Fish Feet

Yesterday I went with the girls from work to Appy Feet at the Trafford Centre, to have our feet sucked by fish!
Appy Feet use Garra Rufa fish which are known for sucking only the dead skin, leaving healthy glowing skin behind. We'd also heard that along with leaving you with softer skin, it can also improve circulation and stimulate acupuncture points, and is supposed to be very relaxing.
For a mere £10 you can have your toes sucked for 15 minutes, so off we went to the Trafford Centre. Appy Feet doesn't take pre bookings, you have to walk into the shop and book (and pay) for a time slot, be warned they are always busy. We arrived at 6.30pm on a Thursday evening, and opted for a slot at 8.20pm. When we arrived for the treatment, they were fully booked for the evening and still with a steady stream of disappointed customers being turned away.


You sit in blocks of up to four people, and start by dipping your feet for a minute into one of those footspa things that were popular in the 80's/90's which disinfects your feet akin to the footbath at the local swimming baths, but less smelly.

Then the time comes to dip your feet, then hundreds of teeny fish rush to nibble at your feet, the sensation is varied and pretty indescribable, but to anyone who's ever used one of those footspa (turned on to vibrate), it kind of feels like that at first, then it varies between a tickling sensation and a vibrating sensation, people who have sensitive feet tend to scream (a lot!).


After about 5 minutes I felt really relaxed, i suppose some of that is down to watching the fish as well as the sensations. The staff at Appy Feet are also very willing to take your photo for you! There's also usually a crowd of intrigued onlookers in the store.
Highly recommended experience, my feet felt softer afterwards, and whilst walking around afterwards for about 10 minutes, they felt all tingly.
, water

Manchester Duck Race

Good Friday saw the Manchester Duck Race down the river Irwell at Spinningfields. The entire area of Spinningfields was heaving with people especially young families all keen to enter the race which was held in aid of the Brainwave Charity which aims to "help children, between the ages of 6 months to 12 years, who have a brain injury, genetic condition or Developmental Delay.".
Starting from the bridge just near the Mark Addy pub, with the kick off due at 2pm, I arrived about 20 minutes early and squeezed my way through the throngs of people to the bridge over New Quay Street, where I managed to secure a position directly above the finishing line. The race started with the corporate ducks about 15 minutes late, where I was stood although you could tell someone was speaking into the sound system, you couldn't actually hear what was being said, so you had to guess.

But the corporate ducks were released and went on their way - very slowly. There were radio controlled speed boats that were used to keep the water flowing and pushing the ducks in the right direction. Like a lot of people I was surprised how small they were, we expected pretty hefty ducks, although by how long they took it was probably for the best that they weren't too huge!

The corporate ducks could decorate theirs as they wished, and there were some pretty sweet costumes, from pirates to artists with a palette and all manner of feathers and head dresses!
Once the corporate race had finished, the clouds had started to gather over a previously sunny Manchester, and before you had time to blink - the general public mini ducks were released by their hundreds from Bridge Street.

Unlike the larger ducks, these took no time in sweeping down the Irwell, keeping tightly packed almost the entire journey. A lot of people were wondering how they would choose a winner when the ducks were at one point travelling in a straight line,meaning about 30 would pass the line together.

Needless to say, in true Manchester fashion, within seconds of a winner passing the finishing line, the heavens opened and people left in droves to find shelter from the rain or simply go home.
I left via Carluccio's for another of Manchester's Best Coffees.

Central Library

A few weeks ago me & a few flickr friends spent some time at Manchester's Central Library, photographing the building before it closes for major renovations. Due to obvious changes that will occur, the library have decided to relax the rules on photography, so as long as we didn't photography people's faces etc (well unless we asked first) we could go mad and also post them to the Get Wisdom flickr group.
I will confess, it was my first time back in the building since I was at university and it was actually a lot more impressive than I recall. Designed by architect E. Vincent Harris and built in 1934 the 'heart of the library' The Great Hall (previously known as a the Reading Room) is probably the most recognized architecturally for it's large glass dome in the roof.
Outside this room is an outer corridor of beautiful arches
and more stacks of books,along with seemingly endless rows of tiny drawers containing microfilm cards etc.. which seemed to hold the group attention for a quite while, yielding some varied results.

