Photo Safari II - Urbis and Printworks

Urbis is a museum dedicated to "all things urban." It lies at the heart of Manchester city centre and has a restaurant and gift shop along with several exhibition spaces. The first week we were here, Brendan and I went to see "How Manga Took Over the World," and exhibit about Japanese graphic art that is equivalent to US comic books, but has grown to so much more. The most commerically successful lines are Hello Kitty and Pokemon, but if you spend any time with middle school kids, you'll find that they love the graphic novels that are read from back to front, and this style is used in all areas of design to communicate difficult concepts in ways that are easy to grasp. There are graphic novels of Shakespeare's plays and even a Manga Bible!

Brendan's very good at drawing these types of characters, with big eyes, tiny noses and spiky hair. Although I appreciate it, I'm not so good at drawing it. I guess I have my own established style by this stage of life.

Across the street from Urbis and up the road, are Printworks and Exchange Square, with it's scaled-down version of the London Eye. This is a great place to people-watch. The weekends are busier than the week-days, as people come in from miles around for concerts and hen/stag weekends. Printworks has all sorts of bars, clubs and restaurants. The MEN arena is just around the corner. (Last night, Kylie Minogue was playing.) And this whole area is a shopper's dream, if you want to spend double what you'd pay for it in America. We rode on the ferris wheel to see the Manchester skyline. I think it's the most intriguing side of Manchester. The combination and blending of architecture is amazing.

Photo Safari I - Manchester Cathedral

I hope this is the beginning of a series. Brendan took these brilliant shots of the Manchester Cathedral on our first walk around town. There is SO much detail in these things, that it's hard to represent it well. But I think he did a great job. We didn't take any of the inside. The stained glass was not remarkable, and we didn't want to be disrepectful of the tombs. But the choir stalls were SO ornate. We stood and stared at them for a long time.




Gargoyles are always my favorite part of the exterior. Did you know the word "gargle" comes from the sound the rain makes coming through those down-spouts. I hope you can see these. The other two are of saints and angels. There were many empty niches around the outside. I wonder if the statues have been lost or if they've been intentionally left open for generous benefactors to have a chance at putting their likeness there for posterity.

Of course, it's Church of England, very similar to Episcopal in the US. Since it was the closest church, I visited on Sunday morning for the family Eucharist service. They have a small choir, maybe 20-25 children and adults, but they filled the worship area and the tall ceilings with clear, beautiful tones, all in Latin of course. I remembered a few phrases from my choir career, but not much. So I didn't try to follow along. I closed my eyes and just listened. Then, I was doubly blessed by a concert from a South African Youth Choir - WOW! Their short concert included works from Russia, Scandinavia, and finally South Africa, which I enjoyed immensely.

I have to say, there's much more available to do in this size city than there ever was in Northampton. Brendan and I are going to help build the "Carpet of Flowers" in Albert's Square in front of town hall next week. It will be similar to the ones they do in Belgium, on a smaller scale. It's a great chance for us to be outside and useful and meet some locals.

Our Room With A View

New location. New urge to journal. If this blog is supposed to exercise my brain, my gray-matter's gotten flabby.

We're back in England, this time in Manchester, living in a corner, top-floor flat in a Victorian building that was probably a cotton mill in city centre. We're here for eight weeks while Bill does contract work for Cooperative Financial, one of the largest companies in Manchester. It's a great opportunity to come back, we never thought we would, and re-aquaint ourselves with British-isms, like four-wheeled shopping trolleys, and looking right, then left, before stepping off of the curb, and taking three hours to do a load of wash. It's different being in a city. We don't have a car, so we're working on figuring out the tram and buses, and are doing much more walking. Smoking is not allowed inside public places anymore, so everyone steps outside to take a drag. Weekends are busier than weekdays, especially at 2:30 in the morning when the bars and pubs close, turning out all the noisy drunks onto the streets.

Two sides of the flat are lined with nine large windows that look out over the roof tops and give us a birds-eye view of people coming and going on the street, on the tram, and on the buses. I enjoy looking out at different times of the day to see what dramas are unfolding. It would be easy to become a voyer if I had a good pair of binoculars. Here are my favorite views.