Makes me want to live

The Olympics hove down upon us. Well not upon us, we live oop north and so can pretty much ignore it. But there was the passing of the torch. It was a very strange thing, getting up early in the morning to see it pass. It happened to go past our church and there was a free breakfast after so it seemed churlish to pass on the experience.

It was a magical mix of surrealism and chaos. There was the clearly rather drunk guy who adopted us and was getting into the whole excitement, there was the corporate stuff that was very trashy, but who can pass on an ice cold coke at 8 in the morning and then the complete chaos of the crowds being in the road while a woman ran past with a flaming stick. Strange indeed.

The animal instinct in me

 Views fromOldham Street

 Victoria Sqaure, early social housing Ancoats.

 Ancoats.

 THe roof in the craft centre.

 The side of the craft centre looking to the old Smithfield market.

 Smithfiel Market

 Steps down to a cellar.

 The canal in Ancoats, side of Brownsfield Mill

The Dalai Lama came to Manchester to address the young people, he wanted to inspire them in the wake of the riots last year. First born managed to get tickets and went with school, she was inspired.

Meanwhile the parents had an afternoon out in the Northern Quarter. Mother has been reading Elizabeth Gaskell, ad enjoying it very much, so it was a great chance to see it as archeology.

It's a very grey and dirty city in places but has an incredible heritage which is just managing to hang on in patches, before the ticky tacky developments get thrown up.

We don't know what we're vibrating for

More Kettlewell pictures, it was good because it felt like a long time away, but that was probably about how far away from Manchester we were, not just in raw miles but it the nature of the place. Very different. The little one dressed up and the first born tried to enthuse as far as she was able through the fog of anti travel sickness meds.

It was a very good castle and being able to get onto the roof was amazing, even though it brought us nearer the rain clouds.