Most of the library is now closed, with the ground floor general readers library closing 18th June and the Theatre & Box office closing 4th July with the newly renovated library planned to reopen in 2013 for more info check the Manchester Libraries website

U-turn for Much Needed Manchester Transport Updates

In 2008 over 800,000 people in Greater Manchester voted against the Proposed Congestion Charge. I can recall endless online debates that at times got quite aggressive, over whether the congestion charge was a good or a bad thing. The only consistency from both sides of the argument was that transport across Greater Manchester needed a massive overhaul. Over crowded, over priced and at times not very convenient meant that driving into Manchester for many is an obvious and easy choice over the alternative of trains, trams & buses.
One of the 'promises' from the For Campaign was that the Congestion Charge would allow a massive fund to improve transport, however, we (Greater Manchester residents & voters) were firmly warned that if the charge did not go ahead, there would be absolutely no funding to pay for transport upgrades!


Very interesting then, that this week a leaflet dropped through the doors of many a resident, stating that (despite no congestion charge) that GMPTE are planning to (finally!) introduce bus services across the City Centre, as part of a larger programme to deliver £1.5 billion of transport improvements over the coming years. Currently people living in the of North of the city have to swap not only buses, but bus companies to travel south of Piccadilly Gardens resulting in having to buy multiple travel tickets, from what I have read in the distributed leaflets, this will be a thing of the past. I'm sure it's too much to expect a similar system to London, where everyone pays a flat fee per journey/time period.

Mark Thomas Comedy Product

On Thursday we went to the Dancehouse Theatre on Oxford Road, Manchester (opposite the BBC) to see comedian Mark Thomas. On approaching the venue there seemed to be a polling booth set up in the downstairs lobby, this was not in fact some stunt/ploy.. but a genuine polling booth!

The premise of the tour is that at each gig, the audience submits manifestos that are then read out and voted on, with Mark trying to make some of them a reality in the future.



There was also photos and anecdotes about recent protests held, including one outside Hazel Blears' house that day. They were also handing out various leaflets etc at the merch stall including a Stop & Search card, which is for any unfortunate person who gets stopped and searched under the new ridiculous anti-terrorism laws...

The night was just so funny, I haven't laughed that hard in ages, who would've thought politics could be so entertaining?
Now time to buy the book...

Eurocultured

The Bank Holiday Weekend of 25th/26th May saw the return of the Eurocultured Festival, I went with Ant & Elizabeth - we only managed to make the Monday, but was a nice cheaper alternative to Hungry Pigeon (which I wanted to go to, but was a wee bit to skint/busy to go to). We arrived at just after 1pm and paid our dues to go in, only to be turned back as "they weren't ready yet", told to come back in half an hour, we retreated to the nearby Grand Central pub, which over looked the entrance.. to see the others we had been "thrown out with" being let back in.. sigh!
So after finishing drinks in GC we headed to the Font where we had arranged to meet any other flickrites who might be in the vicinity. Had some nice food in the Font (as usual, I had my old fav, the chicken Caesar wrap!) The weather kinda went a bit clouded over at this point, although still warm, so we had a wander around, marvelled at the graffiti, especially this piece:

By Fauna - although I freely admit, didn't know anything about until someone on flickr pointed me in the right direction!
We saw a band or two on the stage that was powered by bicycles, but ended up heading into the Thirsty Scholar where Adam's friend was DJ'ing - really cool Hip Hop set with some cypress hill and plenty of old school hip hop, was the best set I'd heard in a while


As well as bands and Dj's and the afore mentioned graffiti walls for artists to create pieces over the weekend the festival also had a market area

selling everything from tshirts to scarves to jewellery, as well as a nearby Haunted House which was also a bouncy castle. We would've stayed a bit later but the weather which had been quite overcast, really started to turn, so we went home! Great Day in all.. i hope to see more of it next year maybe (As I seem to have missed it the past 2 years!) Rest of the photos here

