As I was walking across Picadilly Gardens from the station to my bus, I saw a little tiny old man feeding the pigeons. He appeared to have a bottoemless bag of stuff he way dropping vaguely at his feet, and had attracted a massive flock of grey bustling bodies for yards around. I was vaguely reminded of a horror story where a wizened old man kept turning up at a park to feed the birds each day; you never found out at the end exactly WHAT was in the bag, but that somehow made it worse. But I was also struck by the thought that I hadn't seen anything quite like that in the middle of Leeds city centre - planty of old men wandering vaguely with suspicious bottles, but no mass pigeon pensioner worship.
It reminded me how much I like going to Manchester as even though it's only an hour away, it gives you the distinct feeling of being somewhere distinctly elsewhere - it has it's own character which is significantly different to Leeds. Not better different, or worse different, but just different. Which is quite impressive seeing as how close the two are physically, and how many city centres seem interchangeable nowadays.
Although one difference that is most definitely unappealing is that fact that Manchester pavements seem to be ten billion times harder than Leeds ones. How else do you explain the fact that this is the second time that a pair of boots that do me no harm at all in Leeds have ended up crippling me as soon as I crossed the Pennines?
(There may be those that would suggest that this is because I'm a lazy cow and don't walk enough in Leeds. But I can run up and down the stairs in the hospital three times a week in them without a trace of an ouch, but even when I was waiting for the bus 100 yards from our house to take me to the station, they had started to throb in Mancunian sympathy. So there)
It's quite nice to go back there though, as it feels like seeing old friends - even the people I don't know. When I was working there properly I always felt like the new girl, even though I was there nearly a year. Whereas when I went back so many people seemed pleased to see me again and remembered me - quite a nice feeling. Have arranged not only that I will continue going back until their new systems are sorted, but also that I might only be able to give them a couple of days a month so it doesn't eat too much into my freelance time, and they're happy with that. Might even be able to invoice them monthly if this carries on. And I need to get Claire over to Wendyhouse at some point, cos she's fab.
And I was suitably impressed that Manchester staion managed to use the word "inclement" in a public advice notice. Or maybe overly impressed as my hurty feet were very much uppermost in my mind at the time.
Oh, and am definitely hugely impressed that payphones take switch and credit cards now. (I may be behind the times on this as I usually use my mobile, mainly cos I gave up on phoneboxes due to never having change) Now all I need is the ticket machines in the open air carparks to follow suit and I can save all my money for Superdrug scales. Think I have lost a lot of weight recently, but won't really know till after the weekend.
I'm going to bed now. I have a warm monkey boy, and vast amounts of work to do tomorrow.
Oh, and I made an Eating the Elephant web-page (there's not enough for a site until after the first event) It will be up soon :-)
It reminded me how much I like going to Manchester as even though it's only an hour away, it gives you the distinct feeling of being somewhere distinctly elsewhere - it has it's own character which is significantly different to Leeds. Not better different, or worse different, but just different. Which is quite impressive seeing as how close the two are physically, and how many city centres seem interchangeable nowadays.
Although one difference that is most definitely unappealing is that fact that Manchester pavements seem to be ten billion times harder than Leeds ones. How else do you explain the fact that this is the second time that a pair of boots that do me no harm at all in Leeds have ended up crippling me as soon as I crossed the Pennines?
(There may be those that would suggest that this is because I'm a lazy cow and don't walk enough in Leeds. But I can run up and down the stairs in the hospital three times a week in them without a trace of an ouch, but even when I was waiting for the bus 100 yards from our house to take me to the station, they had started to throb in Mancunian sympathy. So there)
It's quite nice to go back there though, as it feels like seeing old friends - even the people I don't know. When I was working there properly I always felt like the new girl, even though I was there nearly a year. Whereas when I went back so many people seemed pleased to see me again and remembered me - quite a nice feeling. Have arranged not only that I will continue going back until their new systems are sorted, but also that I might only be able to give them a couple of days a month so it doesn't eat too much into my freelance time, and they're happy with that. Might even be able to invoice them monthly if this carries on. And I need to get Claire over to Wendyhouse at some point, cos she's fab.
And I was suitably impressed that Manchester staion managed to use the word "inclement" in a public advice notice. Or maybe overly impressed as my hurty feet were very much uppermost in my mind at the time.
Oh, and am definitely hugely impressed that payphones take switch and credit cards now. (I may be behind the times on this as I usually use my mobile, mainly cos I gave up on phoneboxes due to never having change) Now all I need is the ticket machines in the open air carparks to follow suit and I can save all my money for Superdrug scales. Think I have lost a lot of weight recently, but won't really know till after the weekend.
I'm going to bed now. I have a warm monkey boy, and vast amounts of work to do tomorrow.
Oh, and I made an Eating the Elephant web-page (there's not enough for a site until after the first event) It will be up soon :-)