I DID an epic guiding day on Saturday with three tours one after the other.
First The Peterloo Massacre walk with guests including three lads from Longsight and Levenshulme who wanted to know more about their city's history but thought they'd never had enough education at school about the significance of Manchester. It was good to see such young folk making the effort.
Then it was the Haunted Underworld tour (more dates up today).
This takes place in the dark and is all about ghost stories.
Yet one gentleman on the tour made me doubt my guiding skills. After the underground part and after we had emerged from the dark - lots of satisfying screams down there - he asked me a question.
"What other tours do you do?" the guest asked.
I began to describe them.
"Do you do that tour in the dark, you know underground, with the ghost stories?" he interrupted.
"Eh? You've just been on that," I said bemused. "We were in the dark and I was telling ghost stories."
"Oh right," he said.
I'm still utterly confused by this. He'd even had the pigman chase him and you can't get scarier than that. Ghostly oinks are spooky I tell you.
The final tour was the Tour of Uninteresting Objects following Fountain Street to the Northern Quarter. I took the guests up Shudehill Transport Interchange for a glorious 360 degree view on a lovely Saturday. It's so good up there I reckon there should be a coffee shop. Later we discovered new bar and restaurant Rosie Lee in Stevenson Square and had a debrief.
Rosie Lee is a good looking place with a decent looking menu that should succeed. It might be a little confused in its theme. The name is Cockney rhyming slang for tea isn't it? Yet the theme is all French and Edith Piaf. Ooh la la rather than cor blimey. The second oddity of the day.
I feel mutliple tour days may be the way forward.
They also feed nicely into being a writer, specifically the editor of Manchester Confidential.
The best way, the only real way, to learn about a city is through the soles of your feet. If you don't tramp it, you don't see the changes properly, don't hear it breathe, you just can't feel it right.
And strange things happen all the time, that is the dynamism and charm of cities.
I adore how the planters and playground on New Cathedral Street, rather than suffering vandalism as people feared, are being used for all types of recreation. Click here for the lingerie in the flower beds story.
First The Peterloo Massacre walk with guests including three lads from Longsight and Levenshulme who wanted to know more about their city's history but thought they'd never had enough education at school about the significance of Manchester. It was good to see such young folk making the effort.
Then it was the Haunted Underworld tour (more dates up today).
This takes place in the dark and is all about ghost stories.
Yet one gentleman on the tour made me doubt my guiding skills. After the underground part and after we had emerged from the dark - lots of satisfying screams down there - he asked me a question.
"What other tours do you do?" the guest asked.
I began to describe them.
"Do you do that tour in the dark, you know underground, with the ghost stories?" he interrupted.
"Eh? You've just been on that," I said bemused. "We were in the dark and I was telling ghost stories."
"Oh right," he said.
I'm still utterly confused by this. He'd even had the pigman chase him and you can't get scarier than that. Ghostly oinks are spooky I tell you.
The final tour was the Tour of Uninteresting Objects following Fountain Street to the Northern Quarter. I took the guests up Shudehill Transport Interchange for a glorious 360 degree view on a lovely Saturday. It's so good up there I reckon there should be a coffee shop. Later we discovered new bar and restaurant Rosie Lee in Stevenson Square and had a debrief.
Rosie Lee is a good looking place with a decent looking menu that should succeed. It might be a little confused in its theme. The name is Cockney rhyming slang for tea isn't it? Yet the theme is all French and Edith Piaf. Ooh la la rather than cor blimey. The second oddity of the day.
I feel mutliple tour days may be the way forward.
They also feed nicely into being a writer, specifically the editor of Manchester Confidential.
The best way, the only real way, to learn about a city is through the soles of your feet. If you don't tramp it, you don't see the changes properly, don't hear it breathe, you just can't feel it right.
And strange things happen all the time, that is the dynamism and charm of cities.
I adore how the planters and playground on New Cathedral Street, rather than suffering vandalism as people feared, are being used for all types of recreation. Click here for the lingerie in the flower beds story.
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