The Half Marathon

On May 20th hundreds of people decided to gather all together and run for 21 kilometers.

Why they would do it is beyond me , but non the less I went and took pictures.

It was the hottest day of the year so far and the sky was blue as blue it can be.

There were people dressed up in crazy outfit...

and M. dressed in plain black, ah!

Isn't Manchester pretty?



at the arrival there were people fainting...

but mostly , there were people hugging. Which is always great to see.

Of course we had to had breakfast at our favourite place! Someone (not me!) definitely earned it!

To the next!

Manchester Lately

It's been a while since I've written, those are long days, and weeks!
So many things going on, I have to wrap my head around it.
I also wanted to tell things chronologically here but I haven't had the time or better the inclination to work on the pictures from our latest trip .
I'm having many difficulties with the Apple method of storing pictures and even the easiest task takes me a long time and many nervous breakdowns.

It's been cold! It never gets many degrees below zero, but some mornings i find ice on the windows of the car. It's winter and sunny and cool and brisk. Finally!

Sunday I finally went to Mass . Once a month there is a Mass in Italian in this little Church downtown called the Hidden Gem , for good reason!
After Mass I stopped for coffee with a young couple I already know and a family of four. It was good. It just felt good, and connecting and normal and peaceful after a rough and emotional couple of days.

There is one music shop very close to where we live ; they sell vinyls and used CD and coffee and tea and guitars, very peculiar, especially in our block.

I saw a CD from the Ocean Colour Scene and I had to buy it.
It's been so nice to listen to the group lately: it brought back memories from the old days but warmth with words and pronunciation that are now familiar.
My favourite: The Day We Caught The Train.

Talking about music and old days, I really felt like I missed something not going to see one of my favourite bands when I was a baby that came here in Manchester, so when Hanson published their tour I really couldn't resist and bought 2 tickets for the Sunday night concert. MMMMpop!

Brexit talks are going on and on and things are still very unknown.Manchester is still, however, very on the labour side. So it's easy to spot graffiti like this.

Whenever I randomly find something from home I have to buy it! It was nice seeing it there and they definatly tasted better :)

 

Yesterday it was my last Chinese lesson, for this year. 

The teacher was one of my best teacher I've ever had. She always  knew the how to respond to our ( my) questions and never reply with a non conclusive answer.

She is Chinese, engaged to a Polish boy, going back to China for a bit now and than moving to Norway. How crazy I got to meet her? 

How crazy is it that for 4 months you spend 3 hours a week one to one with a person almost one to one, and then all of a sudden you know you most probably  never going to meet again? 

Or maybe some day I'll move to Norway and take her class again :)

I Can Learn To Be Human Too

Random night out in the Northern Quarter.

Matt and Phred's, beer and swing.

Sounds good to me.

 

               

listen to them

What I've Learned This Week |Four|

One. I believed I knew English pretty well, but then I moved to Manchester.

Today I couldn’t spell Fulfilment. Turns out there is only on L!

How long before I’ll comfortably say Aubergine, Flat and Lift?

Long live the Queen!

(but the City Center (or Centre?) will always be “downtown” for me. The Boss cannot be wrong)

Two. When you ask for a password and they insist the password you’re using is right, even after many failed attempts, before involving the whole IT office, try the Caps Lock. You won’t regret it. Believe me on this one.

Three. The view from my office printer room is amazingly weird.

Four. For my improvement September I started to declutter my inbox. In the past week I counted an average of 5 emails a day I didn’t need or want to read.

The button Unsubscribe gives a certain level of satisfaction.

Five. My phone, as of now is: my clock, my watch, my alarm, my secretary, my phone, my social media manager, my dictionary, my ipod, my magazines , my GPS, my camera, the source of many of my communication with family and friends, what the hell, I even watch movies on it. 

The thing is though, lately is not been working really well, or maybe I should say it’s not been working at all. The battery dies after a few minutes of it being unplugged (the joy of technology!) , the memory is always full no matter what I delete, and now even the clock refuse to keep with time. After having a fun couple of mornings not waking up because my phone was two hours behind, I realised, once again , I need to let it go and don’t rely on it this much.

I’m leaving it in by bag at work and I need to indulge in a splurge, spend five pounds and buy an alarm.

Valtellina

and again, I would say...do you actually need any word? I live in a beautiful country.

This was last minute, heard a friend that was going to the workshop, jumped into a train and went as well.

Two days among cows,  milk, smoke and shepards. 

ok, "among shepards" doesn't sound very good but it's the truth! 

Can you believe this is just about two hours drive from smoggy, businnessy, fashion fantastic Milano?

Venezia

Do you actually need any word?

I live in a beautiful country.