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2017

Llandudno - an unusual return after only a year, as last years visit was so heavily curtailed by wet weather. This year we did better.

This may be the last opportunity for the classic view of the Grand Hotel as the hole in the ground that was the Pier Pavilion (burned down) is to be transformed into a giant block of luxury apartments, obscuring three floors of the Hotel's windows, hiding its sign, and not doing much for the owners of the pier, who will be losing trade during the building and permanently lose the exclusive use of some of their pier. When you add that atrocity to the huge rocks on what used to be beach, Llandudno seems set on becoming a retirement village.

We made a rare ascent of the Great Orme on the tram, and walked two paths new to us- one of which was a new path into the now NT owned Park Farm, which formed a much needed link to the circular pathway. At the far end by the Rest and Be Thankful we heard an odd biological sound coming from behind a wall. There was nothing visible but a daring hand uncovered bubbling water. In due course this broke free and ran down the hill, and disappeared. We had seen the renaissance of a part time spring. The cafe had been refurbished and the old photographs removed, the unique Orme map which was on sale has gone, and the toilets are now chemical. But a good cup of tea.

A gorgeous trip to Abergwyngregyn waterfall, where we saw people (well, all girls) going into the waterfall pools- not something I fancied. The water levels were higher than we have seen them before.

After difficulty descending the Little Orme last year this time we caught a bus to Penrhyn Bay to visit Angel Bay where we saw a male and female seal. This being school holidays there were several unaccompanied young boys shouting and scattering crisp packets which rather spoiled the location. The little chapel at Rhos (6 seats) was somewhat crowded but we had an ice cream and went to see the newly reopened beach and adjacent toilet block.

Rhos now has more sandy beach than Llandudno which is full of dumped stone. Rhos has a blue flag beach. Llandudno has only a "Keep Britain Tidy" beach flag which seems to be based on fictional facilities as I failed to find the marked toilets, taps or shelters. The only public toilets in Llandudno are now by the paddling pool by the new lifeboat house, or none-free near West Beach. Otherwise there are privately owned toilets at the pier end and in the Victoria Shopping Centre (closes 5.30pm)- and of course in the bars and cafes. The road between Rhos and Colwyn has been closed for a year to be raised to reduce tidal flooding and several shops have gone but we found a good health food shop. We went along to Rhos puppet theatre which should have opened its tiny season on the Monday, but it was firmly locked up and thus remains a mystery.

Rain on Wednesday morning prevented us making the walk to Conwy to see the progress on the new shelter roof at Deganwy but we walked to West Beach along the Infirmary Path through Haulfre Gardens. We also revisited after many years the small Llandudno Museum, which has a few displays on the fairly modern history of Llandudno, but very wisely has retained the original purpose of being a private collection of artistic curios from around the world- which makes it quite a superior art gallery to the building carrying that descriptive name in Llandudno. The museum remains in the hands of a trust named after the original collector.

Thursday was quite wet but we went to a new venue for us- the absolutely splendid Gwydir Castle, ancestral home of the Wynn family- associated with Guy Fawkes (a warning was given to Sir John to avoid the opening) and Tom John Catherine (Twm Sion Cati), the Welsh "Robin Hood" who went on to become a Mayor - perhaps. Cati has a number of stories, probably based on several people, and probably many mostly fictions. Prichard (1828) makes the association with Gwydir.
The standing buildings are mostly c 1500. The contents and property were sold piecemeal in the 1920s, just before two serious fires caused much damage but a couple bought the property in 1994 and are spending their lives restoring the Grade 1 buildings and gardens and saving them for the future. One stone staircase may be 14th C.

The Castle has a cedar tree planted (1625) to commemorate the wedding of Charles 1st, still standing. There is a yew tree even older than the present buildings. The garden fountain from the 16th C has been restored and takes its water from the same 16th C water supply- and other water features have been reinstated.

The rooms were stripped of panelling in the 1920s sale, and amateur refurbishment in the 1950s and 1960s saw the old plaster mostly removed, but in a very romantic fashion all of the panelling (22 tons worth) from one room (Dining room) has been restored. It had been bought by Randolph Hearst and shipped to America. On his death the cases were transferred to a remote warehouse of a New York museum (stored in a warehouse with missing windows and no temperature or humidty control!), and finally returned in the 1920s crates to Gwydir where the refurbished room was "opened" by Prince Charles (1998). The owners are still hoping to find the grand panelling of the "Billiard room" which Hearst also bought and apparently used, but has now disappeared.
King George stayed here in 1899 and the Kings Bedroom is available for B and B for four nights a week, there are also two small outbuildings that can be rented, the former gatehouse and former carriage house.

The peacocks in the grounds were introduced in the 19th Century and it was interesting to hear their repertoire of sounds, some of which were very cat-like. Not quite as aggressive as seagulls, they are still adept at snatching bread from unsuspecting hands!
A lovely visit, much enjoyed- especially when the two resident lurchers (dogs) strolled through the rooms, and we also met both Peter and Judy, the owners.

Nearby was the private chapel built by the Wynns (1673) up the hill, normally locked but when we got there the door was open so we had a look- and it reminded me immediately of Bromfield, which had been built just a year earlier. If the decor was copied it can be accurately be described as "naive"- but quite rare.
The notice on the Chapel is easily missed but the keys are held at Gwydir Castle- and as there are just the two owners there, you do need to ring in advance, especially Monday-Tuesday when the Castle is closed to the public, to ensure that someone is there to lend you the keys.

Walking down from the chapel we saw a very odd structure, inexplicable and without any signage. I have identified this as Ffynnon Gowper, built around 1830 and Grade 2 listed. Now dry, it was a large replacement for the nearby former ancient fountain of St. Albright but the iron pipework seems to be clogged or possibly rotted. It is a very secret structure and I have found only a sketch on the Internet, no photos. The Google Streetview photo (2009) shows the site as totally overgrown with the structure all but hidden but we found it fully uncovered.

We are used to low flying high speed Air Force jets in the countryside, often flying below us, but we saw an unusual large 4-prop plane, sufficiently low to read the small fleet number on the nose, so probably between 300-500 ft up. Below the hilltops certainly and flying down the valley towards Conwy. This was a Lockheed C130J Hercules C5, number ZH883. We waved to the crew...

A roundabout or galloper or carousel has appeared on Llandudno Pier, pretty rusty and quite flaky- built in Congleton in the 1970s, I later identified it as having been at the Rhyl funfair that was closed over a decade ago, but has been awaiting planning permission for redevelopment since... I guess the pier company didn't pay too much for it. It certainly needs some attention if it isn't to rust away in the salty wet air at the end of the pier.

The next day it rained and we visited Penrhyn Castle which we have not visited for many years and won't be returning to. The old pedestrian entry by the bus stop has been permanently closed and entry is now along a very long drive to a distant carpark. From the carpark you have to climb extremely muddy and slippy dangerous paths- the cost of one admission would sort this out with a bag of gravel, but the National Trust have no cares.

The Penrhyn Castle "gardens and grounds" were profoundly unimpressive, being left to go wild and unkempt. We had three different maps of the grounds but none matched the actuality- and the path network was unsigned and unwaymarked. The walled garden when found had rather less flowers than our little garden at home, being mostly left to itself, and the bog garden was unbelievably dry.
Entry to the castle was totally spoiled as the NT had commissioned a giant black inflatable for the Great Hall, one of the first things you saw entering the castle. "Exciting. Refreshing. Creative. [quoting NT]" Insane, but in keeping with the general disnification of the Castle, which had no context, no history, amended and unhistorical changes to layout, and poor kitchen display, and an ignoring of the servants and of the very severe local slate strike.

It isn't mentioned anywhere but two rooms have Chinese wallpaper probably older than the castle- probably from 1800.

Pictures on the walls are obscured by multiple lights directly in front of their centres and too close to be good for an old painting- impossible to view them.

There are no labels for the paintings, but I researched one that took my fancy and found it had been painted before 1600 (Garofalo) whilst another (van der Neer) was from before 1677. There was a nice Gainsborough (pre 1788) and many I didn't identify. Also in the castle but not viewable, the the castle has a number of lovely watercolours from around 1895 by Hon. Alice.

However- the family who have a member living in the grounds, still own the paintings and have been selling some paintings off for funds - the National Trust apart from any political leanings, have to be diplomatic and avoid mention of the unforgotten hatred and abhorrence of the family in Wales which still prevails.... there remain people in Bethesda who will never visit the hated property or forget the "traitors".

NT have form for despoiling historic buildings- for a year the classical view of our nearby Lyme Hall was ruined by a giant coloured fibreglass statue of a man coming out of the lake by the hall.

Penrhyn Castle is quite modern (c 1830) and was never a lived in property, being built to demonstrate wealth and power. It was built with money from Jamaican sugar estates for a staunch supporter of and user of slavery. The extremely rich castle owner imposed harsh conditions on the workers at what was the worlds largest slate mine leading to a dispute lasting three years- many slate workers went went South to the coal mines. The local economy and people suffered badly, the slate trade was lost to overseas suppliers and Lord Penrhyn suffered a loss of funds. There were no winners. (Short pdf [42k] from http://www.llechicymru.info/PDF/LordPenrhynsMethods.pdf). Within a decade his lordship and his agent were dead and unions had been recognised- but too late.

The NT are maintaining the exterior fabric of the building (ignoring the ice tower where an internal drainpipe is spewing water all over the inside floor), but the rest is really very poor and we will NOT be going back. Indeed we largely ignore NT properties these days due to their very unsympathetic presentation. Visit a privately owned property instead.

We are used to road works, lane closures and light operated single lane traffic but on one outing met a new one for us- a single lane convoy system, with traffic being led by a works vehicle whose job for the day was driving up and down and up and down and...

The Llandudno bandstand continues to advertise Monday night concerts by Llandudno town band- and the poster we saw was for 2017, but yet again no band and no explanation. Apparently the bandstand is managed by the distant Conwy Harbourmaster who has no idea what use it is or isn't put to. On the other hand one afternoon a visiting brass band from Sandbach played on the bandstand, with absolutely no publicity at all, and we did not see them.

Our musical needs were however met by two lovely concerts- the inaugural concert of Conwy Town Orchestra at St John's and the final 2017 tour concert by Lions International Youth Band at Gloddaeth Church. Gloddaeth has only recently reopened after a major refit and fortunately retained the important features. I have a black and white photo of my Grandfather and Grandmother outside St John's and suspect they may have called in for a male voice concert which the church is famous for.

