i wonder?

En route to work on foot I try to vary my route.
No other reason than I try to delay the inevitable incarceration for 8 hours in an artificial environment! Although they all only take 15 minutes!

Here is a random whistle stop tour of my daily bit of Manchester.

Route 1.

Out the station, picking up a Metro News, past the Hilton hotel/ Beethan Tower.
(now this is one of the most unattractive buildings I have ever seen.. however it is beautiful inside and they do a great cappuccino) Crossing the road ahead of the flashing green man as I know the sequence of lights. Passing the flashy shops selling beds and flats that I would never ever be able to afford (not that I would ever want to buy a flat for £995,500 in the city centre).... past the Model shop
Popping into Sainsbury's for my 'desk lunch' and down to John Rylands then down the side street past the Magistrates court and into the office.

Route 2.

Out of the station across the bridge past the G Mex back entrance. Through the AMC cinema (& a quick look at the listings…..… ), down the steps back onto Deansgate. Past the John Rylands again. Past the Lap dancing place. Into Merv’s for a take away coffee and sausage butty for £1.99 (bargain) and into the office.

Route 3 (my favourite route)

Out the station, picking up a Metro News, past the Hilton hotel/ Beethan Tower. Crossing the road ahead of the flashing green man as I know the sequence of lights.

Down past the Ox on my reverse route home I have seen many times Craig Charles reading his Coronation Street script with a pint and a ciggy

Crossing over the road past the ‘blue post box’ to the Manchester Science and Industry Museum, which I love. This is where I saw ‘ The Pianist’ a few months ago. I have visited there many many times as my teen was growing up, it is free and there are loads of fun interactive things for kids, a train & plane museum and a mock up of Salford's Victorian sewers (lovely). I saw the Titanic Exhibition there, which was one of the best exhibitions I have seen. The most striking thing was a wall size slab of ice, which you could touch and it brought home just how cold that water would have been that night the Titanic sank.

So onwards down Great John Street past the Great John Street Hotel This is a great write up of it, have promised myself a stay there but it is so expensive … may just have to nip in for a cappuccino instead.

Opposite here is the Coronation Street set. There are usually a few die-hard fans in what ever the weather mingling at the gates cameras at the ready. Just mooching to work I see a few of them but don’t ask me their names (oh Kelly from the factory is one!… I am not an avid fan).

Then it is past the main Granada building. For some time now they had on the walls outside ‘Jeremy Kyle show queue this way’ & ‘ ‘Mastermind queue this way’. I so want to see both sets of audience there at the same time. Would it be shell suits and bling one side and corduroy jackets and intellectual types the other?

My final leg on this route is through the new Spinningfields development

I have watched the growth of this through my office window aver the past couple of years. I can’t believe that on what appeared to be a small patch of land such a mammoth creation has appeared. I have watched the apartments become occupied, many of which have chosen not to have curtains up at their windows (don’t they realize there is an office across the way) and tragically I have also seen a worker fall to his death from the scaffolding.

It is still not complete but it is a fantastic feat of engineering.

Tucked in between this extremely ultra modern 21^st century development is the People’s History Museum. It is so close to work but have only been once. You can clock in at work on an old machine and make badges. It was great fun.
Then across the bridge that straddles the Irwell and in to the office.

I do try to mix routes 1, 2 & 3 for an even better eclectic mix