The Post Industrial Castle

Hey Folks. I was just daydreaming yesterday, whilst staring at the brick walls of our house, and imagining our house was a castle. Not figuratively, but a real castle made of bricks. I always wanted to live in a castle, quite a bit before I ever visited one and realized they would probably be atrocious places to live, being very dark, very dank, and very cold. They sure do know how to dominate a landscape though. Then I started imagining our entire 17th century cotton mill as one giant castle for just Heather and I with great halls, big fireplaces (using the smokestack!), giant ceramic room heaters, and lots of cats running around. A giant industrial castle for the 21st century!

Instead, we have this.

Man, I really wish we had a dryer. Oh well, it's not like Manny has a damp climate and it takes a whole day for the clothes to dry or anything. Oh right.  Heather is not very good at ducking either. She keeps getting the socks caught in her hair. I will say though...the whole set up only cost two poundies!

We went out on Friday night to a friend's art collective/gallery opening and ended up coming home at 3am with a better understanding of the bars and pubs in our neighborhood. It was a really fun time.

We still don't have a solid solution for internet yet. One neighbour has showed minor interest in sharing. Shoot, I'd even just pay for the whole thing if it comes down to it. I have been, and am currently, at the public library using the internet. I actually kind of like it. First, it's free. Second, they let you borrow books and movies for free too. I wish we had these back at home! I like going out every day and having something to do. It is pretty benign, but it gets me out for a walk every day. It's a nice walk over here too. Here are some of the buildings I pass on the way.

The Urbis

I can't remember the area of town this is, but it's one of the only 16th century buildings downtown still. It does take you back when around them. One of my favorite spots in town to look at.

I'm not sure why they built this wheel, but they did it after the whole square was bombed in 96? by the IRA. I would like to ride it, but it's too expensive. I'm going to look for a coupon later in the spring.

Something pretty funny happened last week too at the library. Some background for all the North American readers out there. Across the UK, there are a group of people who roam between dance clubs, pubs, and your nightmares ,and they are know as chavs, or sometimes Burburry Troglodyte.

Here are some pictures of chavs

Back to the story....I was at the library on Tuesday and was disturbed by a group on four men and one woman who where stumbling into chairs and talking very loudly, like really loudly. Let's just say they were pissed drunk. I'm not too sure how, but they acutally managed to type on computers and check their facebook. Now these weren't the smoothest chavs. When the lady tried the 'ol cough and fart, but instead of farting opened a tallboy of Carlsberg, it was not quiet. I think she knew that everyone heard it, because that was the fastest I have seen a beer chugged in a while. I was quite amused watching. I only wish I had my camera.

I was even more amused when I went back to the libary on Friday and, lo and behold, about seven of them showed up and checked their facebook again. This time they were more pissed--I mean it was 3:00 instead of 1:30 and it was Friday---so can you blame them? This time one on of the dudes pulled out a tallboy from his pocket, opened it and chugged it, then crushed the can and put it in the paper recycling bin. He then pulled out another one to drink slowly while updating his status on facebook with something about the library not having properly marked beer can reyclying bins. I am still kind of laughing. I hope to see them again this week.

To end....a few housekeeping notes. I have fixed (hopefully) the issue with comments on the bottom of the blog. A few of you let me know they wouldn't let you post. I have added the ability to comment anonymously. I believe it should work. I'd love to hear from you all.

Although I have been trying desperately, I have not been able to spy any Manny cats. I saw one running across the street, but it was gone before I even blinked. I apologize. Instead, you can read this link about cat detectives.

Also, I booked a vacation for this coming weekend. I am off the Spanish island of Mallorca for five days while Heather is at a conference in New York. I think I may get a little bit more sun than her. I still don't have any reservations or know what there is to do, but as long as the sand is warm and I bring my suntan lotion, I'll be fine. I'm really excited for the olives! Anyway, there will be no blog next monday, but I'll set something up here the middle of next week.

I still can do the blast-er from the past-er though. Here is a pic of my motorcycle gang circa 2009.

Later,

CC

District, Peak

Hey Peoples. Not too much to write about these days as I am spending all my time joining Cameron's Big Society. I may have some free time for myself next year. I think all of this just re-enforces my hatred for Nick Clegg.