As usual we ate mostly at the excellent Barnacles fish and chip shop, with a large range of vegan, vegetarian and gluten free options. Due to the general and declining lack of facilities in Llandudno they were very busy this year! On the wettest day we had a nice lunch in the Rabbit Hole and a sundae in the Looking Glass.

The main town public toilets were now closed, leaving Llandudno with public toilets ONLY at the far west end of the beach, fortunately there are privately owned toilets in the shopping centre (closes 5.30) and at the far end of the pier. A site for a Premier hotel has trouble as the intended old building was in a state of near collapse and has to be demolished. Not the only site that Premier have problems with this year - see Bakewell below! Their investment choices are strange.

We were expecting wet weather for the first three days but had a bonus extra two days darkness before the thunderstorm broke, leaving us just two good days to walk- perhaps a good thing as Cathy had only brought shoes which crippled her, with nothing comfortable to change into, so four miles was her limit.

We revisited the church and local museum- Bakewell has more than its puddings, Florence Nightingale lived there, the designer of the Black Magic chocolate box lived there, and the museum had displays on Bairnsfather's Old Bill, and on the nearby Ashford "Marble" (polished sandstone). The church has now modernised with a stage erected in the nave with an altar on it. There is a reredos by Ninian Comper depicting George and the Dragon- the same design was used in a stained glass War Memorial window he placed into St Mary in the Baum church at Rochdale.

A partial walk in the direction of Edensor led to lunch at the top of a hill, but we were chased off by hordes of flying ants. Lovely to see cattle grazing on lush grass- unfortunately many English cattle now languish in immense smelly sheds, never seeing the sky or grass. And the quality of the grass does affect flavour or milk and cheese. Educational as well, as we saw cows mounting a bull and a calf suckling a bull. Life isn't very straight forward.

We walked over the hills to Ashford and back along the river- the Riverside site of the new Aldi has been cleared on the A6 side of the river, and permission has been granted for a Premier hotel on the opposite bank- but with no new road bridge (the developer appealed that planning requirement) access to the hotel via the busy very narrow town centre bridge is going to be very awkward to say the least and guests are not going to be happy. Access to construction traffic will be a challenge. Traffic to and from the Aldi is also going to cause serious A6 traffic problems with such a narrow main road with limited ability for traffic to filter. The two large out of town developments on a restricted site with no traffic management planning gain make no immediate sense in a village of 4,000 with a good central CoOp food store and an excellent weekly market.

Ashford has many ancient buildings, and is an interesting village with a good condition old sheepwash by the river (there is another old sheepwash by Riverside's Lumb Bridge). We assisted the local economy by buying some fruit and icecream in THE village store and made a donation to keep the village loos open. The village church still has some crants hanging in the nave. Although the curfew bell is no longer rung, the Church of England rings an external sacring bell and requests visitors to pray for the departed.

Our other good day we caught the bus to Matlock and walked back along the river to just short of Rowsley where we had to curtail our walk as Cathy was struggling. Although we walked close to the preserved Peak Rail we saw no steam trains as even in August, with a Bank Holiday approaching, they run no trains on Thursday or Friday. We found a splendid old listed pub in Darley South (near Darley Bridge), the Three Stags and although we had lunch with us, we forsook it to donate to the local economy with a good pub meal and a nice warm beer.

Not too surprised to find a fine Indian restaurant (Urban Spoon) has now closed, the location has a long line of short term businesses, and we don't expect to find the current business there on our next visit- a Chinese restaurant, possibly connected with a nearby takeaway. The takeaway has an ungenerous hygiene rating of 3 out of 5. The newly fitted restaurant when inspected just six months before our visit, managed a lowly one out of five, and we never saw many people in there. The menu looked good but we did not fancy the risk.
We were not at all surprised to find an empty shop where there had previously been a "swiss ice cream" parlour, which offered weird flavours.

We did enjoy civilised teas in a tea shop up the hill towards the church, and in an antique gallery and some slightly local ice cream from Fredericks, although the real ice cream in tubs is ONLY now available from their shop, no longer from their vans. We bought some Derbyshire oatcakes made in Bakewell (as were most of the Bakewell puddings of course).

We had intended to visit Haddon Hall but that was closed for the week with many huge trailers from MGM in the car park and nearby fields indicating the hall was in use for a feature film to be shot.

Another organ recital at Holy Name that we cannot get to as once more Manchester is closed (Oxford Road specifically).

As follow up to my interest in the euro-Japanese anime Moomin (1990) shown by the BBC, I trace the person responsible for the words the characters say (tv and film translators do not get named- book translators get their own copyright) and this leads me to discover another 52 episode animation dubbed into English in Cardiff and never shown in the UK (or the USA)- available for the time being on a well known internet streaming service.

At the start of the year we find our government wishes to make our libel laws (already something of a laughing stock for their protection of the super rich) far stricter, making news publishing extremely hazardous (newspapers having to pay all the costs of anyone who complains even if they only publish the entire documented truth), even if the item is readily available on the internet. Additionally the courts are to be hogtied in the matter of child protection by removing some legal duties from some authorities (leaving no-one legally responsible for some aspects of child protection). And the government wishes to prevent me voting by requiring documents I do not possess. Which are required to rent a property and are required for medical treatment in a growing number of places. Additionally they intend to prevent me receiving health services (in so far as any exist) as my tibia/fibula is two and a bit inches too short for my height (increasing my BMI by over 2). If your doctor thinks you need to see a specialist, an anonymous administrator can refuse him. The required identity document has been refused to someone of my age born in the UK with a UK birth certificate unless he can prove his parents were (many years ago!) "legally in the UK". "Police" are a myth, requiring contact ONLY by telephone but never answering it! but there are many circumstances where you are liable if you don't contact the "police" despite the impossibility of doing so. Is Brexit bad? Possibly but there are many other worse things. Happy New Year.

Happier times- a lovely recital of two concertos at Chethams- a Baroque flute concerto and a Romantic cello concerto. The cello piece was by Lalo, played by Julianna Antczak. I spoke to a tutor afterwards and was delighted that the shivers that I felt were shared- the start of the third movement was absolutely loaded with feeling. Excellent playing by both pupils.

The food stalls in Manchester Arndale have been revamped, with an emphasis on the currently fashionable "street food" which is way overpriced, really unhealthy, and totally not "street food" - not that we have been eating there recently due to a total lack of adequate seating - now we have little choice of what to buy to eat there. But we did find an imaginative cake stall selling a variety of vegan and gluten free fare- unfortunately the gluten free flour used contained potato starch so not suitable for everyone on a GF diet. Nice cakes. On our next visit they were "closed for refurbishment" and of course, next time they had gone. And we found an outside stall selling a large range of goods from Suma. We bought our BioD washing up liquid, a jumbo roll of 100% recycled kitchen towel and a lot of other things.

Our favourite greengrocer enabled us to try and enjoy some really nice Persian dates- no glucose added, and unlike the Tunisian dates we have been eating, still well hydrated, not too dry.

Interesting magazine article on plate sizes indicating people may be eating too much as plates normally sold eight inches in diameter in the 50s are currently being sold 12 inches. Our old dining set became depleted and we replaced bowls at Asda (good bowls) but made the mistake of getting replacement plates at Sainsbury only to find the glaze was thicker on paper plates. The glaze quickly became badly scratched and stained. Our original set came from Debenhams but they no longer have anything close to it. Fortunately with Manchester having so many hotels and restaurants, the catering supplier Nesbits has opened a store. We replaced our 11 inch plates with ten inch plates, which are a much better fit for the washing up bowl, and don't encourage us to eat too much. I suspect even a 9 inch plate would suffice us, but the huge piles of kale do need the 10 inch plate.

Hmm- our local rail prices have gone up AGAIN by ANOTHER TEN PERCENT, way in excess of inflation. Once they could claim that local train travel was cheaper than the buses- that is no longer the case. And our train services are barely adequate.

When we arrived in Rochdale for an organ recital we found a LOT of bikers milling about, lots and lots. These were "Rigbys Guardians", mostly forces veterans, determined that no local soldier should die in foreign lands unnoticed. Gunner Lee Rigby came from Middleton and has been remembered there with a memorial garden. Today another soldier was remembered (on the weekend before his funeral) as the bikers processed from Rochdale to Middleton for a commemorative gathering, attended by the local Royal British Legion, the local Member for Parliament etc and family of the fallen soldier and of Lee Rigby. We noticed that Rochdale council offer a special two pound fifty pence breakfast once a week for veterans only.

The organist at Rochdale was from Manchester Cathedral and played a program of fairly classical and serious cathedral type music. The following weekend a further organ recital this time at Albion URC, Ashton, with the organist from York playing some more very classical pieces. The church looked quite modern with its new heating and lighting fittings. A larger audience would have been nice but hardly anyone goes to these classical presentations these days.

It has been a year or so since we saw a mouse in the house, but on three nights- in different rooms- a mouse has been seen. Put out a series of humane traps and wait for the rodent (hopefully only one) to get used to them. This is always a risk in our ancient house as the weather gets colder, we haven't done too badly. Last time this happened we made enough noise to scare the mouse away and with luck have done it again. George invented a better mousetrap made of Lego but it still needs a mouse to catch. He also found a hole in the floorboards under the cooker where an ancient gas pipe used to come up- that has been covered with a metal grill. Mouse still with us a several weeks later (18 March) - will not enter any traps. Seems to now be resident in the airing cupboard (and upstairs underfloor area) which is impossible to mouseproof with so many pipes and cables coming in. At least we seem to have kept him from getting into the kitchen or larder.

Tosh from the big chocolate manufacturers that they must reduce bar sizes to reduce sugar because alternative sweeteners have a laxative effect. This claim fails to persuade on many counts and is obviously a hidden price rise ploy. The government does not look for all sugar to be removed, only a reduction. I have tried chocolate made with xylitol and wasn't too fond of the taste but stevia is much better and has no bad effects. The completely none-sugar chocolates with stevia (on sale for seven years now) also use an alcohol sugar which can cause bloating (after say 300gm of chocolate) BUT you don't need the falsely named "bulking agent" if you are say replacing HALF the sugar with stevia when few will notice a taste change- and it takes an immense amount of pure stevia to have any bad effects (kilograms of the stuff... when you may use only a gram or so in a bar).

Interesting new stall at Ashton farmers market- who was the most surprised, me at seeing patra on sale or the stall holder that I knew what patra was.... still we now have three good places to eat in Ashton as the stall holder is usually operating as a cafe in the indoor market.

And at last somewhere to eat in Stockport as a local pub (The Crown, Heaton Lane) which already has a good choice of tasty beer, now adds lovely lunchtime curries and patties to their pizza menu. Excellent eating and drinking (I greatly enjoyed a Wigan beer). A return visit after a long break to The Railway, Portwood, where they had on some very tasty beers- I am very fond of all beers from Rossendale.

