A hearty hello from Manchester!
The past week or so on the other side of the globe has been interesting, to say the least! Since arriving in Manchester on Sunday, April 26, we have survived 5 nights in an inner city hostel, opened bank accounts, started work (me), flirted with wealthy landlords (Kel), leased an apartment, walked more kilometres than a Jane Saville training session, and unearthed a favourite ‘local’ cafe.
I should probably start out by saying that our first impressions of Manchester weren’t the best. After dumping our luggage in the Hilton Chambers hostel, Kel and I set out on foot to mini-circumnavigate the city centre. The weather was cool and the clouds looked threatening (no surprises there, this has occurred every day since). Manchester’s industrial heritage, and recent urban renewal program, certainly does it no favours in the architectural stakes – we found the cityscape is a bit of a hodge-podge of stately old, trendy new and rather tired buildings. But the city does grow on you, and appearances can be deceiving – my work building is a case in point.
From the outside, Fourways House looks nothing special. Our office space on level three, however, has a great fit-out – old hardwood timber floors, exposed metal beams, brick walls and a floor-to-ceiling glass divider that separates the board-room from our work stations. Staff numbers in the office have averaged about 4 per day (all told there are 9 employees), and everyone has been great to me (although it is the honeymoon period). There has already been some sledging across the office about the upcoming Ashes test series. Football is, of course, the main game in town. Amongst my fellow workers I’ve established there is one Man United fan, one Stoke City fan and one ex-Man United fan who, embittered at the sale of the club to the Glazer family several years ago, started his own club (literally). They really are football fanatics over here, so I’m wondering how they will react when I tell them I’m a Newcastle Jets supporter...I’m expecting puzzled looks.
While I was getting into the flow of work, Kellie busied herself with finding us a more salubrious place to live. We quickly identified Didsbury as nice area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didsbury). About fifteen minutes by express train from my work, Didsbury has loads of green space, a village atmosphere and, most importantly, some traditional English pubs and cafes. Kel is particularly fixated with the local cheese shop. The poor girl visited just about every apartment and flat in the area before isolating several for me to look at. It wasn’t all hard work though; she was chauffeured around several properties by Tim, the smooth-talking landlord who drove a silver Mercedes 4WD and lived next-door to Wayne Rooney (Manchester United striker and all-English wonderboy). Not sure if Kel managed to wriggle her wedding ring off during her little tour with Tim, but needless to say I’m monitoring all incoming calls to her mobile.
We settled on a 2 bedroom flat (well 1½ bedrooms might be more accurate), in a little street full of quaint, very English-looking terrace houses. Actually the street name is Whitechapel, as in Monopoly, but houses (and hotels) are a great deal more expensive. Kel and I might need some help from Community Chest, or Pass Go a few more times, in order to keep up rent payments! The location is so convenient – it is no more than 50 metres from the Didsbury main street, bus stop and grocery store. Not much farther away from our new home is The Art of Tea, a cafe, second-hand book shop, art gallery and picture framing outlet all rolled into one (http://www.manchester.com/restaurants/details/604/The_Art_Of_Tea.html). With free wi-fi (that’s wireless internet for the techno-phobics) and decent coffee, it’s becoming our favourite haunt.
The past week or so on the other side of the globe has been interesting, to say the least! Since arriving in Manchester on Sunday, April 26, we have survived 5 nights in an inner city hostel, opened bank accounts, started work (me), flirted with wealthy landlords (Kel), leased an apartment, walked more kilometres than a Jane Saville training session, and unearthed a favourite ‘local’ cafe.
I should probably start out by saying that our first impressions of Manchester weren’t the best. After dumping our luggage in the Hilton Chambers hostel, Kel and I set out on foot to mini-circumnavigate the city centre. The weather was cool and the clouds looked threatening (no surprises there, this has occurred every day since). Manchester’s industrial heritage, and recent urban renewal program, certainly does it no favours in the architectural stakes – we found the cityscape is a bit of a hodge-podge of stately old, trendy new and rather tired buildings. But the city does grow on you, and appearances can be deceiving – my work building is a case in point.
From the outside, Fourways House looks nothing special. Our office space on level three, however, has a great fit-out – old hardwood timber floors, exposed metal beams, brick walls and a floor-to-ceiling glass divider that separates the board-room from our work stations. Staff numbers in the office have averaged about 4 per day (all told there are 9 employees), and everyone has been great to me (although it is the honeymoon period). There has already been some sledging across the office about the upcoming Ashes test series. Football is, of course, the main game in town. Amongst my fellow workers I’ve established there is one Man United fan, one Stoke City fan and one ex-Man United fan who, embittered at the sale of the club to the Glazer family several years ago, started his own club (literally). They really are football fanatics over here, so I’m wondering how they will react when I tell them I’m a Newcastle Jets supporter...I’m expecting puzzled looks.
While I was getting into the flow of work, Kellie busied herself with finding us a more salubrious place to live. We quickly identified Didsbury as nice area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didsbury). About fifteen minutes by express train from my work, Didsbury has loads of green space, a village atmosphere and, most importantly, some traditional English pubs and cafes. Kel is particularly fixated with the local cheese shop. The poor girl visited just about every apartment and flat in the area before isolating several for me to look at. It wasn’t all hard work though; she was chauffeured around several properties by Tim, the smooth-talking landlord who drove a silver Mercedes 4WD and lived next-door to Wayne Rooney (Manchester United striker and all-English wonderboy). Not sure if Kel managed to wriggle her wedding ring off during her little tour with Tim, but needless to say I’m monitoring all incoming calls to her mobile.
We settled on a 2 bedroom flat (well 1½ bedrooms might be more accurate), in a little street full of quaint, very English-looking terrace houses. Actually the street name is Whitechapel, as in Monopoly, but houses (and hotels) are a great deal more expensive. Kel and I might need some help from Community Chest, or Pass Go a few more times, in order to keep up rent payments! The location is so convenient – it is no more than 50 metres from the Didsbury main street, bus stop and grocery store. Not much farther away from our new home is The Art of Tea, a cafe, second-hand book shop, art gallery and picture framing outlet all rolled into one (http://www.manchester.com/restaurants/details/604/The_Art_Of_Tea.html). With free wi-fi (that’s wireless internet for the techno-phobics) and decent coffee, it’s becoming our favourite haunt.
The other day we had lunch and a drink at The Woodstock, a pub with eclectic furnishings popular with 30-somethings. Kel and I lounged outside to soak up the fleeting glimpses of sun (http://www.citylife.co.uk/pubs_and_bars/reviews/16254_woodstock___west_didsbury_pub_definitely_on_the_up). I’m thinking that it too may be frequented by the two new Aussies in the village (has anyone noticed the recurring theme of pictures of me with a beer?).
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Monday just passed was a public holiday here, so we ventured further afield to the Trafford Centre, which claims to be the largest shopping centre in Europe. Well, I can say now that it is certainly BIG, and particularly busy when we were there. We bought some pillows for our bed, wine glasses, tumblers, a veggie peeler, a can-opener and various other kitchen utensils. Not exactly retail therapy – we’ll have to wait for my first pay cheque to indulge...
Congratulations for reading this far – love to all and please send us a bottle of warm Aussie sunshine via express post, ASAP.
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