We had a gay old time!

Barry managed to find a water point hidden away round the corner from our mooring, so this morning we tempted fate and left where we were for a fill up and returned to Castlefield to take up a different spot – we like a bit of variety! It’s unusual for us to stay in one place for so long; it’ll be our third night tonight.

 

The amazing array of bridges we had to go under for the water supply 

  View from our new mooring at the other end of the canal arm, restaurants and bars abound nearby

Such a vibrant area with lots going on

Boats coming and going all the time

Barry's excursion took him to the rear entrance (excuse the pun!) of the Manchester Pride Parade entrants, so we walked that way and mingled with the crowd as they preened themselves and each other. What a fantastic party atmosphere there was all around. I’ve never seen such whacky, weird and wonderful costumes and so many happy people; it almost made me want to be gay just to belong to such a seemingly cohesive group!

One of the boaters was getting into the spirit, or may have been in the parade?

Even organisations such as the police, fire service, home office and The Royal College of Nursing were represented; awesome! It was lucky that the weather was a little brighter than yesterday, but unfortunately the chill remained in the air and there were some very skimpy costumes with people shivering before the parade commenced at 1pm. I wanted to go and put my fleece around one poor young boy whose teeth were chattering as he stood with hardly anything on apart from his angel wings and flag, bless him.  He should've been on the 'Manbear' truck being warmed up by those cuddly dudes ...

A montage of parade photos

 

 

 

As the parade went past us, we gained a veritable array of goodies: sweeties, rock, balloons, leaflets, flags, hand clappers, a sash, a sherbet tube, lollies, pens and stickers. Everyone was in a happy mood with music blaring out – the theme of the parade was ‘Hero’s’ so of course there were many superman and wonderwoman costumes around dancing to the likes of Bonnie Tyler, Tina Turner and Freddie Mercury.

I have to say that there were also some very tasty men cavorting around provocatively dressed only in their underpants; such a waste that they’re gay!

The three day Manchester Pride event is called ‘The Big Weekend’, and I believe it was only ₤15 for a ticket which included entertainment each night in the gay village on the east side of Manchester City http://www.manchesterpride.com/. Bananarama were on last night and Human League are on tomorrow night.

 

After the parade we went back to the boat so Barry could download his memory card. Lunch today was eaten at the side of the parade; maybe we’ll aim to find the most unusual place before we leave the UK!

In the afternoon we went back into town and ventured into the Museum of Science and Industry, or MOSI for short. Another fabulous place that’s free, and no sign of anyone trying to coerce us into giving them money which made a refreshing change.

An amazing exhibit was a replica of world’s first stored-program computer called ‘baby’, built in 1948 in Manchester, which was the prototype for the development of the ‘Ferranti Mark I’, the world’s first commercial computer. It was a huge, cumbersome beast, nothing like the palm tops seen today. Fascinating …

The Baby

Unsurprisingly we then had to visit the big engines and planes - I tried to look enthused but I have to say it was tricky, they just don't do anything for me!  Must be a girl thing ...

Steam engine with cut away on one side to show it's innards!

 

The air & space section

 The old church ...

... right next door to this brand new building, couldn't be a bigger contrast

In the science part, however, a couple of interesting facts caught my eye:

· “1877 - Giovanni Shapareli publishes details of the canal system on Mars” - I wonder if they have narrowboats there too?

· “1826 – Joseph Niepce captures the first permanent photographs using asphalt on a pewter plate”

Enough of that museum talk …

I really wanted to go and visit Granada Studios as I’ve heard that they’re amazing. Unfortunately when we checked it out on the internet they're closed at the moment; so that’s the end of that, but also saves us the ₤15 each it would’ve cost so I suppose it’s a blessing!  I'm going to have to make up for the lack of 'female orientated' outings at some point in the near future.

We’ll be heading out of Manchester tomorrow; there’s 27 locks and a few swing bridges in the first five miles that we’ll be travelling, so we won’t be going much of a distance!

A winters tale …

Crikey, the weather was horrid today! It must be almost time to head back to the southern hemisphere for the spring and summer! There’s been torrential downpours for the majority of the day, with the occasional brief flash of sunshine. The wind blew with a definite chill, almost icy, and there's still supposedly three days of ‘summer’ left. I use the term very loosely; June was flaming but since then we’ve really not had more than one or two good days in a row. Still, it hasn’t been too bad …

Dark clouds threatening, though a touch of sun now and again to tempt us out!