On Saturday, Heather and I got up early (kind of) and set off to the main railway station with no real destination in mind. We decided on a town called Buxton, which is in the middle of the Peak District. It only took us an hour and 8 poundies return to get there. Good choice.

I'm sure that I could write a whole bunch on how the peaks in the UK must have a bad case of penis envy, but I'm not going to. They are not high, or mighty, but are fantastic. It was funny how much at home I felt as soon as the azimuth was higher than my head. Straight from the heart comfort.

There was a great market in Buxton and we got a delicious potato and chickpea curry for lunch and had a little picnic in the park. We also bagged some better than wicked-awesome mature cheddar. I know cheese isn't that exciting, but it is that good. Other goodies we picked up: a ginger and lemon cookie, farmer made potato chips, fresh veggies, and an organic pork roast. We didn't even go for the shopping.

It was kind of hard to find information on the walks, but we tracked some down and headed out from the market. It was a quick walk through town to the start of the 'walk' up the mountain. We hiked up on Poole's Trail. The walk itself was supposed to be two hours return. We made it up in about 15 minutes. The summit was very cool. The whole area is limestone, and in the 16-17th century is was a major lime producing area. Back then, they dug these big pits and burnt different materials for three days in them before breaking the ovens apart and harvesting the lime. Quite the industrial mess I think. A duke in the late 17th century got sick of looking at the mess and ordered trees to be planted on the hill/quarry so he didn't have to look at it anymore and it became a park with this walk. Kind of fun. At the top, was a little castle/tower to increase the sights.

You can see the remains of all the pits and some limestone cliffs in the background.

This is cute Buxton and the other peaks!

We might have chosen the wrong path back down and ended up walking through a sheep paddock getting some very wet feet in the process, but we did get to see the other side of the mountain and the different trees. They were creepy. I wish I had brought my other camera with us to fully capture the lighting, but was lazy and only brought the little guy. Here is the best I could do.

Not the creepiest pictures, I know.

Mystery shot in the Blas-ter from the Past-er! Who is it?

....and who doesn't want to see some more Manny Cats? I'm calling him Two-Tone Steve.

New Flat or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Brick

Good Morning All. Great game yesterday if you were at all interested. I stayed up way too late watching it, but was very impressed with the quality of the game and happy in the outcome. I found beers at the Aldi grocery store (kind of like buy-low foods) called Brassiere, a french beer stubbie. Good value I tell you...they were 3.09 for a 10 pack. That alone should tell you how they tasted. Regardless, I enjoyed a few while watching some low-quality superbowl video.

We had a nice weekend. On Friday, we went out for a curry on the curry mile. Pretty good, but we picked one that was a little too creamy/buttery. Next time we will go with an ol' standby and stop being so adventurous. Later on we went to a pub-type place for a few pints with Heather's work peers. On Sunday, before our skype//opening mail date with Sandra and Dan, we went to a dance piece called "ROTOR" at the Whitworth Gallery. It was three parts and I really liked one of them, one was ok, and one was boring. It had the most intense backward running I could have ever imagined--It was really cool. We were going to check out the big Chinese New Year celebration in town, but it got too rainy and cold and we went home.

Two stories of note from Friday night:

1) I said 'mate' without even thinking about it. I believe it might enter my lexicon.

2) Not sure if this one translates as well, but I was absolutely cracking up. We were out with Catriona, from Ireland. Heather asked her where she was from in Ireland and she replied, "Oh in Offaly. It's kind of in the center of Ireland". Heather says, "Sounds nice. Was it a good place to grow up?". I really like that question, becasue it usually gives the person the excuse they can say it was a good place to grow up but a better place to leave or something like that, but Catriona says, "Well...No. It's in a bog. Offaly means 'small hole' too. So it's a small hole in the bog. I was happy to leave". I was dying. Super funny.
Fun Ireland trivia fact--It's also the same area where the now ex-prime minister is from!

