Why Do They Try To Play Cricket In Manchester?
Everybody knows that it always rains in Manchester. There’s even an old phrase beloved of cricket commentators.
If you can’t see the Pennines it’s already raining, if you can it’s just about to.
So why did they try to play a Twenty20 cricket match last night? Guess what? It rained, as is reported here.
How To Complain
This guy got angry in a Manchester mobile phone store over a high phone bill.
Bus and Tube Information at Euston Station
When you arrive at the station in a city or town, you often need information to complete your journey to your final destination.
Bus and Tube Information at Euston Station
Most London stations have information booths like this provided by Transport for London at Euston station. I’ve never found such a booth in Manchester Piccadilly and I meant to check Liverpool Lime Street today, but forgot.
They say this about buses at Liverpool Lime Street on the National Rail website.
‘Arriva’ and ‘Stagecoach’ operate a network of daily, frequent bus routes around the city and also to nearby towns. For route maps and timetables: http://www.arrivabus.co.uk and http://www.stagecoachbus.com/merseyside
Liverpools main bus station (on Roe Street) is about 4 minutes walk from Lime Street station.
So should I assume there is no booth. How do you find out what bus company you need?
The same web site gives this for Euston.
Bus route maps are available from Transport for London’s website.
There is no mention of the excellent booth, although the link does point to bus maps for Camden.
There is also no way to contact the National Rail web site, to kick them into line. So we are just Self Loading Cargo left to our own devices.
The BBC’s Description of Today’s Torch Relay Leg
The Olympic Torch is going from Bolton to Liverpool today. I was drawn to their description of the leg on the BBC’s web site.
Through Lancashire and down the coast to Knotty Ash, made famous by Ken Dodd and his Diddy Men characters, via Aintree Racecourse to Liverpool, home of The Beatles, two top football clubs and once known for its wealth as the “Second City of Empire”.
In my view Liverpool may not now be the “Second City of Empire”, but it’s certainly the Second City in the UK.
The description is accompanied by a picture of a horse jumping to victory in the Grand National. I thought for a moment the horse was Red Rum, but the picture is more recent, the colours are wrong and the horse doesn’t have a sheepskin noseband.
Eat your heart out Manchester!
Where’s your historic city centre, world-famous racecourse and amazing river? To name but three!
Gary Barlow Says BBC Presenters are Going Native
On this morning’s BBC Breakfast, Gary Barlow accused Louise Minchin of picking up a Mancunian accent. He should know after all as he comes from Frodsham.
She in turn admitted, she does slip occasionally.
Now you can understand, why they didn’t move the program to Glasgow.
A friend of mine has told me, that since Radio 5 has moved to Manchester, he’s not been on the program. Apparently, he was told, his phone number was lost in the move to Manchester. I think though, it’s because his accent is not even South London, but North.
BBC Breakfast Has Been Dumbed Down
Whether this is because of the move to Manchester, I do not know, but BBC Breakfast isn’t the program it was when it was in London. Obviously, the move cost it two of its best presenters; Sian Williams and Chris Hollins, but the rapport and banter between the presenters seems to have gone too.
I think too, that the regular guests, like Dr. Rosemary Leonard, have not been replaced with others of the of the same quality. I know that it’s early days yet, but some have been absolutely dire, when talking about serious subjects.
And then there are many more segments about pop music and people struggling with horrendous injuries. Today, there was only three serious stories. One about plastic bottle recycling, another about MOT bias and another about goal-line technology.
The sooner the program returns to its natural home in London, the better. Incidentally, one of the stories on BBC London; about children in care in Hackney and how long it takes them to be settled, should have been covered nationally.
But what illustrates the dumbing down and lack of quality most, is the story about the grooming of young girls in Rochdale. That didn’t get much coverage at all in the last few days. Why not?
And what is the phone-in on Radio 5 about this morning? Celebrities!
The Mayoral Referenda
What is the most disappointing about this election is the rejection of new mayors in places like Manchester and Nottingham.
I moved to Hackney in London because a stroke meant I couldn’t drive and I needed good public transport. The Mayor, whoever he or she is, certainly gives London a focus and I believe helps to improve public transport and other things, that are important to the city.
The rejection of mayors is probably a vote for the status quo, as a good mayor would probably do more for the city, than an entrenched party of old time-servers.
Recently, I visited all 92 football clubs in alphabetical order by public transport. Manchester, and I mean Greater Manchester, has the worst public transport of any major conurbation. An elected mayor might just bring it all together and create a system that works. At present, all the local authorities have too much control and create the mess they’ve got.
The Anonymous Widower 