La Gayola

Today we visited Spinningfields to go to La Gayola Spiegeltent - part of the Queer Up North Festival, the tent was situated on large grassy area next door to the new justice building. We parked across from the Courts for £2 all day parking on a Sunday - bargain, but get there early, when we left at 1pm it was full!
We arrived quite early so to pass the time decided to explore Spinningfields, which is home to lots of cafés/restaurants including Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Café Rouge and Zizzi - although I suspect we must have missed a fairly large chunk of the development as we didn't see Wagamama's, Pret or Nando's that are apparently there. We did however discover Giraffe which had a really tasty looking breakfast menu which we fully intend to try out in the near future. There's also a Carluccio's which has apparently been voted best cup of take-away coffee by some Manchester Review type site (that I can't recall the name of right now) - so I decided to see for myself. Easily the best coffee I've had in years, I opted for the smooth roast and was not disappointed - I normally find I need sugar in 'proper' coffee but this needed no additives, it was also served at the optimum drinking temperature, so I didn't need to take the lid off for 10 minutes whilst waiting for it to cool. At £1 a cup for take away it ticks every box for the perfect coffee - will definitely be visiting again soon. We actually went back later on to sample many delights including a raspberry and mascarpone tart, limoncello, mushroom pasta and ice cream!

The Spiegeltent opened shortly before 11am, and we chose a booth towards the left of the stage, breakfast was catered by Café Rouge - with a selection of pastries including croissants and pain au chocolat with a choice of tea or coffee.

The pain au chocolat was to die for, with the chocolate just melting in your mouth, of course the rest of it was lovely too. We'd actually finished eating by about 11.15 and patiently waited for the acts to start - 3 were listed on the website when we booked. At 12 there was still no sign of the entertainment, which was beginning to confuse us as the event was supposed to finish at 12.30, however about five past 12, the first act came on stage who I assume was Our Lady J, who sang 2 very amusing songs, quickly followed by Scottee

who also sang 2 songs and in his own words wasn't funny, but entertaining non the less - no idea what happened to the 3rd act, as once Scottee left the stage it was apparent that it was over, and most people started leaving (well not including the ones who had left before the acts even came on stage). All in all a fun event, but maybe not quite billed/advertised right, as like a few people sat near us, we thought that breakfast would be served and eaten whilst watching the acts, not waited around for almost an hour.
The tent itself was beautiful and worth a visit, it reminded me of an old fashioned circus crossed with a wild west saloon, the centre roof of the tent was draped yellow and red velvet, along with lots of stained glass, mirrors and dark wood.

More photos of the Spiegeltent can be found here

Holy Fuck and It Hugs Back - Academy 3

On Sunday we went to see Canadian band Holy Fuck at Manchester Academy 3. Having only heard of them a couple of months before - after being introduced to a few live performances on YouTube, we were unsure but quietly excited of what to expect especially after reading reviews about how they just went on stage and freestyled.
We missed most of the support (in fact we were only aware of It Hugs Back, not the others who I can't recall right now), but caught maybe the last 15 mins of It Hugs Back, who were cool in the interesting, quirky noise making kinda way towards the end.

The gig was in Academy 3 and was from what I can tell, no where near sold out (there's a lot of people who need educating to the ways of Holy Fuck), as there was loads of room to stand/drink/dance, in fact we walked up the right hand side and stood right at the front (well I did), bar a few under-age looking nerdy types who were literally touching the front of the stage from way before Holy Fuck came on.


Obviously once Holy Fuck came on stage at around half nine, it really got going, I'm not going to pretend I can remember the whole set list... I definitely remember Super Inuit, Lovely Allen, The Pulse and Milkshake but to be honest it was just a blur of good music, the weird tape scratching had to be seen to be believed.