We’d already decided to make it a museum day, but had been waiting to see whether it would be a walking or bus journey to Salford Quays on the outskirts of Manchester. The bus it was! As with our previous experiences, it felt as if we were travelling at 100mph after going at less than 4mph for so long - very strange. We would’ve taken the metro-link but unfortunately it’s closed from 1-31 August for upgrading, such a shame.

Purely a pedestrian only swing bridge across the quay

Stunning apartment blocks overlooking the water

Certainly a mix of styles and shapes to the buildings around here

Barry wanted to see the Imperial War Museum North http://www.iwm.org.uk, and I was hoping to see the Lowry Exhibition.

Salford Quays themselves are worth going to see - they’re an amazing array of apartments and office blocks, with retail outlets and museums scattered around. The diversity of the buildings once more astounded us; there really has been an awful lot of money ploughed into this area. Of course they held the commonwealth games in 2002, so that’s possibly where the regeneration programme came from.

 Across a very smart lift bridge that lifts at both ends to take it straight up, with 'Quay West' in the background - quite stunning even on a stormy, wet day

Quay West - think these are the Manchester Ship Canal's offices

After being dropped off at the bus stop we walked across the Quay to the War Museum – Barry had decided (foolishly!) that he wouldn’t need his raincoat, so got rather wet. We had to keep ducking and diving for cover on the way, but eventually entered the imposing building which is based on a globe shattered by conflict into three pieces or shards.

Entry was advertised as ‘free’, but they always get us in one form or another – this time it was “would you like to contribute to the upkeep of the museum by purchasing a guide book for ₤3.95?" Now how can you possibly say “no thanks; we’re actually quite skint, after not earning anything for months and were hoping for a freebie”?! I suppose I could’ve, but I was sucked into the guilt trip and said “yes of course” and duly handed over the cash. Ah well, it’s a good read for posterity …

 

There's nothing very level about the building ...

 

... some interesting lines for photography though

It's a fantastic museum, and they had a special exhibition on about prisoners of war which I became enthralled by and in retrospect spent too much time in. Then in the main exhibition space it explores wars and conflicts of the last 100 years. Did you know that a hundred million people were killed in conflict in the twentieth century? The bloodiest century ever apparently. Shocking statistics.  Even more shocking was that 20 million people died as the result of influenza shortly after the end of the first world war ...

Part of the display was a Russian T34 Tank and a AV8 Harrier Jump Jet

I was intrigued by the TV advertisement from 1976 which informed the people of Great Britain how they were to survive a nuclear bomb. There was a leaflet that you could pick up from the Post Office with all the details in, which were quite ridiculous now you watch it but seemed terribly real at the time, and I do remember being scared senseless by those adverts and thinking we were all going to die very soon. It was also the year that my eldest daughter Lisa was born, and I was so concerned that I was bringing a child into a world that was about to end. And here we are 33 years later …

We left the Museum late afternoon for the Lowry Exhibition across the Quays http://www.thelowry.com/WhatsOn/EventDetail.aspx?EventId=2659, and had our picnic lunch very late under cover at the side of the museum – whilst sat there we saw another gorgeous rainbow in the distance. Rain’s not really all that bad I suppose.

Our lunch spot out the back sitting on the concrete waiting for the rain to stop, managed to  captured some interesting shots of the gravel

 

Back across the lift bridge

Rather a spectacular structure, though a bit of overkill since we never saw any boats in the quays at all

We got to the Lowry and watched a 20 minute film about his life before going to the entrance. Although there was a fee of ₤5 to pay for us to get in, I so wanted to see it I was willing to pay it. Then we discovered it was just about to close! It was already 5 to 5 so we couldn’t go in! I was bereft! Devastated! Maybe we’ll travel back over the next couple of days, but I doubt it. Ah well, you can’t see everything.

The Lowry Centre, includes the gallery and a theatre

Mr Lowry with one of his famous paintings 'The Funeral Party'

Back along the quayside

  Another canal but still no boats; what's going on??

How can there be so much water, so many moorings and yet no boats

Back into town and a bit of grocery shopping, before a quiet night in out of the cold and wet external environment.  Manchester Pride Parade tomorrow, how exciting!