England
The History of Softys’ Hard Stuff
I never went into Softys’ Hard Stuff. In fact, I only went past it once, during a photo wander around Bolton, which is when I took this photo. The picture has now been used (with permission) by Manchester Evening News in an article about the adult shop’s genesis in a TV programme and subsequent run-ins with the law.
Easter classic car show in Ashton
Just a small gathering of classic cars that I happened upon on Saturday. Little events like this are those lucky coincidences that I enjoy about taking the occasional random trip to parts of Greater Manchester I don’t normally visit.
Are there leopards roaming around Cumbria?
Probably not, according to the experts, though there a few dedicated big cat hunters who remain convinced.
IPMS Bolton Model Show 2024
Even after editing it down, my full walk around this year’s Bolton IPMS show comes in at two hours. It’s worth it if you want to take in the scale of the show, but I’m also adding themed shorter cuts to the IPMS Bolton 2024 playlist if you’re interested in specific subjects.
Historic England asks for ‘ghost sign’ photos to create online map
I love a ghost sign. If I start adding my collection of photos to the Historic England site, I could be there all weekend.
Inside the Pride parade with Manchester Greens
Though I did accidentally introduce them as Salford Greens at the start of the video. I *was* in Salford Greens for six or so years, so my brain must still be wired to that, I guess.
Visiting the Castlefield Viaduct Garden
I finally got along to the Castlefield Viaduct park in the sky, and got a little footage.
Didsbury Car Show 2023
Didsbury Car Show has grown a lot since I was last there. I got almost an hour of footage, even after trimming it down.
It was another sunny day, which didn’t always agree with the action cam- be prepared for occasional lens flare and over-saturation.
The Private Cashier- A Pride Month Dodge Charger
A Dodge Charger with a Pride flag on the roof has been on the to-do list for a while. This version wasn’t as large a project as I’d initially planned, and used transfers rather than the more ambitious masking I thought would be involved. But I got it done within Pride month, after only deciding to do it on the last day of May.
Read more about Private Albert Cashier on Wikipedia
Skintone progressive Pride flag by PersikFlor – CC BY-SA 4.0
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The e-bike Wild West
I’m back to kicking around ideas for Another Summer of Hate, my next novel. One possible plot thread would involve the death of a kid on an e-bike, so I’m following the news about the incidents so far this year. (And one of them happened close to where I used to live, so there’s that as well.)
I don’t like the repeated suggestions in this article that it would somehow be perfectly safe to chase riders who wore helmets. Protective headgear, bike helmets in particular, provide limited protection against a limited range of injuries. They are not the magical lifesavers some people think they are (see also the zombie Helmet Debate, recently returned to eat the brains of politicians).
Criminal gangs, and reckless kids, use e-bikes. There is no straightforward way to deal with them, and I hope Police are deciding how, and whether, to pursue them based on more than just what’s on their heads.
The scooters of St George 2023
I primarily go to the St George’s Day parade for the scooters at the end, but there are always a few other cool vehicles passing by before them. The first half of the video is the Jeeps, Land Rovers and trucks that also attended, the second half the scooters.
For a while, it looked like the scooters weren’t going to make an appearance. I don’t know what held them up, but it must have been frustrating, and no doubt explains why they seemed more rowdy and anarchic than in previous years.
Cotton Capital: how slavery made Manchester the world’s first industrial city
The Guardian is doing a series of reports on its, and Manchester’s, links to slavery. This introduces the subject, and gives a graphical representation of the city’s growth and rise.
Taking a Trip to the Lawnmower Museum
Something different for this video. The lawnmower museum is in Southport, and I’ve been meaning to go for years. It’s in the back of a hardware store, and packed with mowers and related paraphernalia. I highly recommend it as an example of an eccentric little museum hidden in an unexpected place.
There are few models of lawnmowers out there, but Zoom On Models from Hong Kong do make a resin kit of one of the land speed mowers. It’s on the long list of kits I’d like to get and build one day, and if some kind soul buys me one, I promise I’ll donate the finished product to the museum.
Back to The Office – Visiting Manchester’s John Ryland’s Library
I used to do so much writing in the John Rylands that I called it my ‘office’. Then I became a key worker during lock down, and I haven’t visited for ages. So I went back and had a wander around the halls again when I had some time off recently.
Around Ashton Again
Ashton-under-Lyne does not present its best face to you if you arrive by tram or bus. The new bus terminal is more attractive than the one it replaced, and it does a good job of hiding the back side of the shopping centre, but you’ve still found your way there past soulless big-box stores and venues. The more interesting part of town is on the other side of the Escher inspired maze of the shopping centre.
The market square and market hall lead you on to a small grid of streets, well stocked with interesting finds.
Of course, when I say interesting, I mean to me- so it’s all old facades, abandoned stuff, and a surprising number of dead nightclubs.
The Hudson Bay is even more exclusive now it’s shut down and no-one at all can get in.
Club Denial can’t accept that it’s now a small supermarket.
The Hippodrome survived a century, but something between 2004 and now has led to its closure.
I’m not sure what Slotworld was before it was Slotworld, but it’s not Slotworld any more, either.
I wandered for a while, and was back a couple of days later to get a couple more pictures. There are more photos in the gallery.
Now, which satellite town should I visit next?
Shalom Christian Church
It’s only in the last few years that I have been introduced to the concept of the “estate pub”- basic brick buildings providing booze in newer build areas. Functional, but far from attractive, many of them never got the chance to age into the character you expect of a good boozer, having been demolished already.
The Shalom Christian Church building has the look of estate pub thinking applied to a place of worship.
The “ramparts” at each corner provide more of an architectural flourish than most estate pubs were blessed with. Combined with the barbed wire along the roof line and the brieze blocks on the inside of the windows, it has an air of a fortress about it.
The biggest surprise- to me- was that the building isn’t as abandoned as the barricaded windows made me think. Walking past it yesterday morning, I was surprised to find the door open for the regular Sunday service. I didn’t look inside- that would have felt like prying (and I hadn’t had any breakfast yet, and was in a hurry to find food).
World Naked Bike Ride 2021
The naked cyclists were out and about in the city centre again yesterday. I wasn’t a participant this year, but managed to get some photos at the roll out and on Canal Street. The album is on Flickr.
To and from a COVID Jab
Yesterday was the first of my Covid vaccinations. As I’ve worn a groove between the flat and work over the last few months, and barely deviated from it, this was something of an expedition. So I took a few photos, and visited some spots that weren’t directly on the route*.
Today, I have a few aches as the vaccine teaches my body how to fight off the real thing, but none of the fever-y and flu-like symptoms others have reported. I’m working from home tomorrow, just in case.
Hopefully, the Flickr album is embedded above. If you can’t move between photos, click through to see them all.
*Don’t worry, I didn’t go mad. A mask was worn in shops and on public transport, and I maintained a safe distance. And, as the photos will show, a lot of the wander was through practically deserted parts of town anyway.