This gig was also the first chance we'd had to try out Ant's Cybershot I'd bought him for Christmas, and I have to say it performs brilliantly under low light conditions.. not much else to say, amazing gig with the band giving it their all, it was also broadcast live over t'net via U-stream like quite a few gigs from this tour have.
gonna sign off with a couple of gig photos more of which can be found here

Iraq - The Space Between

German born photographer Christoph Bangert has spent several months over the last 3 years in Iraq on assignment from the New York Times - during some of the most dangerous times when most other journalists had long gone. The result is some of the most shocking and stunning photographs I've seen, and I don't shock easily.
I was originally drawn to the exhibition after seeing this image, taken in the Karada neighbourhood of Baghdad, during a sandstorm.

But don't be lulled into a false sense of security - Bangert bridges the gap with unexpected striking and beautiful images of a warzone mixed in with what you might expect; images of death, pain and destruction and then everything in between - the civilians caught in the middle who still have to go about their daily business. I was fortunate enough to go to Bangert's talk at the Midland hotel and it was good to see he hadn't been number or come accustomed to the experiences of war.
He also told us the ironic story behind the image below (the cover image from the accompanying book) of an abandoned children's play area

The soldiers built it for the Iraqi people, but because of it's location people are too afraid to use it. This is a truly breathtaking exhibition that really needs to be seen.
The exhibition Iraq - The Space In Between is on at the Artland Gallery in Manchester until 14th March 2009.

Gig Time

The past few weeks have seen us take in not one but three gigs! Which certainly ended the dry spell for us. The first was local band The Whip, guitar based electro style music at the Academy 2. I can't remember the last time I went to a gig there that was so packed, with such a friendly vibe. The crowd seemed to be mainly students (maybe the £7 ticket price had something to do with it), and it was impossible to stand for more than a minute without someone pushing past to/from bar/toilets/wherever! Having seen The Whip only once before at D:percussion 18 months previously, I knew they sounded good live, but I was still pleasantly surprised. The album just doesn't do them justice IMO, the music sounded much more upbeat and danceable than it does via CD (or maybe you just need to play it really loud?) and they had cool lighting and the obligatory smoke machine to add to a club type atmosphere. I can't remember the entire set lit ut particular highlights were Sister Siam, Save My Soul, Dubsex and of course Trash.
The only complaint of the night (which was shared by several other fans) was the 'limited edition USB wrist bands' - gone are the days of having a live CD to buy 20 minutes after the gig, it's all gone digital now - like a lot of people at the gig, I bought mine before the gig - standard tickets were £7, ticket and wristband £20 - making the wristband £13 - the price of a CD in a high street music store. These were marketed as something you had to buy in advance, but on taking a trip to the merch stall it turns out you could pay for them on the night - for £9! I heard a lot of fans complaining to the poor merch guy that night, but that aside, a very fun night out.

A Place to Bury Strangers at the Roadhouse - have to admit, I'd never heard of them until about 4 weeks before hand, we went for Steven's birthday and it was a nice surprise to find that for an £8 ticket, there were actually several bands on all night. I wont even pretend to remember their names or recall any song titles, all I can recall was an eclectic crowd and a variety of guitar based bands that generally got the crowd going, although APTBS were the highlight and obviously the band most people came to see - worth checking out a few tracks via their myspace page (above).

Indie Darlings Glasvegas were our final gig of the year - I had mixed feelings about whether they could live up to the hype and my own expectations for a live gig. Whenever I think of Glasvegas it's their very raw and unpolished Home Tapes that springs to mind, so whilst I was anticipating a similar rawness, I was secretly hoping something a little more 'we're past recording in our bedroom' sound.
And I was not disappointed, at all.
Every tune was an anthem to sing along to, and sing along we all did, it was one of the most uplifting gigs ever. Like when you see 20,000 people singing along with Oasis for Wonderwall on TV - it was like that for every song, but with only a few hundred other people, very intimate and James' voice was outstanding. Favourite songs for me were Daddy's Gone and the grand finale of Geraldine.
My gig of the year.