Our place is shaping up nicely. It's mostly being furnished with Ikea things (from the landlord and us), but starting to feel a little more like 'our' space. I wish we had things for the walls--I might have to make some things. Here are some photos of it and the outside! It's a 300 year old cotton mill that was turned into apartments in 2002. I don't have any shots of the canals, but they run just 20 meters away from us.

My mom told me never to wear plaid on plaid, but I like to do it at home. Please note what our landlord described on the inventory list as, "One large, two seater brown leather sofa".

 It's actually a pretty big bedroom from what I originally remembered it as, which is really nice. I wish it was queen bed though....arrgghh doubles are about 1.5 inches too short for me.

 Glass tables are very deceptive in low light conditions too. I've already bumped into it three times.

It has a lot of really good natural light during the day. At night, different story. Hopefully we have rectified it with Ikea lamps.

 Wow. A bathroom.

 I really love the old smokestack from the kitchen. It's sweet. It's the same one as the top picture.

Notice the lamps that we bought. I almost cut my finger off the first day chopping veggies! It was sooo dark.

Well, now you kind of have an idea of where we are living. Still haven't solved the internet problem, but I have passed notes under the doors of the neighbors, so hopefully soon I'll hear back from them and be able to be in more constant contact with 'the peeps'.

Blast-er!

I hope you enjoyed last post's Blast-er from the Past-er. It was delicious. This week, let's go waaaaay back to 2009 and my old man. I still have the shirt too, but haven't had the guts found the right occasion to wear it myself.

Also another Manny cat- A little out of focus, but what a beauty! I'm going to call him Tim.

Take care. Out. CC.

Subdued Excitement

Sooooooo, we've moved into our new flat. It's a really nice space and we are quite happy to be in it, but there are a few things that are keeping our excitement at bay. Our landlord is relatively nice--bit of a slick talker he is--and we didn't go through what we were going to be getting in the way of services in the flat with a fine tooth comb. One would expect that the washer/dryer was a washer dryer combo, when being told it was a washer dryer combo, and that it was not just a washer. When we asked how much the previous tenant payed for Internet and phone, were told a price, but not that it was a mobile and mobile broadband, and that there actually isn't a phone line installed in the flat (which costs 120 pounds to get put in). Who knew that a couch actually meant 'loveseat'? It has great natural light during the day, at night...well, let's just say I might have cooked dinner last night with my headlamp on. Ahhh well. We only signed a three month lease, so unless it turns out that we can't find anything else, we may be moving again shortly. The place really is nice though---this is the only picture I have so far.

Oh well, lesson learned. I'll have mores photos of the place in the next post. One really nice thing is it was kind of the opposite of what we expected in that it was much bigger than we remembered. There is lots of room for people to come and visit!

My favoritie thing (Itzzz vurrryy guuuudd) is we finally live in the city and have access to things (but still no grocery stores). No longer is our only entertainment taking pictures of really nice sandwiches or Manny Cats.

In the limbo days at the hotel before we moved in, Heather and I were able to get out and explore our city a little bit. We went to the Manchester Art Gallery and splurged on the admission price (free). It was a pretty cool museum. There were a large number of OK pre-Raphaelites, which were big and grandiose, but kind of boring, a great Manchester pop-art exhibit, and really cool Impressionist style turn of the century Manchester paintings---think Monets and substitute the color and fields with brick, canals, and lots of fog.

The highlight was the rotating exhibit by Raphael Lozano-Hemmer, a Mexican-Canadian artist. It was really cool, modern, and interactive, which I like. Here we are interacting:

Here are some other people interacting:

It's too bad that we can't go back all the time because it's too expensive. Maybe is people come to visit us, we'll treat them. Will bribes work on you people?

We also ended up at a diner drinking really awful coffee trying to smile with our eyes, like Tyra taught us to. I think I was better.

So, all is well. We are sorting out internet access issues at our place, so our email contact might have been/will be a bit sporadic for the next week or so. I'll get some pics up of the rest of the house soon.

Ohhh, I've also been going through and organizing our old digital photo albums (what else am I going to do, right?) and am now including a new section to the Canadian Mancunian called "Blast-er from the Past-er"! Just some of our good photos from the past little while.

Blast-er

Ok--Bye for now.

CC