Manchester Xmas Market

Hi readers, I meant to write this yesterday but I was so tired from wandering around Manchester in the cold and rain, that I decided to curl up with my book instead. So, I thought before I go and do that again I’ll write this up. Not that I’m currently in the mood, feeling so sad today…but that’s too raw to talk about and I always image that blogs can be a bit like social netting working sites. You says stuff on here anyone could read it, so I also try and not do that, though lately, I’ve been pouring my broken heart into everything, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I slipped up and started a post about relationships. Luckily, I’ve this one to write today. So here it is.

Living so close to Manchester city centre, people think you’d visit more often or at least know you’re way around. For me though and it’s only 15 mins on a bus away, the city centre has always been a special place to go, a place to celebrate something and be with my family. I’m not so sure how this happened, but it’s actually only been since I started uni that I’ve been visiting Manchester by myself to meet up with friends to eat, drink, shop and wonder. So one of the key events my family have always gone to is the Xmas market. Strangely enough I always thought that other cities had this big markets, where the streets are packed with large wooden stalls decorated with Xmas stuff and most of the stall holders are from Europe mostly, selling items that where made in the countries and traditional Xmas things. But as it turns out this is not the case. Though many cities have Xmas markets, Manchester’s just stands out from the crowd.

Truthfully, I don’t know why, maybe its just one of those things. I love going though because my family gets together and its a part of our Xmas celebrations – more coming on that soon! – I’ve been luckily this year though because I’ve been three times now. I know where most of the stalls are and the items I want to buy. Yesterday’s mission was a birthday present and two more luckily dip presents. As well as trying out some food and drink! The weather wasn’t so good, but you do what you can. It also gets pretty busy too and you kind of end up in a crush of stand still people. That’s part of the experience though! Yeah, it’s not so good and you can’t actually get to half the stalls but just being in that atmosphere is an interesting draw.

 

I take my camera every year too, yet I don’t capture any items of what’s on the stalls. So, I decided to try that out this year and I got some pretty good photos of the things you can buy…..

 

 

We also went out to celebrate my dad’s birthday – see below and we went to a Chinese called The Great Wall of China. That was really good. This noddle nest basket was interesting too!

We ended up walking back through China Town and I took some more photos.

Overall it was a good day out!

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Two 50th Birthdays!

Hi readers,

This is a double post today, only because I didn’t write yesterday. I was busy trying to finish my essay off and I still have half of it to do! unfortunately, the essay isn’t a normal one! I’ve to write my poetics for the first chapter of a new novel I’m submitting for my creative writing piece. So yeah, I’ve to explain my own writing and talk about the hows and whys of different things. Trying to talk about yourself is never easy and trying to explain to someone why you have done some creative writing is even harder! I’ll be getting back to it after this now.

Anyway, my post today is about two 50th birthdays I’ve celebrated this week. Today is actually my dad’s birthday! And this is his cake that he took into work today (I didn’t actually see or eat any of this cake. 😦 It looks so good though!)

This though is the surprise cake work got for him and I did just eat a piece of it and I’m going to get some more later! It’s in the design of a C frame, which is a tool which builds a car – that’s part of my dad’s job, inspecting car parts and stuff. I love the blue colour though!

Oh and I’ve to show you the present I got him and the balloon too. 🙂 I love photos! Okay so first is the balloon I got up early this morning to go and get. God, the card shop was crazy, I think people have suddenly decided it’s xmas time and gone crazy…how many weeks do we have now…. 2 days and 2 weeks! Wow, it’s so close. Okay here’s the balloon and my present.

So, I got my dad a Donkey Kong because dad’s fav character is Funky Kong, but they don’t make him, so I had to buy the next best thing and this was it. Anyway my dad loved it! My fav character is Yoshi, just if you were wondering….

Okay, so I went to another party on Wednesday and that was for a guy I’d heard of but not actually meet. Roy Bayfield, who actually works at my uni! He walked from Southport Pier to Brighton Pier and you can read about it on his blog here… http://walkinghometo50.wordpress.com/ He recorded his walk on his blog and he also wrote a book of poems. I was invited to attend the reading he was giving by my tutor. It was interesting and the cake was great too!

But my week isn’t at an end, because tomorrow, we are celebrating my dad’s birthday by going out to Manchester and then out for tea. This time I’m so taking my camera and taking photos of Manchester. I was there on Tuesday and forgot to take my camera with me! So there’s that to look forward too.