With my birthday on our main shopping day we did nothing special. The next weekend however was fun, starting with three hours of Compton organ music at the Plaza, then a day at Chethams for 385 minutes of splendid classical music, across 17 pieces and a variety of instruments. Some well known composers (Grieg, Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, John Williams), some we have only met recently (Quantz, Tomasi) and some new to us (Arutunian, Vieuxtemps, and a lovely cello piece by Bottesini). Only a few months ago you could have paid 12 pounds to hear five of the works at a concert in Devon by the same musicians, but we had free entry- and there were always seats available. We did make a donation to the venue.

We followed that with a birthday evening meal at one of Manchester's Chinese restaurants, very nice food and superb service (The Rice Bowl, Cross Street).

The A6 and its 192 bus services have suffered a bit- one evening coming home from work George was detoured around Lancashire Hill/Manchester Road as central Stockport was closed following a serious pedestrian road accident, and just the next day as we were going to a concert, the A6 was closed for four hours with no buses to or through Longsight following a fatal hit and run. The bus had a long (slow) diversion through narrow suburban streets. The concert by violin and cello was good with music from Vivaldi and Piazolla through to Queen. The small audience (ten?) ensured that this was probably the last "Tuesday series" concert as the costs seriously exceeded the tiny income.

For the rest of February we seem to have fallen into a new pattern of going to pubs, having meals, going to concerts and so on. 2016 was rather disrupted so it is good to get back into some sort of pattern. A rare visit to a pub on Portwood and we were able to see the 'Bar Billiards' table in use- this is a specific table and not a billiards table in a bar. The game played was the "four pin" variant.

More music opportunites in March, with a renewed meeting after seven years with the Telemann Baroque Ensemble, this time playing at our local parish church. The programme started and finished with pieces by Telemann and music by his contemporaries in between, very pleasant. 2017 is the 250th anniversary of Telemanns death.

And just a few days later off to Chethams for six of Telemann's flute fantasias - played on unaccompanied flute, excellent then the final six the following week.

Having heard that the organ at Wilmslow Parish Church was shortly to be replaced we took advantage of a last opportunity to hear the old two manual organ play, and after some 30 years since our last visit, returned to the church to listen. The organ was last rebuilt in 1961, and the pipes have an odd wooden baffle in front of them, containing the sound, but still a good effort. The electro-pneumatic board unfortunately obscures the blower, and some disassembly is now required, so the wooden planks are going, and new pipework (and a third manual) is going in with a reopening planned in December 2017.

This church has new bench style seating- so much better than loose chairs. And has run a food bank - open daily- for many years. They also offer weekly free cooking lessons on how to eat nutritious meals on a low budget.

We were surprised to see a building in Wilmslow marked as a microbrewery- formerly known to us as a Wetherspoons. We had visited it under that guise and as usual with Wetherspoons establishments in this area, decided never to return. It would appear others felt the same way (indeed it is the second Wetherspoons we have sworn never to return to which has closed!). A huge improvement under its new owners, although at Wilmslow prices (about 50% above Stockport prices) - quite edible food and well kept beer, brewed on the premises. I had not heard of the concept of a franchised brewer before- several establishments with a common menu but each with their own brewer who produces his own local beer. Not prize winning beer but very quaffable. We also bought a couple of German 1/4 litre to the line tankards (Sahn, Moldau style) with half pint to the line markings.

This year the bus service from Stockport to Wilmslow is cancelled (it did take 80 minutes!) which leaves three Manchester overspill estates with no buses. The estates are in East Cheshire which cannot afford many bus subsidies, although they do pay for two buses from Wilmslow station (the 88 Knutsford to Altrincham, and the 200 to the Airport via Styal)

Another of those lovely Chethams events, the "ensemble day" with almost every pupil in the school taking part. Again we opted for the brass, woodwind and percussion side, although this year there was no percussion at all. Some very nice music, including a piece written by someone with the same name as a player. Chethams is a boarding school, and was not too happy that again the Council had permitted a fun fair just outside the dormitory windows- at Christmas 2016 one ride had to be moved at great expense as the riders had a clear view into the dormitories. This year it was a celebration of St Patricks day. Why do funfair dodgems and some other rides now have very very loud very very bass music heard from miles away?

We noticed that work has commenced to restore some of the medieval walling where more recent buildings had transgressed- and to install public access to the ancient Chetham's library without the need (now considered unacceptable) for the public to have escorted access through School grounds. This will also allow safe public access to the Baronial Hall, which will make three halls readily accessible.

Although Chethams is a private school with boarder availability, and overseas students (of which there are many) pay many thousands a year, no British student with musical talent is deterred by fees, with low income households paying nothing, even for boarding students. When George was at primary school if he had the talent and desire to go to Chethams we would have been asked for just six hundred pounds per year (at 2017 prices) for him to be a boarder and learn one instrument. (Extra instruments not subsidised, at seven hundred pounds per year each!)

A visit to our local brought some interesting beers- on the pub tap was a beer made for a firm that specialised in hog roasts- not a cider but a beer with added apple essence- think of the green shoelace sweets that used the same essence. There was also a home brew contest by our local Camra, and we tasted an odd homebrew dark stout with peppermint essence.

Our liking for black peas has not been well met, with the market stallholders in Ashton emigrating to Australia... good Black Peas remain available at Bury Market but that's a long way. In Bolton they have a slightly different custom with less mushy black peas served with vinegar instead of mint sauce. We have tried our own using dried peas, but the extra long soak and very long boil made it rather a bother (which is why so many traditional foods have disappeared). Now we have found tinned black peas! Labelled as "British Carlin Peas" from Hodmedod's in Suffolk.
The instructions to drain, rinse and heat for a minute are undoubtedly a Southern habit. Instead of heating on the hob for a minute we microwaved them for three minutes! These were still not quite mushy enough for us so we will next try the traditional method of heating, allowing to cool and then repeating. To be avoided at all costs: adding bicarbonate- which we found one stallholder doing, they were not in business very long.

I used to be fond of eating clementines, satsumas and tangerines, but every vaguely orange fruit on sale today seems to be from a monoculture, a varietal called Nadarcott, which I really do not like at all. And they are all really mandarin oranges, they are not clementines, tangerines or satsumas! Although established some years ago (Mr Nador of Murcott), the monoculture has appeared in only the last four years. Will orange coloured fruit go the way of the lovely monoculture "Gros Michel" banana - now replaced with a slightly less pleasant monoculture found in a Derbyshire greenhouse (really- named after the owning family).

Constant rainfall makes everything emerald green - and the plywood facing on the small front porch is bubbling from water getting in the side, so that's a job to add to the list

A splendid concert by Mehboob Nadeem on sitar, Arnab Chakrebarty on sarod and Kousic Sen on tabla- normally Indian music is one musician plus percussion, two playing together is unusual. The music is not scored and effectively every recital is unique- when there are two musicians, even more so. The music was spinning around the musicians very effectively, each inspiring the other. Normally the two hours with interval would involve 90 minutes of playing, but the musicians were so in the zone and enjoying their music- one long jam session- that the first half ran for 90 minutes! Then after a 20 minute interval we had another thirty minutes of music. Excellent.

Followed by another excellent recital. I heard that St Mary in the Baum, Rochdale were having an 800th recital under private organisation (which took it on in 2001 when the Council ducked out)- and as it was an artist of great skill we have seen before, despite the distance, off we went. It is a 1911 church replacing an 18th Century church, but with many parts of the original incorporated. I was told that in order to obtain a small grant from the "Heritage" Lottery Fund the church was forced to remove the side pews to make the Grade 1 church use more flexible.

Rather odd as the 1911 church was entirely designed by a most famous architect, Ninian Comper, who designed windows for Westminster Abbey and is interred there. Until HLF threw their weight around, St Mary's church was mostly as Mr Comper designed it- the only amendment being to the altar. Apparently HLF treat churches in the same way as any other "Heritage" tourist attraction and look only for "increasing usage" and "generating income". Heritage does not come into it. Comper designed to the smallest detail. The crucifix is almost identical to another one in another church he designed merely lacking the gold leaf, however the "Christ in Glory" may be unique in the appearance of two interlinked winged circles beneath Christ's feet. Probably kneph (God's Spirit) but most associated with the mysteries - Rosicrucianism and Masons. Can anyone report them at any other public church?

Elinor Nicholson played her harp and clarsach (Scots harp). At first I looked for the cables to an amplifier- nope. The church accoustic and the harp were made for each other, a superb sound - and an excellent harp player. The church was offering a preconcert lunch of soup and a roll, meat pie and mushy peas with beetroot, and fruit pie and custard, but we had our eyes on another venue and after the concert went across the road to The Baum, a public house with several fine cask beers.

As it has been some time since we last had one, we both had the rag pudding - a local dish from the cotton mills. There were some other excellent meals available too, but the desserts were very high calory sticky toffee, cream etc etc. No fruit pies and no cakes. We also had five different cask beers. That's under a pint each by the way as they serve civilised 1/3pt glass servings.

Then to the next building, the founding home of Rochdale Pioneers, arguably the first successful retail coop and father of them all. The multiple recent failings of Manchester based Co-Operative Group apart, the founding principles of cooperatives are excellent and are worth remembering and copying.

The large Manchester CoOperative Group lost its way and sought mere gains and power, choosing Competition and giving up cooperation, democracy, fairness and equality, no longer serving its members. Our local CoOp pharmacy was sold without our having any say and our local CoOp Food Shop closed without discussion. A large CoOp food shop in Stockport "centre" is closed- we live in a town of 140,000 plus and seem to have no CoOp, our nearest is over five miles away. We are members of a co-operative society, founded to be owned by and to service its members and once with a store in every town- and it now has no outlets.

1958 saw the CWS begin moving towards "professional managers" and "prosperous working class" customers and "profitable stores". Thousands of CoOp stores closed. The group continues to concentrate on profit and sales decline as the stores offer poor value, lack of staple goods, discrimination against the poor (and poor neighborhoods), overpaid executive, underpaid shop clerks, and no obvious member or community communication. Just another badly managed over large retail operation, no cooperation at all.

There do remain elsewhere individual CoOp societies unfortunately tarred with the Manchester CoOp brand, who nevertheless remain faithful to their members and original ethics and principles. There are even small stirrings of a community based reinvention of the original CoOp retail concept.

