Blogs from Castlefield, Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom, Europe

It’s Pennine Way day. Well really it’s Pennine Way day minus two. Thanks Bun for getting me to the airport and for the nice goodbye kiss. Something to remember. Julie wasn’t far behind and despite having checked in electronically the same inching queue was our fate. No drama just frustrating. And the matches I so carefully took from my hand luggage and stowed in my luggage needed to be retrieved. Walkers need to carry matches (compass, whistle and the like) to make them feel like real walkers. No longer is a T-shirt proclaiming ‘I walked the Coast to Coast’ good enough. From Melbourne and as of now 12 hours towards Doha. In flight data has informed us that in just over 2 hours we should arrive in the sunny capital of Qatar where the expected temperature ... read more

Its Friday! Not that the days mean much to an unemployed bum like me but I’m sure y’all glad it’s the weekend. Friday also means coffee day, might try a Starbucks today, as much as I hate the whole corporate coffee chain thing I’m dying for a decent cuppa. Went for a run yesterday sad I know but it felt great going for my first run in almost 3 weeks. Didn’t really know where to run to so just kept going, mostly along the road, ended up in Salford Quays which is sort of like the Claisebrook area of East Perth but with a million more apartment buildings and cool attractions like the Lowry gallery, outlet shops and the Imperial War Museum. Also ended up outside the Man U stadium (yeah sorry Adam, but I’m ... read more

A couple of days have passed so time for another update … Went and saw Norwegian singer/songwriter called Sondre Lechre on Friday night. Sondre’s previous CD, Duper Sessions, was full of brilliant jazzy style songs, very Frank Sinatra/Harry Connick Jnr style. Not normally my cup of tea (a bit too adult contemporary for my liking) but it’s well worth the purchase if anyone wants some cool music for dinner parties etc. Rose - do you remember that I gave you a burnt copy of this (see I said it was old people music! - sorry couldn’t resist). Oh and Claire M - control yourself but Sondre toured with Elvis Costello last year! Sondre and band put on a great show, full of energy, amazing vocals, great guitar work and the band seemed to really enjoy ... read more

Sorry for the lack of updates, its not that I've been partying non stop and haven't had the chance to get online, its just that I've not had much to report. I'm still searching for a room to share. I managed to have a look at one unit yesterday, nice place but a bit expensive and a little too far out of town (actually in Salford but only 20 mins walk from the city). The owner is an ex lawyer (am I ever going to escape the law???) now clerking for a local Barrister. There are still a few promising places I'm hoping to be able to check out soon so X fingers for a breakthrough soon. Been walking around the city looking ay shops and sussing out any job vacancies, not a huge amount going ... read more

Start of day three and I don't think I have achieved much so far. The accommodation side of things looks slightly promising with a few nice places online but I'm yet to hear back from to arrange to look at the rooms. The place that sounds the best is a small room in a flat just around the corner from my hostel, the location is great so hopefully I hear back from them soon. Not so confident about the work front, it seems most of the retail jobs are full time jobs which really wouldn't suit my desire to take frequent trips to the mainland. Looks like I will have to compromise on the hours front or look for temp work in an office. Still its only early days, will look at signing up with ... read more