March 30, 2012

• Manchester Part 2

  Part two of my Trip to the big city: In this episode there is more food, dead people, dancing girls and spaceships

  Day 4
  

  

  Greek Orthodox Grave stones.

  Marking the graves of my mum’s biological father and mother.

  

  Michael: My mum’s step dad, also a Ukrainian immigrant.

  

  My Grand dad’s grave…he’s the one in the picture in my first post. I never really knew him, since i was too young.

  

  Old Industrial England a Vew from the graveyard.

  Before going to the grave (or it might have been after can’t remember) we also went to an Anglican Church.

  I’m not religious i’ve rarely if ever been to church or anything connected to organized religion…but I thought since this trip was one of culture I should add Religion to the experiances.

  It was interesting, I joined in with the hymns, which surprisingly made me get a bit of a lump in the throat. I wasn’y comfortable with much of the language used though, since it was very much about the more judgmental view of God…personally all that original sin and God’s wrath stuff just sounds a bit needlessly depressing.

  But when at the end of the service we turned to each other in the church and shook hands saying ‘Peace be with you’ I quite liked that then there was the whole bread and wine thing which was interesting but a bit lost on me.

  After all the holy morning stuff we had a quiet Sunday, that ended at a lovely Indian Resturant with great service and food. We spent the night talking, mostly with an ex-fireman friend of my uncle for me, but it was loud and not really my scene so i was glad to get home.

  Day 5

  The next day I headed off to see my Cousin, her partener and their new baby, and together we went to visit a local town where they plan to move.

  

  Deers in the park!

  

  Proud Dad

  

  Slightly odd cousin and cute baby

  

  A quiet…but jam packed with rich folks English Village.

  

  After spending the day with my Cousin and having a late lunch we headed back only to find that my Aunt had made dinner and we were all invited to have some :S but despite having eaten lunch only 2 hours ago the meal was so nice we got through it and the sweet.

  Then we were off back to Manchester to see somekind of Dance thing done by Manchester Ballet School students.

  It was AMAZING we were right in the front row and right next to the massive speakers from which VERY loud music was playing through out…but the skill, ability, choreography and whole show was brilliant so despite ear pain I stuck it out and loved every moment!

  Plus we were right next to a guy who’s sister was in the show, he was a lovely guy and shared some interesting stuff about his work as a graphic artist (check out his site: www.thecityspace.co.uk I tracked him down via google lol) the only problem was that since it was not only Ballet but also Cabaret the costumes for several dances were a bit revealing shall we say…and normally I’d not mind that sort of thing, but when you are sat next to the brother of one of the amazingly pretty girls on stage…it makes you more of a gentleman with your gaze lol

  But the whole thing was just great fun and made me REALLY want to not only see more but also become a dancer :/ might need a bit more fitness first though.

  Day 6

  Began with a walk up the hill near the house with my Uncle.

  

  

  At home in his Garden

  

  Manchester in the haze.

  Then since he had discovered that we’d never been my Uncle insisted we go visit Jedrell Bank and see the Radio Telescope.

  

  See I told you there would be spaceships…or at least the system for finding and tracking them.

  

  

  Within the visitor center there was this camera wwhich proves just how cold my ‘normal’ hand temp is. Check out the difference between me and my Uncles finger tips! and this was on a hot day after my hands had been in my pockets

  (It’s me on the left)

  

  I don’t often (if ever) do the classic tourist posed shot…but someone insisted I get some so here are a couple

  

  

  It’s a biggun, and it moved several times during our visit!

  

  Fantastic bit of engineering…and the telescope too

  

  My best shot of it *pats self on back heartily*

  

  

  The guy who invented the telescope also loved Cricket and Trees so he had an Arboretum build near to the Observatory.

  

  (The plaque says Neptune)

  I discovered someone has half inched Neptune!

  

  It’s a stunning place…and it was a lovely day but don’t worry only a few more photos lol

  

  A bit of time travel got me this cracker from 1958, just after it was built

  

  

  

  

  The garden wasn’t quite in full tree blume yet, but the blossoms that were out (mostly on pear trees) were stunning.

  Then we had an excellent lunch in the resturant in the visitor center, more ham for me

  And this was on the wall of the resutrant, each one had the time on different planets…but the one to the right for a Black Hole time was stopped hehe Science nerd joke…gotta love it.

  

  The whole trip was really lovely, despite the fact I even got a cold down there at about the 3rd day. :S

  For one though it was nice to have ‘just’ a cold and not something worse for once but also it was mild and everyone and everything was so nice during the 7 days I really didn’t mind.

  I came back feeling really positive and motivated but also missing the folks down there quite a bit which is a good way to end a trip.

  Not quite tempted to leave my glorious isolation and move to the city to become a dancer…yet but it was a close call lol

  • 11:55 am
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