The original Rochdale Pioneers Equitable CoOp's simple first shop has now been recreated, with a plank across two barrels as seating for customers, and a larger plank on two larger barrels as a counter. Initially only a small number of staples were sold. Floors above now contain CoOp memorabilia and displays and films to watch. The larger store they opened later just down the road is now a busy dual carriageway.

Naturally a visit to Rochdale meant also a tub of black peas- we bought the last helpings of the day.

Stagecoach Manchester buses raise their fares by eye watering amounts, due they say to the costs of the multiple road closures locally and the serious congestion. This means they need more buses and drivers on the road, with higher fuel and overtime costs to cover- they say eight million pounds. One fare has gone up 50 per cent, a two pound single is now 2.20, and the popular weekly ticket for a new traveller paying cash has risen from 13.50 to 15.00. Or if you buy your weekly ticket using a smart phone app to load a ticket to your phone, you pay just 14.00. A single from Heaton Chapel to Manchester (under 5 miles) will be nearly three pounds.

For comparison purposes, a Sunday all-day ticket across most forms of transport in and around Sydney Australia is just GBP 1.50 while around Brisbane- which does not seem to have a daily cap or ticket- a 30km journey is under GBP 4 while you can travel 10km for under two pounds where Stagecoach Manchester charge two pounds for a few hundred metres. However- if you fly in to Sydney, and want to leave the airport by train, it will cost you over eight pounds to get onto the station- before considering a train fare!

Discovered an interesting concert at a new venue- St Cuthberts in Cheadle, a concert by Stockport Silver Band, in place of the "usual" Sunday evening event. Welcomed by a lovely ginger tom cat who sat outside the church to welcome everyone.

One parishioner described the church as "to the left of the Methodists" which we perfectly understood. A sad comment on the drift of the remnants of the Methodist church in the past few decades, with so many churches closing as they ceased to have any social meaning. This Church of England Church was quite different from most others- and has been for many years. No bells, no incense, no images, a minister NOT called Father... and on a table I found several copies of a book by Val Grieve who had a very long association with that church.

Val Grieve- this name rang a bell- and brought back many memories from the 60s. Stuart Briscoe and Gordon Bailey, Christian pop groups including from Stockport the Gospel Four and The Persuaders. Brian Wilson, The Cobblers. Koinonia youth group at St Andrews, Cheadle Hulme. Stockport Youth for Christ at Pendlebury Hall. So many years ago but St Cuthberts remains a very special Anglican church. Apparently Christian "outreach" coffee bars for teenagers started in Cheadle, Cheshire.

Another Chethams lunchtime concert, this time on saxophone, on guitar and another lovely cello recital by Linda Heiberga. If there was any justice, record labels should be forming a line to sign her up, but there is so little money in classical music... The saxophone recital would have been better if they had provided accompaniment on the splendid full toned German piano they have but instead they used the harsh concert grand Steinway, which did not suit the saxophone at all. Stupidly tiny audience- there must be many more people who enjoy classical music who could make it- there is no charge.

One of the stop taps on our central heating suddenly just started leaking, half a litre a day, not trivial. Dripping from around the shank. We have a lot of this style of tap scattered around the plumbing system (they usually have red wheels connected), and are now crossing our fingers none of the others decide to fail like this. This is an untouched tap so not wear and tear- but as it is next to the boiler it does face the regular extreme changes of temperature- from 10C to full boiler temperature in no time flat. There are two other taps in the same location and another fairly hidden one in the kitchen. There are many of them in the airing cupboard but they don't see the same temperature range. Easy to adjust it by tightening the hex nut by the shank - if that had failed it would have required repacking. Apparently the washer had shrunk.

We celebrated Cathy's birthday with a lovely vegetarian lunch at Lily's in Ashton, and in the evening went to a pleasant organ recital by Jonathan Scott on the digital Eminent organ at Woodley Methodist Church. A lovely, very talented man who is happy to play in a church or village hall- or fly off to Taiwan to play for a couple of hours.

Mouse one caught and safely released some distance away where there was food and shelter. This was using a commercial "Rentokil" humane mouse trap. In releasing the mouse we thought we saw why it had taken so long- the humane traps rely upon the mouse climbing a ramp and tipping a mechanism, but the floor is smooth and it looked as though only the larger mice were able to climb to the bait by bracing their legs against the sides. We then tried to make it easier for the mice to reach the bait by inserting a strip of sandpaper on the floor.

We had thought there were two mice so we put out some tell tales and yes we still had one in the airing cupboard, the only other rooms visited by this mouse were the two large downstairs rooms. After seeing a design difficulty with the commercial mousetrap, George reinvented his Lego mousetrap using a different device. This time the mouse was induced to enter a tunnel, and take a piece of suspended bait- pulling on this released a finely balanced self latching door, trapping the mouse. The bait had to be suspended- if it was left on the floor it was eaten without moving it at all.

Six days after catching our first mouse and finding out which rooms he was active in, we placed the new Lego trap in the dining room, and the next day put in fresh bait, and within hours - and precisely seven days after catching our first mouse, the second was caught and again safely released. He had overnight made significant gnawing marks to several of the Lego bricks!

Anyone interested in a better humane mousetrap?

Our first visit to a brass bandroom, to celebrate Glossop Old Band coming first in the Midland Region and to raise funds for them to go on to the Nationals. The first piece was the Champions March (nothing to do with a tv program or pop number) followed by the piece they won the regional with Rhapsody for Brass. The second half they started with their usual Whit march, O.R.B.(named for Oldham Rifle Brigade). We had some nice beers there, and learned of two vege sources- a lovely vegan pie shop in Glossop, and an Indian restaurant (evenings only alas) in Stockport with a VAST range of dishes. George met a former workmate (who alas failed to recall George's name).

The MD of Glossop Old Band had some notoriety and fame, having appeared in a film called "The Full Monty" - he is fairly easy to spot as most of the people on screen are of light coloured skin.

We tried the Stockport Vegetarian Indian Restaurant introduced to us in Glossop- very nice food, somewhat costly- and NO paperwork. No receipt, not even a paper credit card voucher, zilch, one of these astonishing all-electronic places which leaves you no paper trail. They could send us a "receipt" by text or email- thrillsville. The food was lovely and the owner friendly- but for that one vital omission we would be going there on a regular basis. There is no indication outside that the restaurant is vegetarian and it fails to attract vegetarians while putting off meat eaters who wander in.
Our second attempt (with cash) also had a miserable ending, after some splendid food, we got the bill for a table of six. We got a refund but the restaurant inevitably made a loss on the day. For our third attempt- they had gone, shopfitting out not finished. Closed 31st May 2017.

Several concerts in various places in April. We at last made it to the vegetarian worker-co-op grocery in Chorlton, the Unicorn, a lovely shop with a good range, and a good source of Tunisian dates, Clive's Pies, Bio D washing up liquid and lots of other things. Travel to Chorlton has been made slightly faster and easier with the Metrolink tram service from East Didsbury, as we have a half hourly bus service from our local rail station to the Metrolink station. We walked back to Stockport along the former rail track which ran from East Didsbury to Tiviot Dale. The whole line used to run from Manchester Central to London St Pancras via Buxton, Bakewell and Derby.

Whilst Cathy and George went off to Etherow to see the bluebells (nearly at their best) and a drink at the Spring Gardens, I was off for the day at Loughborough for the AGM of the TI-99/4a UK User Group, with attendees from Holland. An expected old TI programmer and publisher not heard from for many years (who once stayed the night with the Shaws) indicated he would attend but didn't. However a Dutch owner advised that they were back in touch with a member who once-upon-a-time visited the Shaw household, one of very few TI people who did so.

At Loughborough there were many multi-game modules for the computer to be seen, and one new item, the first third party games module written entirely in GPL. In the absence of any GROM chips, the rather special chips were being emulated on a microcontroller inside the module. Very neat - and not a bad game.

The AGM was in a lovely pub (Swan in the Rushes) owned by Castle Rock, with very good real beer, and the best food I have had in a pub for ages. Very impressive and the venue is a favourite for the next AGM and possibly for a European user meeting in 2019.

Our local, The Hope always has good cask beers on- for the second time I tried one of their "world bottled beers" and for the second time it was well well past its sell by date - by nearly a year- and not at all in good form. Best thing at The Hope is not to touch the bottled beers from around the world. Stick to the cask beer.

Very pleasant organ recital in Bolton- there have been very few of these and only three are planned this season. The organist was Tim Harper from Ripon, who had selected a lovely program of little heard pieces, many of them having family connections, including a piece by his father, Norman Harper. Other rare pieces were by Ron Perrin, Bairstow, Whitlock, Jackson and Sanger. The big finale was by Eugene Reuchsel.

Early Summer is always good for brass bands, with an early start in May with the Buxton Brass Festival. For the second and possibly last year, held in a tent, with excellent accoustics apart from a rather noisy air conditioning system. This year 27 bands entered but 4 withdrew, leaving 23 bands to play.

Over six hours of solid brass band music for just seven pounds, and I suspect we were the only ones there for the day with most of the audience each bands "followers and family" who left at the section end. The set test piece for the earlier Regional contests were heard, especially in the fourth section. This may have been a mistake as although a lovely piece, we heard possibly the weakest fourth section playing for many a year. "St Andrews Variations" is deceptively easy but has lots of traps for the unwary, and from the four bands who played it, three stumbled in the same place, the winning band did not. I picked the same results order for the six bands as the adjudicator!

In third section one band tried the Regional test piece for second section, and did not place. Only one band tried the Regional third section piece- and came second at Buxton. Two bands tried a piece by Percy Fletcher from 1913, which didn't work for them. One band took on an older second section piece, played it better than we have heard it before, and were placed 3rd. The third section playing was some of the best we have heard in that section. The prize winner was however obvious.

We often find the top two sections a little overwhelming, but this time we heard some excellent music, although agreeing with the adjudicator that one or two bands took the louder sections just a little too loud, although one band I thought unduly loud was still placed 4th.

We heard some familiar bands and some new to us, with several new pieces, and although one or two were played multiple times, we still enjoyed the different approaches. Several bands were seen playing tubular bells with the mute on, while the band played at full volume - that is, nothing heard of the bells. Perhaps their players did not know about the release peddle.

We tried to get food and drink in the Pavilion cafe but Buxton Pavilion Gardens Venue Management are not at all good, and with a brass band festival to attend, after standing around for ten minutes with not one single person served, we went back to the brass. We learned some time ago that Buxton is a very poor place to eat out and took our own food. But Buxton water is free opposite the Crescent. The same water W H Smith charge 1.70 for 500ml for.

