Visitor #1 Experienced visitor

Visitor #2 UK virgin!

Mission 1: Friday night.

Upon arrival, straight in the swing of things; i.e. bars around my neighbourhood.

Weapon of choice?

• Hula Tikki for its relaxed, themed bar. I like the aquarium and the blowfish lights. Also the flamed cocktails always entertain. Flames!

• Centro.  It’s achilled out place with some gorgeous lampshades I really want! (Birthday ‘s in a few months guys, you might want to start saving!)

• Socio Rehab – I just really like the place.  Always something new to try. Not cheap unfortunately but you get what you pay for: Great drinks. Good music. Always good fun.

• Hunters for a traditional post drinks snack – Kebab of course. Opposite Bluu Bar and Dough, it consistently delivers great food – not just drunk food. The boys felt the sense of belongings and entertainment as drunk punters were flocking in. Although it was still early doors to see the real circus (1am).

I could not resist this one too. Sorry.

Mission 2: Saturday

An all day-er here. Keep focus and keep delivering.

Weapons of choice:

• Koffee pot – Amazing Ful English brekkie. Perfect for hungry French boys eager to experience England at its finest.

• Quick walk through the Printworks to show them the outside/in concept

• Urbis, Manchester Cathedral, John Ryland’s library. A wee bit of culture thrown in.

• Beetham Tower for the view of course.

• Le clou du spectable; Old Trafford for a Man U – Bolton. Game. Both rugby fans, boy oh boy did they love it? Yep. My bro even bought the jersey top the day after! Bless!

• Cornerhouse for bit of a coffee/cup cake break. Haven’t been there for a while for drinks and they have great coffees, decent beers and fantastic cupcakes. I didn’t try anything else but all the cakes looked good I have to say. Proud to say I introduced 2 boys to cupcakes.

• Rusholmes for a shisha

• Bank for a drink. Ok place. I have been 3 times I think in my 10 years in Manchester. Chainy/puby type but I was really surprised to find a decent pinot noir (which is also available in Lounge 10 but for £13 more! Ouch Lounge 10!)

• Chinatown’s Red Chilli. Probably one of the best if not the best Chinese in town. Consistently offering great Beijing and Sichuan dishes. Never had a bad meal there. Truly great place and it was my cousin’s first Chinese meal believe it or not! What a start!

• Corridor to end the night in style! I love Corridor but due to my Northernquarterism (acute laziness to go elsewhere for drinks) I haven’t been for a long while. Since my last visit I spotted so many new cocktails I will have to go back to investigate! We sampled a fair few between the 4 of us and all spot on.

Mission 3: Sunday

Same as Saturday. A full day of food and drinks!

• Katsouris for a fantastic brunch. I really like the place and the food is just fantastic and really decently priced. Good grub. Highly recommend the hot sandwiches (all good) and the amazing mezze platter. All freshly prepared and super tasty!

• Manchester Art Gallery. My cousin expressed is lack of interest of paintings and I had something up my sleeve! I took them to see Anish Kappor “Flashback” exhibition. Second time for me. I really love the bold colour of the pigments. The shapes. The effects. I simply find it very beautiful.

• Shopping. We spent the rest of the day shopping in the numerous shops around the city center.

• Sunday roast. I made my first complete roast. It was nerve wrecking with my crap oven but it came out great! I was really chuffed. Event made a giant cupcake (which I failed at sadly).

An overview?

Mission completed and accomplished.

The boys looked like they had a fantastic time. I know I did!

V. x

Hang on! Fast forward 2010 and the “hipsters” are out and about flocking Manchester.

You can find them strolling around the boho Northern Quarter; voted the Best Neighbourhood in the UK guys but don’t take my resident’s word for it. They’ve said it back in the days:

BBC

MEN

Man Con

Creative tourist

Place North West

How do

Manchester gov

So “November 2010 news” I realise but at the time I was on blogostrike so there you are, better later than never, n’est-ce pas?

Right, “let’s go back to our sheep” as we say in French, i.e. let’s get back to our topic in regular English!

No Future Club was presenting The Correspondents at The Ruby Lounge who I saw twice at Glasters in June. They are quirky and intriguing and also extremely upbeat which is always great for a good night out.

The gig was great. Despite a bit of a delay (it was snowing like mad that night), the band got cracking after some random acts of topless escapism and comedy. All good fun.

Tunes and mighty mix of various genres – a bit of electro swing/hip hip hip hoppey/jumble.

A really great venue, filled with great peeps having a fab time. Some lovely efforts with 50′s style hair and fashion. Fabulous!

Let’s bring back the 50′s I say!

Cheerio!

Check them out!

Sneak a peak here.

She sees it. She likes it. She makes it.

Here are some of her ideas in practice!

• The Francunian takes on The Gemstone earings (scroll down)

I used leather instead of ribbon.

• Then a little adaptation on the Macrame necklace – here is the original (scroll down)

I used the finger knitting technique but with a gorgeous black chunky wool.