Lastly for today my blog is going to end on a sad note now. But it’s the first anniversary of my dog’s death. Strange that she had to go on my dad’s birthday, but that’s how things go. She died in her sleep, being an old dog at 13. I still miss her loads and I am meant to be writing a book about her life, but I’ve not got around to it. Having Sindy and Patch to look after so suddenly after Sandy had left us has made it slightly easier. Though I know nothing can ever replace her. She was my first dog and we rescued her from a home on the  Saturday 28th June 1999. She was my 12th birthday present, after years of bugging my parents for a dog. Sandy become my best friend and sister, being the perfect listener to all my problems and bring so much joy into not just my family lives, but other people too. She was a special dog.

She’s so cute!

That’s me done anyway, I’m off to do my essay, whilst my little brother plays on his WII.

 

The Mighty Wall Of My House!

Okay this is the first post in what is about to become a daily update. I don’t actually have the time to do this- but I shall find it! Like right now and typing at Midnight, but hey I can sleep later! Okay, so let’s get on with this post!

So for the last like 6 months my dad has been spending his free time building this wall! Beside from my brothers and some Mormons, he built it himself and he isn’t actually a brick layer or taken any course in such things! He has an engineer though and does love doing DYI, but to build a whole wall is pretty awesome! I guess most people would be thinking, its just a wall anyone could go and build one, but its not that simple really….okay so why did my dad build this wall? Well….and here’s another photo for you, because it use to look like this…..

We had a castle hedge with just a small wall (and yeah that banner is for my 21st birthday party.) Okay, so due to all that bad winter weather we had, the wall cracked and fell, like the whole thing just went one night. There where bricks over the pavement, over the road and they did actually hit my brother’s car too. There wasn’t a lot that could be done and the choice to loss the hedge just happened. I wasn’t there, but at uni and it felt so weird to come back and not see that hedge which had been there for like forever! So, that was shocking and it was for our neighbours too. It meant that dad could start building the wall, though very very slowly. But then there was the last brick!

But that wasn’t the end because then we got these guys and yeah it was my idea, but it was a joint family choice and they do add something else to the wall. I just think they look awesome!

But that wasn’t the end because the front garden then had to be done, so my dad got some fake grass and we kept the tree. My mum loves dragons, so when we got the Devil and the Scaries, we also got a dragon! After some talking it was decided that the dragon would have a cave and he’d be inside with lights shinning on him. So that’s what my dad built!

Mr Dragon!

So, now we just need a front gate and one for the drive way too and then it’ll be complete. Well….I’m sure dad will find something else to do next!

Monthly recommendations

Hey readers,

I’m still ill with a cold, but since I’m feeling a little better I thought I’d pop on here for a few. I also had a crazy thought just before I opened the first door on my advent calander this morning – documenting the count down! So yeah, I’m going to post the photo of my first chocolate further down- within the this month’s recommendations of course. I had so many ideas for this post then, but they’ll keep just about. I haven’t been thinking about the recommendations really, guess I’ve not been up to much, so let’s see!

1. Get counting down Christmas!

 December is here and the true count down to Xmas day can start. Though it feels the count down began in October/November for most people! I heard xmas songs on the radio this morning, but last week I’d watched a countdown of 50 xmas muisc vidoes anyway. I still believe though that’s only truely xmas when the advert for coke cola appears on TV. Though I’ve seen the Holland and Barret xmas advert that I ended up watching the making of in Manchester twice now. Anyway, here is the first advent chocolate!

My plan is post this up every day now, but I doubt I’ll keep it up!

2. Book

I started reading a new book the other day, though only having read a 100 pages, I’ve decided its not the one I’m going to suggested today. Actually, I’m recommending Marget Atwood’s Lady Oracle. I really enjoyed it and suprised myself with it. I actually have meet Atwood too, at World Book Night this year in London, but I’d not actually read any of her novels. I know I’ve to study this one for my course, but sometimes that’s the best way to descover books-so is recommending them to people! I don’t think that happens enough. So, why do I like this one? Well, its about a woman who is a writer- in secert- and she has to keep re-inventing herself. Some interesting stuff happens too.

3. TV

There are two TV series that I’m currently watching, but they did start last month. The first is a new series called The Fades, which is on BBC 3 and is about ghosts and other stuff. It’s scary and a different take on the supernatural. I like it though. Secondly, there Misfits, which is now the 3rd series, but you can watch all of it on 4 demand. It’s about teenagers who get superhero powers and have a lot of misahaps! What can be more funny?

4. Music

Has to be something Christmasy, so my fav xmas song is The Darkness’ Time  (Don’t Let The Bells end) and of course there’s a few old classic. So yeah, be a sheep and get those xmas cds out now!

5. Food

I think that most people love cooking at xmas time. I’ve not actually been doing a lot of this lately. I made pasta bake last night and my mum is busy perfecting the Parsnip and honey soup from last month. So, I think cooking some tasty xmas treats might be in order later this month, so watch this space.

So that’s it for now, but before I go here’s a clue to what my next post is going to be about!