Local public transport is getting quite silly- our local train operator, Northern (aka Arriva aka German Railways) has put up their fares by 10% for the third time in nine months. Needless to say no working person is getting a 30% pay rise this year. The trains are often far from crowded and no doubt the fare increase will be an excuse to cut the already inadequate local services. Once upon a time we had a local railway service every 15 minutes all day, now we have three irregular trains an hour, reducing to hourly in the evening, and virtually no Sunday morning trains. Reliability and time keeping are also considerably reduced. Profits go to Germany.

A new "Italian" gelateria has opened in Manchester so we put our noses in and very quickly withdrew them. Large warehouse size open plan in matt black with very bright lights and very loud thumping music. Uggh. If they were the only shop in the world and sold something we desperately wanted, they would not receive our custom. Why does nobody know how to attract customers?

Picked up a rather poor condition bound book with the first four volumes of Punch magazine (1841-4)-[1892 bound reprint] the covers had torn off but the paper inside was immaculate. The bookshop also had some good condition original books by Fletcher Moss, published by him from his Didsbury home, whose gardens are now a public park but they cost a little more than I was comfortable with, although the price was good- thirty quid for four volumes.

Spring and along come a selection of organ recitals- one at Bolton Parish church of rarely heard but quite delicious English organ music; one at Rochdale and then of course some at St Anns, Manchester.

A quick break to revisit Barrow Hill Roundhouse's beer festival after a short break- probably not to go again, they have decided the main beer hall with the bars in is a great place for very very loud something. Consequently the traders in the main hall we intended to buy from did not receive our money. It got to a point where we could not order beer due to the sound levels, and could not reach the bars due to the crowds. The beers were drinkable, but there was nothing too exotic, mostly main regional brewers and local Derbyshire brewers. As the beer was only sold in half pints (not Camra's more suitable thirds) we were limited to the number of session ales we could try. It has to be said that the place was incredibly crowded when we ran from it at about 3pm, and becoming more so by the minute.

This event is their big money earner and development contractors had been chased away to enable this annual event to occur. Toilet facilities were disgusting- peeing onto tarmac in the open air is not what you expect anywhere "organised" in 2017. The advertised brass band were there blowing into their instruments but the general noise level meant nothing (absolutely nothing) could be heard of them.

The usual regular steam shuttle service had been reduced to two diesel hauled carriages, with two short trips an hour. The "front" engine was a massively overpowered Class 40 diesel so the short trip took only a few seconds. This reduction in carriages and service was to allow room for a new novelty, a very badly publicised special shuttle between Barrow Hill and Chesterfield. Very badly managed also- you could have bought a return ticket in Chesterfield for £19 which included the nine pounds admission fee but there was no signage at Chesterfield. But when the shuttle ran back to Chesterfield from the Round House, mostly empty, they made little effort to take fee paying passengers and even then offered (after trying to find someone interested) a very offputting single fare of ten pounds! I am sure their specials lost money, as well as upsetting regular customers who had come for the advertised free on-site shuttles. Very poor. However the volunteer free buses to and from Chesterfield were well run and well operated- we went in on a Leyland Lynx from West Somerset.

Another splendid recital of Indian music from Milapfest, this time a duet between sarod and sitar, with quite extraordinary strong playing and lovely music.

Tuesday May 23rd, a day we would usually attend an organ recital at St Anns in Manchester. Terrorists intend to disrupt and bring fear, and just as when we went into Manchester the day after the centre was taken out by a bomb in 1996, so we continued in our usual plans this year. There was the first of many commemoration books in the church, and a small number of flowers outside- soon to grow to fill the square to a considerable depth.

Chatted with some armed police with the usual Hechler and Koch semi-automatics- all the way from Durham. I'm not at all sure about armed police- especially in this case when a street lined with them would not prevent a lone idiot blowing himself up. The government bringing the army onto the streets in London was mad, and they were not seen in Manchester.

Parts of Manchester were taped off including the Cathedral so the Bishop held his morning services on Deansgate by the police tape. This was also a popular spot for the worlds tv cameras as they had a good view of the cathedral. Disappointed to see several stores (and banks) had closed for the day despite being in the "open" areas, but several had opened as usual. We were interviewed by Bangladeshi tv. We did not identify any UK tv crews. Denmark had (at least) two tv stations represented. One reporter was using a satelite phone.

As St Anns had more pressing spiritual needs to attend to, an organ marathon concert on the following Saturday was postponed. The BBC Morning Service on the Sunday was from St Anns, and included a setting by the late organist Mr Frost, and concluded with In Paradiseum by Faure.

St Anns Church has a monument to the first Manchester policeman to be killed on duty. Taking prisoners to gaol, armed with a cutlass, the van was ambushed by armed Fenians and he was fatally shot. The prisoners were given sanctuary in the USA and those hung for the death of the policeman were celebrated in some quarters as martyrs. At this time hanging was the punishment for killing a police officer - there was no manslaughter charge put. The principal of members of a mob being jointly responsible for a death ("joint enterprise") required participants to know that weapons were carried by others and might be used (or were reckless as to that) and only later required an intent to wound - after 2016. The policeman was forgotten. As we approach the 150th anniversary of his death- remember Charles Brett who did his duty.

Stagecoach buses when not in service displayed a modified slogan- I Heart Manchester was introduced after 1996, Stagecoach buses displayed We Heart Mcr on the front. Nice touch- they also (for a week) ran the buses which replaced the trams which would normally have run through Victoria Station, Manchester (the bomb location was above the station platforms). A little later their fleet had the Manchester Bee emblem added to the front of the bus.

The following Tuesday saw us back in St Anns, with the square now overflowing with flowers, and international tv crews still in attendance. NBC (US) had a big tent with lighting and seemed to be working from a large taxi with a no doubt hired in satellite van. ITV News had a couple of umbrellas. No sign of the BBC at all. It rained- and the soft toys in the square were later moved and dry cleaned as possible gifts for needy children. One of those killed on 22nd was from the Isle of Barra and was a piper- and when we were in the Square, a lone piper played a lament. Appropriate and very moving.

A new art graffiti in Stevenson Square representing a bee and a heart - lovely and a harbinger of things to come as a large brick wall on Oldham Street is to receive a heart shape and 22 bees (Worker bees have representing Manchester since 1842).

On to happier Brass times and a joint concert between our local Championship band, Fairey, and a visiting band from Norway, Nidaros (the old name for Trondheim). Bought one of their CDs- probably not very many of those in the UK. They played several Norwegian numbers. I suggested a brass arrangement of a halsingdans for their next CD- apparently a British brass player/composer in Trondheim has worked on this, but not yet on CD, so who knows!

Whit Friday 9th June saw us back in Dukinfield for this amazing free event. This year there was a new additional venue in Dukinfield and we wondered if this would result in less bands or more bands at Tame Valley- in fact having two venues near to each other brought more bands our way and once more we have more bands than any other Tameside venue, this year a total of 43 bands from which we heard 40 play before leaving for our bus home. This was the largest field at Tame Valley since 2012. Over in Saddleworth, Diggle managed to increase its number of bands further with 81 playing until the small hours. This year we managed to see Northop play while there was still enough light to see them...

In total Tameside saw 55 bands this year, with several playing only one or two venues- not always Tame Valley. Tame Valley was the venue with the most bands. The only significant band in Tameside that didn't make Tame Valley was a Norwegian band. The three at Tame Valley we missed due to leaving early were Audley, Leicester and Parr.

After some years of difficult broadband speeds (typically 5MMps but sometimes down to 180kBps, we have located a potential fault- which we can do nothing about unless it becomes more constant so that a visiting BT Openreach engineer can see the noise as it occurs- noise generated in an external wire connection is suffering from moisture, especially condensation when the temperature drops in the evening. However we did find an obscure and well hidden way to improve our broadband connection and now have the fastest speed for four years and still heading upwards.

Our telephone "master socket" is the original Mark 1 British Telecom, installed when BT lost its handset monopoly. BT Openreach are now up to the mark 4E.... The old socket does not play nicely with the broadband filters which did not exist when it was installed, and BT some years ago quietly brought out a simple conversion kit- which is no longer available. But I found one on Amazon marketplace, and once plugged in we have had much better broadband speeds typically exceeding 7Mbps.

Our Logitech webcam stopped working- the second to fail within guarantee, and we find that Logitech no longer honour their guarantees, having imposed post-purchase restrictions, so that if you are using the most recent or an old operating system, tough. They seem to have a monopoly of webcams and care zero for their reputation- negative reports are now flourishing. However- Microsoft are helpfully killing their p2p Skype 2-way online video service and insisting on a move to an extremely inefficent web based service, which would require us to run an additional operating system and dedicated browser, and still has many bugs...

Very hot sleepless nights seem too hot for at least one local fox seen yipping in the middle of our road about midnight.

A lovely sunny Sunday seemed to provide the opportunity to revisit the brass band concerts in Buxton- alas, this year they have several weeks with no bands booked at all, and we chose a week when they had Stockport Pantonic All Stars. Another person leaving the park was heard to remark "that isn't a steel band", a remark I have to concur with. Most sad as we had known the group when they WERE a real steel band. Now it is a male drummer with an amplified drumkit and a very amplified base drum, with lots of solo drum riffs (not very exciting) and a small group of girls prancing about with almost inaudible steel drums- the large pans were drowned out by the amplified drum kit, and higher pitched pans were barely heard and didn't appear to be playing any tunes. Alas the bass drum was audible throughout the Pavilion Gardens (which are quite large) and we had to take refuge in the less well known Serpentine. "Steel band"= 0/10.

High Peak Borough Council showed their colours. During the annual "well dressing", the free Buxton Water fountain in the crescent has the water flow diverted to a temporary nozzle at the side. No problem. We found a cage over the fountain preventing access to any water, with a note that the council had prevented access as the lion nozzle required repair. Not at all convincing- it would have been faster and cheaper to temporarily fit the well dressing alternative, and that would have maintained the free water supply on an unbearably hot day. Instead of paying two quid for a commercial bottle of the water we paid 33p for a bottle of Volvic water. Instead of filling our refillable bottles we had to buy plastic water bottles imported from France. By the time we were going home, due practical comment had restored access to the free water- the padlocked cage had been manhandled out of the way. Local council 0/10.

17th June was near to the anniversary of the death of Jo Cox, and our neighbours (including ourselves) had a bit of a get together in the local guide hut on a splendid sunny day, with a good mix of people celebrating "more in common".

After many years the installers of our central heating with whom we had a maintenance contract had gone into liquidation. This gives us a problem finding someone prepared to even look at a 14 year old boiler with 50 year old pipework and radiators! No-one will consider a maintenance contract. Meantime one of their Gas Safe registered engineers can privately maintain the system safely for us but we will need to look elsewhere when anything major goes wrong.

