A Day Out In Manchester

Yesterday I dodged the rain and had a few hours in Manchester city centre. Being a country mouse, its not a place I visit much - in fact, I think I was last there about 3 years ago...(she says, with straw sticking out of her ears...)

I keep thinking I should have a day just wandering around taking photos, but you know, just a few hours is quite enough for me - I feel grubby after an hour, so goodness knows how I'd feel if I was there much longer.  I don't know, its all so fast and loud (now I REALLY DO sound like the country mouse) and although Sale is prety urban, its not the city centre.   Really, since the IRA redesigned the shopping areas for us, its quite nice and there's lots to see and do.  I headed for the Northern Quarter, where I know my way around because the Artists/Craft Centre is located there - and my favourite place to source paper bags, gold coloured heart shaped labels and jewellery price tags, that sort of stuff.  Mark was with me and was nearly gibbering when we walked out of that shop nearly £50 lighter.  £50 on paper bags, on bags, he was heard muttering.   Poor boy.

Anyway, I did take a few photos - the first (above) is a fabulous distressed looking poster I came across - was it made to look this way or did it end up that way, who knows, and is it art, well, there's another question.  Taking photos of this kind always causes puzzlement on the part of the husband, but its always good to keep them guessing. The other pics are the inside of the artists centre - there was lots to look at but I had to keep the photos general in case anyone thought I was trying to infringe their copyright. Blowing £50 on paper bags was one thing, infringing copyright quite another. 

Above and below: Walking back to the very expensive car park (!!), I took these photos of the old fish market building which is now a courtyard for modern apartments.  I am sure this is a relief to the fish.