 2015. Until I read about Maude I'd never heard of a Tigon and thought they was called Ligers. I also never knew that there used to be a zoo in Manchester (it closed in 1977)

These are just a few of the collections that we saw. It was a great day out and I think we are quite lucky that Little L finds this kind of thing interesting. 

The journey home was a bit of a nightmare. There was a big game on at the Old Trafford football ground. It wasn't so much that the traffic was bad, it was that grown men think they can waltz out in to the road straight on front of your car all because of a bleedin football match.

Anyway on the drive I managed to snap a photo of this Art Deco cinema in Stretford. The traffic lights changed to red just as we approached it so I quickly wound the window down and took a snap.

Horror Film Screening

On Thursday evening Anders and myself went to a screening of Jugface and Q&A with Lauren Ashley Carter. This was organised by the Grimm Up North company that host the GrimmFest horror festival. 

The showing was in Manchester Central Library. 

The tickets for the film were £6 each and we paid £11 for parking. I didn't take any photos of Lauren Ashley Carter because I didn't want to appear rude or stalker-ish. I'm sure that she is used to it though.

What Anders got a bit excited about was as we were leaving the car park a guy whizzed past us on his bike and Anders said it was John Robb. Now I only caught a quick glimpse. It may have been him but then again I do have poor eyesight, it hasn't stopped Anders telling people that he's seen him though.