A return to hear Diggle Brass Band play at Woodley was a wasted journey, as the concert was sold out - perhaps a good thing as they were handing out flags, which is absolutely not my musical scene at all. Fortunately we were not without brass that weekend as after a pleasant organ morning at the Plaza, our local Championship brass band (Fairey) had a lovely evening concert with Stockport Schools Brass Band.

Something to unite the neighborhood, our local factory- been here nearly a century- proposes to open a new exit from their staff car park, allowing staff to save a couple of minutes on their exit time- by using a quiet cul de sac where children regularly play in the road and where the Council only a few years ago put in place measures to discourage rat runs. Putting on a meeting at 5pm on a weekday they probably weren't expecting many people to turn up, but I guess maybe a hundred did, asking pointed questions, receiving no answers at all, and making better suggestions, followed by a photo session for the Manchester Evening News / Stockport Express. We shall see but I think the message received was that no locals supported them, and had good reasons for the Council to refuse planning consent.

Local transport goes completely astray. After missing a whole years organ recitals at Holy Name due to the repeated closure of Oxford Road in Mancheser, we find we had to miss an organ recital at Bolton due to no trains. The next day a visit to Buxton or Lyme Park was impossible as there were no trains and the A6 was closed at Disley- the diversion route was to head back North all the way to Marple to cross the river valley on the opposite side. And on the same weekend no direct trains between Manchester and Llandudno. The road closure at Disley and the lack of trains to Wales was repeated the next weekend also. Anyone in Disley wanting to go to Buxton or Stockport by bus had to walk to either New Mills or High Lane, a fair walk.

Meanwhile in Stockport a new temporary two lane road is laid for buses only to enable them to keep running when the A6 in Mersey Square is closed for three months (the bus service is to be reduced by over 33% however) - other traffic is diverted down Manchester Road to Portwood Roundabout then down Hempshaw Lane back to the A6, quite a divert. And as they resurface Greek Street it collapses and is to be closed completely for a major sewer repair. Brinksway is closed. Daw Bank is closed- travelling is actively discouraged. Finding out if a bus is going to arrive is impossible as there are no signs or notifications of diversions- indeed some buses have been seen making up their route on the fly as the closures are so often unannounced.

Not very far away, the pavement on our road is stripped to have good smooth asphalt removed and rough uneven asphalt laid- this job is down to take 4 weeks. And yet again the water stop tap for our house is buried in several feet of loose stone.

A return to St Mary in the Baum in Rochdale for a lovely cello recital, before which we enjoyed a lovely lunch- meat and potato pie, mushy peas and beetroot, fruit crumble and custard and a cup of tea for just Three pounds 50 pence. I like to see a church with pews and the communion table still resolutely against the wall. Afterwards we looked into the nearby pub, the Baum, but despite the number of real ales on offer, they were all too strong for us (Over 7 per cent? Why?!) so we left without a beer. We did however stumble upon a little Rochdale secret. Rochdale has some excellent roads with granite setts. WE found a road with recently uncovered wooden setts- two thirds in good condition and replacement setts ordered to replace the damaged ones. Once common these setts are now fairly uncommon- they were quieter for metal wheels or metal tipped clogs than the stone setts.

The crime levels are apparently showing a huge increase as police numbers shrink, and police stations become very rare. Police no longer investigate or record many crimes and often don't attend even major crimes - there are simply not enough police. Again we hear of the "independent" British Crime Survey. Not independent and not even close to reliable- we took part this year.

The British Crime Survey is conducted for the Home Office, responsible for policing. It is conducted by a member of the MRS - our third contact with a member of MRS and on every occasion the MRS rules have been utterly ignored. To such a major extent that we are unable to complain to the MRS. The Crime Survey questions are more about what crimes you have committed and what crimes have happened in your road. They do not ask about crimes you have witnessed away from home, they do not ask why you refuse to travel by tram or go into town in the evening. The usual MRS leading questions which obtain a result the sponsor wants, and utterly unreliable. If you hear and believe that the British Crime Survey is reliable- you must believe what politicians say!

In fact the BCS is good only at measuring low impact high frequency crime such as theft but does not measure high impact relatively low frequency crime - even burglary- and high impact crime is increasing rapidly and consistently, as well as having increased impacts.
After the massively wrong election polls, does anyone really think that market research and political polls have ANY value to anyone? They say what the sponsor wishes them to say, not what the sponsor needs to know.

Took a friend visiting from overseas on a short Manchester tour- liked the vegan curry for lunch, loved the walk around Rylands library, which is open to be used by anyone freely. The oldest known portion of the New Testament Bible was (very carefully!!) on display.

Then I made the mistake of going to MOSI, the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, lately taken over the the London based Science Museum. Lately accepting a cash bribe to permit its railway connection to be broken. And now... the air hall was closed, the Making of Manchester exhibit had gone, the electricity gallery had gone, the railway station exhibit had gone, the photography gallery had gone, the gas gallery had gone, the underground Manchester exhibit had gone... this museum which claims to be open 363 days a year was effectively shut and still asking people walking in to make a donation. The signs put up were deliberately false- the air gallery said "Gallery closed today"- correct but it should have said "Closed until further notice". On entry to the main entry a large video display invited people to visit the Air Gallery. There were no signs to say the majority of the museum was gone. The power hall was open as was the textile hall, but no machines working. This was an ex-museum. This was a London owned and managed museum out in the sticks. Very sad and extremely embarrassing. There were no signs of any work being done and the honest thing would have been to put up a CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE on the main door. Score 0/100.

Being very nosy and concerned I spoke to folks- it looks as though London have effectively closed what was MOSI and all the space is to become mostly empty disnified performance space, as much as possible used for "special" displays attracting charges, and with no history or seriousness- and nothing of Manchester, the original intent of MOSI. But most of the space will be closed for at least two years, what has gone has gone permanently, and there is no point anyone ever going to any museum in the London-centric Science Museum dictatorship ever again. Extremely unimpressed.

So onwards- to the Manchester Museum, a large traditional old fashioned museum which shone, and its professional and clear, serious displays at last were impressive and its cafe had some nice cake. Manchester Museum still has an excellent Natural History section and is a leader in Egyptology.

Another little gift for my 1982 computer, a new module that can hold nearly every other module- the FinalGROM99, which has a programmable array that emulates Texas Instruments patented GROM chip. A 4GB SDHC card plugs in, and easily holds the 15MB of software ever written for the machine! Space Invaders was a mere 16kB.

A funeral earlier in the year for a member of the Northing family brought the first gathering in one place of all of the grandchildren of C W Northing, but no photographs were taken- so a gathering of these together will an invite to all descendants of CWN's father was organised, with a potential 150 direct descendents, but about a third of these in Argentina.
This was in Chapel en le Frith and about 38 turned up. Of the great grandchildren of CWN (nine) George was the only one present. Usual poor catering buffet, but fortunately having learned my lesson I took along a packet of salad (yes I couldn't even eat the salad they served as it was full of celery and finely cut peppers). The bar had no real beer, but we have learned that any bar with a cola dispenser will serve a pint of soda water for a tiny fraction of the price of a bottle of cheap mineral water. It is not advertised (or enforced) but it is a requirement that licensed premises make available on request free tap water. Took a few photographs for the Northing family album.

A final organ coffee morning for the year at the Plaza in Stockport- very pleasant but no more now until next year. It is good to see the theatre restored and in use, such a pity there are almost no shows we fancy, with those we do spoiled by the none-use of the balcony (on which so much money was spent), the ear destroying sound levels, the none advertised use of strobes (and NO refunds to strobe sensitives), and the use of an inferior 2k digital projector. Even the adverts and program offends me with so many shows now being for "adults only" with vile language, oodles of gore, and body bits added to the very loud volume - I'm not old enough for those.

Goodbye Church of England. One Sunday local Church of England churches did not have any services - not a CofE church in Heaton Norris, Heaton Chapel, Heaton Moor or Heaton Mersey. No good reason, they just didn't feel any need for local worship, with no provision made for any local pastoral care. (There were services in Stockport centre, but that is in a different diocese. There was one 6.30pm service at Heaton Mersey but the other churches failed to put a notice on their doors to advise of this secret remote service).

An attempt to go to a concert at Rochdale failed as the train we were sat in was cancelled just after its timetabled departure- there was debris on the track from a lineside fire, FORTY MILES AWAY! and rather than run the train and curtail its journey, easily possible, the whole line was closed. The next weekend was so called Heritage Open Day Weekend, which has now degraded to "There is no heritage anywhere day"- not due to lack of heritage but rather lack of interest. There was a lovely organ recital at Rochdale Town Hall, unfortunately curtailed due to a very large and very expensive wedding using all the Town Hall immediately after the recital. So we had some black peas and went to the only town centre "open building" the lovely St Mary in the Baum, which George had not yet seen.

Again our journey to Rochdale was in peril, as the trams between Piccadilly and Victoria station had been disrupted by a derailment but it was cleared just as we got to the platform!

Had a nice cup of tea and a tea cake at the church and a good look around. Finally dawned on me why the predominant colour was blue. They do not have green altar frontals as normal but instead use blue, matching the blue in the East window. Although now onto their fourth "ordinary time" frontal, the material was still from the original architects studios and perfect for his church. The church does not use white frontals, using gold instead. They also never use violet, marking lent with a sackcloth frontal. They need funds for a new red frontal. Blue? Since about 500 Mary has been portrayed in the cloak of a Byzantine Empress and the custom has caught- with many lovely stories for the reason added more recently. Blue was (and to a degree remains) a difficult and expensive pigment. At St Mary in the Baum the once blue ceiling has almost gone due to interaction with the plaster and the once matching blue carpet in the chancel has darkened.

St Mary in the Baum has so far resisted the very very modern (last 50 years) fashion of moving the altar away from the East wall. After the English reformation- 500 years ago- the table (not altar) was to be against the East wall with the minister to the left. Mid 19th Century saw the minister facing away from the congregation. Today- with radio microphones now in use- the ministers mostly stand behind the table facing the Nave and perform to the congregation instead of joining them. Every church has its own service book and churches empty and close.

We also took George to see the tiny CoOp museum, in the site of the "Rochdale Pioneers" store, celebrating the first shop and establishment of CoOp farms (now sold off), the CoOp bank (now sold off). Our local CoOp store has closed after over 100 years and Manchester CWS, keepers of the trademark, is in dire straits with little more than a very ambitious and expensive property development in central Manchester and barely a half nod to CoOperative principles. Other CoOps are doing quite well thank you but Manchester management has served members extremely badly. It seems that as members we "get" 5% back from our purchases of CoOp brand products- but a) our shop has been closed and b) nobody is telling us HOW to get the 5% back, it does not seem to be automatic. Our membership does not seem to give us the right to be told anything. Manchester CoOp Group is a dead loss and a disgrace to the CoOperative movement.

