Uppy downy football, Big Rick and a day in Manchester

This weeks update shouldnt be too long..It only goes back a few days but its been an uppy downy ride of good and bad (mainly to do with football).

We start way back last week when Man United were the worlds greatest football team. Myself, Buffy and Emma had tickets for the match of the season so far - seats in the Stretford End on a Wednesday night against arch rivals Liverpool. It was the best atmosphere I have been to at a United match in ages - everyone got up and sang for the whole 90 minutes helping United to a great 1-0 win over the scousers. Here's our view of the goal......

The ground was going mental at every decision and the team played pretty well too giving us a well deserved win. The noise was deafening when we scored and pretty much lasted for the remainder of the game. A fantastic night out in the Theatre of Dreams.

Lots of scousers in the Scoreboard end

Big David

Steeeeevie Gerrrarrrd had a forgettable night - hahaha

United take a corner

Giggsy

Cath and Eleanor enjoying the evening!

Just one night later and it was mental quiz night again, so we all piled down to the Urmston with Chris and his tablet to take part. The quiz started late as normal, but that meant we had time to chat to someone we knew!! 'Big' Rick Neville, our Gareths best mate and a great friend to everyone in the family was in there having a bit of food and a drink and he surprised us when he came over to chat before the quiz. It was great to see him, his big hair and his brother Jason and have a catch up. We are hoping to go and see him play drums for his band 'The Rock Doctors', sometime soon. The night continued well as later on Buffy won a fiver on the high low part of the quiz.


I had a day of training for my new job late in the week - I will tell you more about that soon - but the weekend and especially Saturday itself was quite busy.

Buffy and myself went into Urmston for a really nice little food festival. There was a few stalls selling everything from beers to Paella and home made jams. It was a lovely morning and a lot of people were enjoying trying the different foods on offer. We had a lovely bit of lunch before getting the bus into town (Manchester City centre) and spent a while looking ariund teh city itself. I took her to Canal Street and the Gay village for a look around. Then a wander down Market street past the main shopping area to the Cathedral quarter. This is the area that was destroyed in an IRA bomb back in 1996, which turned out to be the best thing to happen to Manchester in years. The reconstruction around the area is lovely and open with new wide open shopping areas and state of the art buildings and facilities. Right smack bang in the middle of all this is The Old Wellington Inn - the oldest building of its kind in Manchester which dates back to 1552 - almost 600 years old. We stopped in here for a quick pint on a hot day before moving onwards and finishing our quick tour around the city.

Th Old Wellington pub in Manchester city centre

Urmston food festival

We would have been out longer but we had tickets for yet another United match - this time against West Bromwich Albion - a small club from near Birmingham, it should have been an easy win - but this isnt the Manchester United of old and we struggled from the start, played badly throughout and eventually lost to a 2-1 result. The crowd boo'd at the end and rightly so - the display was terrible and all the good work done against Liverpool was forgotten.

Getting to the ground - Sir Matt Busby Way

Before the game

United fans leading the singing.

That night we went out into Urmston for a few beers and to forget the football, before a quiet day on Sunday just vegging out. My (new) job rang and explained that I should be starting work next week on 7th October after an induction day this coming Friday. We did have plans for next week, so had to quickly change our plans, so this coming week is now going to be pretty busy with a couple of trips away.

The first part of nthe week was a trip to Urmston Library to see the ex-conservative politician 'Ann Widdicombe', talk about her autobiography. We didnt go to buy the book, but just to have an evening out and it was actually quite good fun. Ann was quite warm and friendly and had some good stories to tell about her life in politics as well as all the tv appearances she has made since retiring.  It mad eme think a little about ,aybe even voting next time there is an election, as I never have done before. She was a nice lady and I'm glad we went out to see her - Thanks to Urmston Bookshop for arranging it!

Ann Widdicombe and her book

Its all go now and I will tell you all about my new job sometime next week.....