Manchester

Sometimes something happens to reinforce your faith in human-kind. Yesterday afternoon we were sat on the back of the boat having a beer and chilling out. A young courting couple were sat on a bench on the other side of the canal and were so engrossed in each other that when they got up to go he picked up his holdall but left his large expensive looking camera on the bench. Roger tried shouting after them but they didn’t hear him and then a couple of guys on bikes came up and spotted the camera.  We thought they would just take it but no, they looked through the photos to see if there were any shots of the owner and asked us if we’d seen who left it. They then wrote a note to leave on the bench and gave us their phone number in case the owner came back and took the camera with them.  This lunchtime the owner turned up and we were able to give him their number so he should get his camera back. Lucky eh?

It’s been another hot and sunny day and we went off into town to do a bit of shopping and sight-seeing. It’s the Conservative Party Conference at G-Mex next week so there are plenty of road closures and the police have a very high profile. We’d planned on getting one of the three free shuttle buses and taking a circular tour but they’d been suspended as there was a demonstration going on by a load of hymn singing tree huggers so we’ll leave that until Monday. It seems it was a day for demonstrations as we came across another small one outside the playboy club. A crowd of women and young girls were chanting and making fools of themselves. It must have cost a fortune as there were around 20 police standing by in case of problems.

fancy foot bridge over the basin

beautiful wooden motor launch

Manchester big wheel

a poser on Deansgate

When we were in Stratford and Liverpool we came across the most wonderful patisserie shops I have ever seen. It's a chain called Patisserie Valerie but unfortunately I didn't get chance to go in and indulge. Well there's another one here in Manchester and this time I'm making a special effort to go later in the week. Just look at these cakes in the window...........everyone just calling my name.