Well, part of the stress of packing was removed thanks to the idea I came accross a few weeks back: 6 items or less. This rule has been devised as a “global experiment examining the power of what we don’t wear”. 4 weeks, 31 days – just 6 items (excluding outerwear, sports wear, underwear).

I read about it a few months ago and thought it would be ideal for my travels around Peruto travel light. Something similar was also mentioned in an article I read on the virgin train magazine Saturday: “Case notes: How to pack light”. It quoted Donna Karan’s “7 easy pieces” introducing the idea of capsule wardrobe.

In my case, my items of choices were:
1) black maxi dress
2) black below the knee skirt with big front pockets (great for travelling as documents can be kept handy there)
3) stripey floatey skirt that doubled up as a boob tube tunic
4) brown tshirt
5) burgundy top
6) black cashmere cardi
To complement those I took 2 pairs of tights/leggings, 2 belts ( thin brown one and a thicker white one), a sarong in shades of kaki and beige as well as a gorgeous flowery shawl. For outerwear I chose a tweed jacket in shades of burgundy, navy and beige.

I made them work together by mixing, matching and layering. It worked a treat in the ever changing weather we experienced along the way. From cloudy and windy sea level to high altitude sunny spots and colder nights.

I did of course have to do a few washings along the way but it worked pretty well. I thought it wasn’t too hard to keep up although by the end I was really looking forward to meet up with my full wardrobe back home.

Anyway, all this to say that traveling light is not just for skint students or hobo backpackers. It can be done in style too! A few funky accesories and complementary coloured clothing will make the whole difference!

Great sound to move to I have to say.

The beauty of the festival is all the free events taking place around the city! No excuses not to try at least one!

Split between St Ann Sq, Albert Sq (Festival Pavilion) and venues around Manchester such as RNCM, Matt & Phred’s, Midland Hotel, Band on the Wall; there is gotta be something for everyone and every pocket!

Radio 3 even broadcasted live from Band on the Wall last night, featuring Arun Gosh Quintet, Stuart McCallum solo and Simcock/Walker/Swallow/Nussbaum which was perfect for me as I was crafting at home!

You can check the full line up here.

Here are a few pics too of the acts I have seen while on my lunch break! Yes, jazzy lunch is awesome!

Extra Curricular from Huddersfield

Mobile special effexxxt…

Cool Ceol Quartet - Festival Pavilion

One about wine:

One about photography:

One about making pretty things!

• Created by Manchester People
• Commissioned by Manchester City Council
• Produced by Walk the Plank

According to officials data, 75,000 spectators watched the 36 fantastic floats!

On Sunday 20 June 2010, the very first Manchester Day Parade burst onto the city streets and set the city alight with a dazzling display of colour, sound and dance.

For the downloadable Manchester Day Parade 2010 programme, please click here.

The parade, produced by Walk the Plank, weaved its way through the city centre. Spectators witnessed a display of vibrant costumes, fantastic street dance and amazing wheeled structures designed by the local community to celebrate Manchester’s Out of this world creativity.

It was such a success, it’s becoming a fixture in Manchester’s events Calendar! Hot from the MEN Twitter feed! Check this out: Sweeeet

I finally spare a few minutes to add this pictures!

I hope you like them!

1) The Spirit of Manchester

Inspired by Rolls Royce Mascot “the Spirit of Ecstasy”, represents Manchester’s original, bold character. (brochure)

1) The Woooorld

5) The Peacock & her flowering garden

7) The Phoenix

9) Remarkable Mancunian Float

12) Wheeled wonders

The man who kindly let me in front to snap away said: “I bet they wished they bought new rather than second hand”. One of those sweet and funny  ”you had to be there moment”!

The weather man

13) Wythenshawe's Open Spaces

15) The Mobile Allotment

18) Heavenly Hordes

Greeks Gods and Goddesses

Mighty Dragon

Followed by a mighty tiger - Rrroar

On stilts

Star

Unicorn!

Just thought I’d share some pics from a very fun day in Platfields Park!

Simian Mobile Disco

The Garden

The suitcase monster

Silent disco

Chill out Garden

The whole day was great – sunshine, nice people, good acts, brilliant set up!

Got lost and ended up in the Drum&Bass tent where Ronny Size was playing his magic

There was something for everyone – pretty much.

A bit of Friendly Fires

Vitalic in the Electro tent!

Other than the usual queuing annoying bit to go in and for the toilet, it was really well organised and presented! Hope to see it happening again!

Flavoursome and sometime spicy deliciousness. Fresh and tasty is what you can expect from this place.

There’s some lovely photos on this.

So this is a very simple fact, this little place on Shudehill opposite the Crown Plaza is simply lovely.

Good grub, decently priced and served with a smile. Fan!

Lovely plum wine

More plum wine

Mixed dinner with dumplins and 4 different dishes - Yummm

The menu

All meat for our carnies but there are lovely veggie options