We travelled back afterwards passing through Victoria Station as concertgoers were entering the Manchester Arena for its first even since the May bomb. This was to raise funds for a memorial (or memorials) for those who were killed. Repairs to the bombed room had not been completed but the damage was covered up. First on the scene after the explosion, giving assistance, were employees of Northern Rail who on this day were giving moral support with friendly wrist bands in the shape of bees made of miniature modelling ballooons, and little "We [bee] MCR" badges.

Following day another concert, in Glossop this time, in the Glossop Old Band bandroom- a visit from Stockport Silver Band. They played the specially arranged hymn tune "Manchester" which had been published to raise funds for the bereaved and victims of May's bomb in Manchester, and several other varied brass band pieces including Mr Jums, Walk in the Black Forest, Chess, etc.

Extra time was taken by the Glossop band playing a special piece (probably a public premiere) written by Keith Lawson, in memory of Mark Singleton, called "Mark of Respect". Mark died on 3rd July and was the retired landlord of the Ring O Bells in Marple, a certified canal boat Master, and a brass band trombonist. The final band he played with was Poynton Band (aka Vernon Building Society Band) who are in the Championship section, so Mark left right at the top. The Vernon Band play in Glossop the following week.

Glossop also played the test piece (Rhapsody in Brass (Goffin)) they hope that they will do well with next Saturday in the "The National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain" in Cheltenham. Glossop are the Midland Region 2nd Section Championship band 2017. - They placed 2nd in the Nationals second section.

After that the two bands combined into one giant band and played a couple of numbers. Quite an afternoon. The band room serves local Mouselow Farm beer (only two pounds 50 a pint) and we were sat next to the two brewery proprietors.

And of course we went back for the Poynton Band the next week. Hearing a championship band play in such intimate surroundings is quite different to hearing them play in competition. Next week the Burbage Band (Buxton) who had some problems getting used to the bass drum and gong provided, much louder than they are used to. Some excellent music, they concluded the first half with a modern piece in the style of another (unnamed) composer- and we all three correctly identified the composer who was being satirised. I didn't need the three pieces with vocals, possibly a band I shall avoid in future.

Chocolate has been in the news recently and is something we enjoy- but only the fine chocolate. There are some reliable African chocolate beans around but I am not fond of the flavours and still prefer Caribbean/South American chocolate. For chocolate at least, the US based Fairtrade organisation has not won any friends and small growers can receive less than market prices as well as having to pay the organisation a premium. The chocolate I enjoy is mostly from co-operatives and my current principal maker pays the growers 50% more than Fairtrade offer. I have found a great chocolate maker again, this time Duffy Sheardown in Cleethorpes, who I have arranged to send me a couple of bars a week. His chocolate is ground typically for 60 hours, as against mass chocolate one or two hours, and he roasts slowly to retain the flavours.

After many weather difficulties this year it is reasonable to expect that chocolate beans from the Caribbean area are going to be scarce for the next few years, hurricane season has been very unkind. I still enjoy raw chocolate- especially Ecuadorian- the purpose of roasting was to remove some flavours, and rebalance the flavouring, to meet mass market taste and to remove the variability of the beans flavour by reducing the flavours. Inevitably finer flavours suffer.

I have been enjoying some odd foods of late- I can miss Aronia berries, but really like Mulberries and Kiwi Berries. I tried burdock root, that didn't do anything for me. Tried turmeric milk (haldi doodh) with ginger and made with oat milk, sweetened with coconut flower sugar, and rather liked that. Very fond of Cardamom tea (cardamom chai) and Saffron tea.

Chethams School of Music, Manchester have 70 students (from a total across all ages of 290 students) accepted into the first round BBC Young Musician of the Year this year- they usually have finalists and often outright winners. In September some of the students entered were given a lunchtime public rehearsal of their pieces at the school to give them more confidence- we went to hear pieces on clarinet, violin, trumpet and cello. Most pleasant. Although a private fee paying boarding school (two thirds board) only one tenth of students pay the full fee- lack of funds is not a reason for a musically talented youngster to miss out. The following week we enjoyed a cello player whose parents were visiting the country and watching from the balcony- which explained the unusual site of a lunchtime student in full evening dress- normally lunch time dress is quite rather more relaxed.

Further brass delights in Glossop with a visit from Brassband EsBrassivo from Hessen celebrating 20 years of playing "British style" brass music - eg using cornets instead of trumpets. Excellent music. Over in the USA brass bands have given up trying to compete the British style and amended their contest rules to permit the wider range of USA instruments. The following week was a visit from Flixton band- well known to us as they are quite active locally. Lovely music and as so often at these events we heard music never heard before and never recorded. In subsequent weeks we heard the bands from Flixton, Uppermill (bought a CD!) and St John's Mossley.

A local Catholic church was celebrating its 150th anniversary (and under threat of closure as so many churches are these days) so we went along to wish them many happy returns. Possibly the oldest Catholic church in Stockport, they are on the North bank of the Mersey and therefore possibly the most southern church in the Salford diocese. They have also suffered as motorway construction closed their road access from Stockport, the building of a new cinema cost them the pedestrian access to Stockport, and the usual modern concerns regarding schools have cost them their pavement access across the playing fields- the asphalt path still crosses them but is now behind robust security fences. The only approach left is quite roundabout and along pavements which are unwalkable in wet weather due to being slippier than wet ice - there is also some climbing involved- essentially the church is almost cut off from access by any elderly or infirm people without cars.

They have severe water penetration problems, but have kept the church looking very good inside, with a proper altar in a sanctuary, and some very colourful stained glass paid for by a citizen of Baltimore. They have a small "angel font" looking like the larger version to be found in the Anglican church in Barmouth. A good visit and a chance to see a church which may not be with us much longer.

October means the Rochdale Brass Festival. This year the Saturday youth section attracted only three entries, not really worth the long journey so we missed that. Sunday had 34 bands entered but four withdrew- including one Welsh band which from my records seems to withdraw more often than it plays! The organisers were excited to have an entry from a Scots band, but they also withdrew, perhaps when they learned that Rochdale was in England....

Our day got off to a rocky start- last year we went by tram, but this year the tram lines were mostly curtailed for engineering work. Fortunately there was a train that got us there in time for the National Anthem, and with just 30 bands, the finish was in good time to catch a train back (last year was 43 bands!).
The playing in the 4th and 3rd sections was excellent, the second section was disappointing but some good music, the first section surprisingly good- the championship section (two bands) was downright weird. For the third section the winning band was very obvious, excellent. However in the second section the band we thought was the worst of the day got the first prize. Oh well. We have never agreed with the adjudicators on the top sections!

We met bandsman Jim Hunter, today playing for Stockport Silver, and he told us another bandsman has gone- Jack Bennett who for decades has led the Elmfield Band (Stockport), named after a road he lived on. Jim Hunter was conducting the last three bookings for Elmfield, then the band would probably be disbanded. Jim was also assisting another band with conducting, and already had a booking with yet another band to play with them Whit 2018.

Two stalls in the foyer selling CDs. One at fourteen quid, which I passed up having been bitten before- too many brass band CDs are really short lived CD-Rs, without telling you. That is too much for a CD-R. Instead we stopped at a stall selling mostly music scores, and purchased a CD (genuine CD for a tenner) of music by Westoe Brass Band, some of which had been written by the stall holder I passed my tenner to, Lee Morris. Travelling home there was a young man at the station being assisted by the security team- he had a mental age of about five, and had travelled in by train to get a tram home. A curtailed tram service (as always very badly advertised) left him quite unable to cope.

Travelling in we found that Victoria had many trains replaced by buses (not ours) which require you to have a train ticket- and the ticket office was closed, the sole working ticket machine was coin only (with no guarantee that after putting in 44 pound coins it would not reject your 45th coin AND not give you a ticket. Victoria also had its ticket barriers operational so access to the platform without a ticket to catch the few trains was not possible! Incredible. Operated by German owned Northern Trains (DB have given notice they will not seek to renew their Welsh train services). George had to buy a ticket by attracting the attention of a ticket salesman on the train side of the barrier.

Pleasant concert at St Chads in Rochdale by a wind quartet - and a few weeks later I went to St Marys in Rochdale for a concert by the Telemann Ensemble.

On our holidays we visited Gwydir Uchaf Chapel near Llanrwst- also a church "in care" with no regular services. This year it is having an afternoon service of carols and readings on a December Sunday- such a pity that public transport in Wales does not generally exist on a Sunday, there is no way we could make it!

When we moved into our present house the family across the road were very helpful, even more so as the years passed, and Peter installed a carpet in our front room for us (getting a little threadbear after over 30 years); vegetarian Marjorie assisted when George decided he didn't wish to eat meat anymore; and supplied a replacement when our elderly tortie cat died. Marjorie left our road many years back but kept in touch, and unfortunately her funeral took place when we were on holiday this year- but she came back home, and her ashes are interred at St Thomas, where she and Peter worked for many years, with Peter as warden. We easily identified daughter Ruth, but after all these years Peter did not recognise us- but did remember us. Peter's grand-daughter looks to have Marjorie's appearance.

Usual weekly brass bands at Glossop resume with a remembrance day special by the Glossop Old Band themselves, resplendent in their "posh" uniforms in the first half. Some unfortunate community sing alongs in the second half, but it was a special day. We sat between a brewer and a Labour Member of Parliament. The MP was one of this years unanticipated gains with a 7% swing, and the first female MP for the ward.

She had a constituent who found his wages being reduced by 100 pounds a month, by order of the department that deals with benefits. He wasn't on benefits and had no contacts - he could not discover why his salary was being reduced and he could not stop the reductions, so went to his MP, and after a while the DWP admitted their error and refunded the amounts deducted- which still left him out of pocket (phone calls to the DWP were lengthy and not free). This was raised with the Prime Minister who said the benefits system was working perfectly (she does not answer questions).

Our government departments also have the right to take money from your bank current account.

The MP had no security escort and seemed to be on her own- and also seemed to genuinely enjoy her first brass band concert.