Ting Tings, Manchester Academy 3rd October 2008

Went to see the Ting Tings on Friday at Manchester Academy. We met with friends in Jabez Clegg before hand as it's usually cheaper than the academy one, but for some reason 2 pints cost me over £6, which seems a bit extortionate for a student place, might as well go to Kro next door and get a decent pint for that sort of money. Although we did get given a free drink each from the Jim Beam representative in there, shame the only one of us who likes it was driving that night! But on the up side we're all apparently going to receive an email invitation to a survey about Jim Beam which if we complete we'll receive a £10 Amazon voucher...
Anyway, onto the gig, we walked across the road to the academy around 9pm, and it was still busy with people going in, this was my first time since the academy has been fully refurbished - the last time I was there, the toilets were still portable units outside the building. The first thing I noticed was that they hadn't learnt from the last time - the toilets were back to being the same - over flowing, poor layout/design, and they had put the bar back in the old position meaning that there was a huge bottle neck upon entering the venue, although adding an upstairs bit was a nice surprise I suppose (but their was a massive queue to go up there as well). Despite the new lay out there was still minimal bar space, so getting a drink took a good 15 minutes once we got into the venue, and of course we were paying around £3.50 for a can of beer. I think we pretty much missed the support act Fight Like Apes, as they were finishing as we were queueing for the bar.
The ting tings came on stage around half nine, I can't actually remember the first song they played, just that the crowd went wild jumping, dancing and singing along, which set the tone for the rest of the evening. They played the hit singles: that's not my name, great dj, shut up and dance, along with fruit machine, be the one and a couple more off the album, they also played a couple of songs I didn't recognise, so I don't know whether they are new tracks off the much anticipated second album or not, I hope so. It's great when you can see the band really throwing all their energy into the performance and that's what we got with the ting tings, at times they reminded me of blondie, with katie's 80's punky movement.
The crowd was very eclectic and friendly. really good gig in all, shame their next tour is going to be at the apollo though, as it's one of my least favourite venues and the hiked ticket price is making it a no go.

BBC Manchester Tour

Today we went to the BBC building on Oxford Road for one of their free tours. The tour guide lady (sorry didn't catch her name, but she had one of those faces, where you think you know someone) was really good, we had ample time to ask questions and take photos. The first stop was Studio A, which has been used for lots of famous tv shows (that I can't remember the names of), it was emtpy so not much to look at really. Then we went to look at another studio where the BBC philharmonic orchestra practise, now this was impressive, it had all these odd features to improve the sound which included these things hanging from the roof that looked almost like the wings on early planes and box types shapes stuck to the walls.


Next was a radio drama studio, where actors record radio shows - it had 3 types of flooring, a set of steps that were park wood, part carpet and part concrete for any scenario you might need, not to mention a fully stocked 'kitchen' with numerous props - it was a nice insight into how radio dramas are put together.
We also got to visit the radio studios where BBC radio Manchester is broadcast from, and watched on a small monitor the news lady - although she is situated near the front of the building to be near the news... or something like that.


The real highlight of the trip was up next - the Northwest Tonight Studio. A part time presenter (sorry can't remember the name) was there and showed us how he worked the autocue, how to switch cameras and other tricks of the trade, they don't have sheets of paper these days, but a Pc & monitor set underneath the glass desk. Visitors then had the option to have a go at reading the news or sit on the sofa they use for light pieces. We then went to the room where the directors and producers sit during the show with the various mixing desks and computers.

The final stop of the tour was in the BBC interactive suite, where if you should choose (we didn't) you could read the weather, the same way the weather lady does (with no prompts or scripts), and then have it played back. We were also shown a promotional film about the new Media City opening at Salford Quays where BBC Manchester will relocate to in 2011.

Then we finished with a quick questionaire about the tour and were given a goody bag which was quite unexpected, and contained pens, a keyring, lots of leafets & info about BBC stuff and a DVD.

All in all a very nice afternoon out, the tour lasted about and hour and a half with plenty of time to photograph, ask questions and 'have a go'.