Unfortunately, after building up attendance at the band room to a maximum, the following week the concert was cancelled with no notice- although apparently the booked band had cancelled over a week earlier. So we wasted three hours of the day and George wasted six quid train fare. And any build up of audience and goodwill has been trashed. It may be some time before we try that one again. Back to our old Sunday habit of a walk to the pub for a beer. Pity. I'd have settled for a small portion of Glossop Old Band, and find it hard to imagine that with a weeks notice it wasn't possible to collect a dozen brass musicians from the various bandsmen in the locale. Brass bands usually help each other out all the time. Normally dear BMP Goodshaw they don't pull out at the last minute and leave their attendance up on their website without a word and ignore querying emails.... guess which additional brass band I'm avoiding in future...

On our wasted trip to Glossop on the train we met a delightful spindled standard English bull terrier, a delightful dog- such a pity they have been bred to so many ailments and short a life, and can be difficult to own. Later in the pub we met the usual miniature spaniel, Charlie, whose mother went to the pub, and who has been going to the pub regularly from an early age. A very happy creature indeed.

More lovely concerts- a day of recorder contesting - with so many classes everyone could win at least one prize! with a cello recital in the middle. A further recital by the Teleman Baroque Ensemble at St Mary's Rochdale- just four players this time. Then a concert in Manchester with pieces on harp (one ultra modern work, one classical, one Welsh) and then on euphonium.

Then a concert by the Northern Baroque Orchestra at St Edmunds Rochdale. And absolutely nothing going on in Stockport. St Edmunds is now a church in the care of the Churches Heritage Trust, no services but open for eight hours a month. And walled off from Rochdale by a dual carriageway with no crossing points and a large enclosed shopping centre. Google bless them wanted us to walk along pavementless dual carriageway but did at least point us towards a well hidden and unsignposted small underpass, after which they swung us well out. Going to the church we made our away across a Lidl car park (private land) and coming back found another well hidden unsignposted subway which bizarrely led to the underground service area of the shopping centre- which after walking some way had a lockable door, probably shut when the centre closes. And again on private land. No public pedestrian right of way between Rochdale and Falinge.

St Edmund's is not too far from the tower blocks known as the Seven Sisters (reported to become four in the future). It was built in a field at the top of a hill, on a ten foot high red sandstone plinth. Then houses were built around it and the land covered in ten feet of earth, somewhat destroying the original effect. But the Rochdale Parish church was moved to raise its own tower to the same height above sea level as St Edmunds.

St Edmund's was closed around 2007 and Grade 1 listed in 2010, at one stage was critically endangered, and was placed among the nation's top-10 endangered buildings! It has not been subject to the destructive effects of the current fashion for "reordering" parish churches. The holy table remains against the East window. The church has been sold to an independent charity, it has the full protection of a Grade 1 listing, and the volunteers can use it for the community- opening it for visitors, holding concerts or services - they hope to start having regular weekly services of Evensong from the Book of Common Prayer -unlike the fashionable churches which have written their own services or use the modern "Common Worship". The church is free of control by Parochial Council, Dean or Bishop, and also free of the need to pay the Church of England's bills for cathedrals, bishops, deans - and damages and wasted investments etc etc.

It is in fairly good condition and the visitor is free to explore every nook and cranny from the top of the tower to the undercroft. They are hoping to get consent to renovate the vestry for an exhibition area, and recover former contents and records of the church from elsewhere. Alas the church also last year suffered the lead theft which plagues our old churches and causes so much damage- the charity spends a million a year on correcting the damage done by the metal thieves. The 2 manual organ is in remarkable condition and requires little attention- and the organ pipes have the original decoration on the back and so can be fully restored. We intend to return on a brighter Summer day to see the stained glass better.

2016 Evensong rehearsal at Falinge, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNhqpIkMKoE.

The final episode of the privately made "Star Trek Continues" series, which sought closure on some the the original classic Trek open story lines. Eleven episodes in all, the final episode continued the first Kirk episode "Where no man has gone before". Part one on youtube and took it right up to the first Kirk movie. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCBuaTnDsQs).

Our telephone line goes nuts (including cross talk which should be impossible in this digital age!) and our broadband drops to one meg- and there is a BTO van outside. The fault was very obviously a BTO one and although we reported it, it was dealt with so quickly I think it was dealt with before they saw our report. We now have again our usual 8 meg line (there is an awful lot of copper between us and the fibre cabinet, much of it quite old- in due course this speed may rise as the circuits adjusts to the higher quality). In fact there were TWO faults to correct - one in the big Fibre cabinet before the copper line cabinet and another one underground before the copper line goes up a phone pole.

Our router quickly got up to 8M just in time for about a third of the web to go missing as the all important "syn packets" were not arriving here. It took our ISP 15 hours to put anything on their status page (Gateway failure) but then a mere 90 minutes to fix it and we are rocketing along ( I gather most people get well over 7Mbps on broadband though).

Splendid organ recital in Wilmslow by Philip Underwood, of his own transcription for organ of the Four Seasons, played on a very pleasant two manual cabinet pipe organ on loan from York while the main church organ is being rebuilt. An excellent take on a much heard (and often transcribed) work.

With George taking some days off work we had a nice lunch at a vegetarian Indian place in Ashton (Lily's) buying some goodies at the next door Indian supermarket, then on another day had a vegetarian lunch in Manchester at On the 8th Day, buying more goodies at their supermarket, then on to a pleasant baroque concert at Manchester University, then a bus on to Chorlton to buy more goodies at their Unicorn vegetarian supermarket, including some superb organic Ashmead's Kernel apples from Sussex. An old species full of flavour but not suitable for the lengthy delivery times of modern stores as it needs to be eaten soon after picking.

George's costly 2004 suitcase lost its tyres and he bought a new one. Looking for a 39 litre case (the old size) he found there were basically three standard sizes, linked to what airlines specified, which gets smaller and smaller. The 22 litre was too tiny and the 66 litre far to big- so it was a 33 litre, but at a good price, supposedly at 70% off, at under 40 quid. We have the same brand which we have had no problems with for 20 years.

Christmas time is a time of traditional concerts- and we went to one at Rochdale Town Hall by organist Jonathan Scott (excellent!), and of course we bought his latest CD of organ music. A nice Christmas gesture was the free butties afterwards. When I buy an audio CD it tends to be from the performer- this was the second consecutive one purchased from the composer, as there are two tracks by Tom Scott, who received our crisp tenner.

We travelled into Rochdale on a train which used the Ordsall Chord (formerly Castlefield Curve) : 1183 meters of new track over a new river bridge, authorised in 1979, first passenger train 10th December 2017. Originally part of a 530M work, only the chord has been constructed at a cost of 85M and it serves just six trains each day from Manchester Victoria to Manchester Oxford Road and back. Assuming this usage continued and the cost of the bridge is spread over ten years, that is GBP 225 per train journey. The intention was to double the tracks from Oxford Road to Piccadilly but that funding has been withdrawn. As a result of the new link track, the former "Museum of Science and Industry", (found to be largely empty and abandoned on a visit in 2017), lost its ability to run passenger steam trains along a short track, and lost the ability for visiting locomotives to run into the museum from mainline rails.

We managed the small Ashton Christmas farmers market this year- small as traders who retire are not being replaced. Still very handy for very fresh vegetables (from the ground that morning) and very fresh cheese. If we are lucky, very fresh milk (only a couple of hours from the cow).

A baker who had been to every Manchester city centre street since they started (following the closure of the old street markets) told us they would not be going to Manchester again, due to increasing levels of violence and crime in the city centre and indifference by the council and the police. The next day we went to a city centre cafe for lunch and were told that they were now closing earlier in the evening due to increased levels of violence and total indifference by the police. Not as violent as London or Sheffield perhaps, but it is hard to judge as large scale fighting is never reported unless someone is killed (and sometimes not then). The traders feel unsafe- and so do I. Significant random assaults are taking place in full daylight. The trams have violence on board and directed against them- windows broken by bricks are now not reported it is so frequent. Many people have stopped travelling by tram as a result.

Christmas is a time when there is no transport and everything is shut, so two weeks more or less indoors and more food to eat! Although Manchester Christmas market had the added announced hazard of armed police patrols (we didn't see any) and worse, armed plain clothes police patrols, we made a quick dash around the stalls and got out fast. The concrete blocks around the Square (average traffic speed about 2mph) and the solid metal security gates did NOT make us feel welcome. Speaking to others from out of town they felt the same. City Council 0 - Terrorists 12. Total surrender- with a stance likely to lead to a reduction in law and order and social cohesion. The police have made it clear that anti-terrorist work is considered more important, and is preventing them doing anything about ordinary crime which is flourishing, but not reported or recorded, as the police are too busy arresting people who are generally not charged let alone tried.

The market traders were generally left with a mountain of stock when the market closed. We did not buy our ten pounds worth of Dutch biscuits as the trader had not brought enough toffee waffles; we did buy our fresh Dutch cheeese, with good instructions on how to care for it, vacuum packed to order, and supplied with cheese paper. We also bought our usual Dutch bulbs, although that trader sold almost no stock this year (four huge amaryllis bulbs for a fiver, they often have up to ten flower stalks and huge flowers!). So that was our market spend- cheese and amaryllis- from one of the UK's self proclaimed largest Christmas markets.

We did have our now annual evening pub visit with members of the Fairey band providing live entertainment. This year our line for the 12 days of Christmas was 4 Collie Birds, although we used the more recent American rewording of 4 Calling Birds (well, blackbirds are good songsters). Cathy also did a short dance with a party of women.

Our Christmas day beer was a fairly recent 2014 vintage but on New Years day we had a 2011 bottle. On Christmas day we listened to streaming music from Kayak106- from a Commonwealth country invaded by the USA in 1983, making Mrs Thatcher (privately) slightly unhappy. The United Nations passed a motion 108 to 9 condemning the US invasion. 7,600 troops versus a total population of 91,000. There were spurious US "concerns" about 600 US students- none of whom were hurt, but 19 American troops were killed and 116 wounded.

In between Christmas and New Year was the Wainwright family get together, not a big do these days.

The general response to anyone unhappy with state intrusion is "if you are innocent you have nothing to fear", which does not sit well with the hundreds of completely innocent people whose lives are turned upside down- not only "possible terrorists" and "illegal immigrants" with every right to live here, but also for example the families whose children are taken into care when an incorrect IP number is used to trace downloaders of unsuitable web material. The "NHS Crisis" is not a crisis as it has been planned (government spokesperson interviewed on the radio). Offering only emergency life saving care for two months is carefully planned and deliberate. I can't wait for 2018 to see how many people lose their money when new "anti immigrant" banking laws take effect.

2017 has been a very poor year for life in the UK, with little improvement likely. Privately we have not done too badly and end the year in pretty good health- what more can you ask for? We donate to local charities helping those who have nothing or very little- they seem to be more effective than the huge charities, who do themselves no favours.

On to 2018.