Manchester Spring Blog Meet April 7

I know, I know, it's been way too long since we've all met up. But I'm still over here in the states, and still don't know when I'll be coming back to the UK. Fortunately, James Yer Mam! has kindly volunteered to organise the next blogmeet.

It's going to be going down at 3 in the afternoon on April 7 at The Hare and Hounds on Shudehill, a pub many of you may remember fondly from previous glittering Manchester Bloggers affairs (The quaintness of the decor! The cheapness of the beer!) For those of you who aren't quite sure where that is, it's in the Northern Quarter, just across the street from the new bus station and just across the tram stop from the Printworks.

As usual, everyone's welcome: people with blogs, people who wish they had blogs but aren't quite sure how to go about setting them up, people who like to read blogs, bloggers' significant others who secretly resent being forced to attend these geekfests but haven't quite managed to get out of going yet, people who don't understand why all these loud youngsters have taken over their pub in the middle of the afternoon but hope they bugger off soon. Have fun.

Travel advisory

Oh, and if you're wondering why I have been so quiet lately, I'm back home in the states dealing with a difficult situation offline. Blogging service should continue to be intermittent for the forseeable future. Go read some of those blogs over there, to your right.

Have Mersey!

Who says Mancs and Scousers can't get along? Hogwash. The Manchizzle has a new best friend, and it's name is Liverpool Blogs.*

Liverpool Blogs is the work of eminent ex-Mancunian blogger Stuart Ian Burns of Feeling Listless, and it's much like this blog in its aims; Stu says "Liverpool blogs more and more and the purpose of this site is to provide a focus for the budding blogging community, highlighting our writing and demonstrating that actually, we're not alone."

In fact, he says LB was actually inspired by The Manchizzle at the top of the first post. Aww, you gotta love being inspirational. Anyway, it's just barely been born and is still a mere mewling, monkey-faced infant in the blogosphere, but go take a gander at that blogroll. Amazing how many Scouse bloggers there are already, isn't it?

*(Of course we still love you Flat Out Norwich. You know what they say: "Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." I think that was a little song I learned in Girl Scouts.)

Observer Woman: Bite Me

The Observer Woman monthly has been known to make me so angry that I waste perfectly good Sundays being a seething mass of bitter rage, devoting hours to brooding and muttering that were intended for lingering over your third cup of tea and lazily contemplating making another bacon sandwich. So I've stopped reading it. I've strictly limited myself to sneering at the cover (all right, and muttering just a little bit.)

That's why I'm delighted to see that two fine Mancunians have picked up my slack in the righteous ranting department, except they're doing it online and in a much more organized and coherent way. Observer Woman Makes Me Spit is a noble blog that defines its mission thusly:


It arrives once a month. It’s often painful, always annoying. Liable to invoke irrational mood swings and violent bursts of temper. It’s messy, embarrassing and is often known as ‘the curse.’ Yes. It’s the Observer Woman Magazine. Could it be less relevant? Could it be more offensive? 51% of humanity reduced to simpering, bitchy whores of the fashion industry. Nothing to trouble our little minds but hunky men, flashy lip gloss and Gucci gussets. We hate it. We hate it so much we went to all this trouble to set up this blog. And we have real jobs. It took a good 30 minutes out of our drinking time. Spill your bile here. We will.

And I will too. If I ever let myself read it again.

Fresh blogs

Young bloggers rule. Here's one of the youngest I know of: David Wilkinson was born (in Manchester, of course) in 1994. He's also the force behind Techzi, a blog about all things technological that's very highly regarded; The Techzi feed has 199 subscribers.
David describes himself as an "internationally acclaimed weirdo, founder of Zi Media, and general nutter." You rock, David.

The Mersey Basin Campaign blog has moved here, and changed slightly in focus, writes blogmeister Kate. "It's a bit wider in scope - rather than just focusing on 'Mersey Basin Week', it's a blog for the whole campaign. Highlights at the moment are a thread following the progress of the book we are putting together about the River Mersey, and news about the project to redevelop the Radar Tower at Crosby."

Nik Fletcher is a student at RNCM and a bit of a technophile. He's also an observer of Mancunian life, who "noticed this week that yet another Sainsburys Local getting ready to open on March 8th under what is believed to be a hotel (IIRC) on Mosley Street just down from Picadilly. With 4 Sainsbury Locals already in the City Centre, all within easy walking distance of each other, I can't help but wonder who's letting these applications go through."

Red Rose Ramblings is the work of a 30-something Lancastrian - it's Steven, who also writes for the FC United blog MREnders. He has a funny account of just how eager a certain local newspaper seems to shift copies.

On the heels of the Salford Star, here's another community-media venture for you: The Old Trafford News, which comes with a blog called Old Trafford Views, written by editor Ally Fogg.

The MEN weighs in on blogging

The MEN has published an article about blogging today - local blogging superstar Geoff of The 43 is quoted, as well as Robin from the BBC Manchester Blog (Which I'm still writing weekly bits for, by the way.)

Time Out Manchester: Outta Time?

We've all been wondering what's going on with Time Out Manchester, which was supposed to launch this spring, you remember? It's been verrry quiet on that front. But Monday there was another communication from on high, buried down at the bottom of a Media Guardian gossip column. Here's the key bit:

"Elliott scoffs at suggestions that the magazine is being shelved. "We remain completely committed to Manchester and will launch in autumn," he says. "We are still in the process of raising investment. We need about £1m, and we have people working on that. We just do not have the liquidity to set it up on our own, though we have always said we really want to run Manchester ourselves, like we do in Chicago and New York."

Yeah, remember when he swaggered into town and said all that stuff about giving Manchester "the magazine it deserves?" Hmmmmm. The crack team of journalistic guns-for-hire assembled for the launch issue are all wandering away, I hear, to work on other promising "projects." A few were allegedly offered starvation wages to write for the soon-to-be-expanded TOM website, but declined.

It seems money's tight for TOM. Maybe we should start a fundraising drive, hold a few bake sales?

Roller disco, in an undisclosed location

Aww, yeah. I've been waiting so long for this, and someone's finally done it. They're bringing a roller disco to Manchester this Saturday night. And of course I'm buried beneath three feet of snow (really, no joke) in Vermont, and I can't go. How unfair is that? If you want to know how much I love roller disco, read this.

And it's so much more than just a roller disco. This Saturday, Manchester Forbidden Arts is throwing a big party from 2pm til 4am at an "as yet undisclosed venue." They promise us roller disco with skates for hire, art exhibs, film screenings, propaganda distribution stalls etc. from 2-5:30, and something called a "Cabarave" from 6pm-4am, featuring (deep breath): spoken word, film, Cabaret performance, burlesque, fire shows, belly dancers, circus skills, bands and Manchester's finest DJ's playing music. Want to know more, like, erm... where it's gonna be? Email manchestertaa at yahoo.co.uk

The roller skates will help you get away from the police dogs all the faster, right?

(The photograph is of NYC's own Bill Butler, the Godfather of roller disco and a lovely man.)

Manchester Blogggers needs you

Listen up for a special Valentine's Day message from the Manchester Bloggers Aggregator:

It needs some love. It hasn't been working properly, mainly because the guy who was maintaining it, Lord Rich, moved back to Bradford and doesn't have time to do it any more. Poor sad, neglected aggregator. Surely there's a Manchester technogeek out there who can come to the rescue?

If you just read the above and are now scratching your head wondering what the aggregator is, and why you should give a rat's ass about it, I'll tell you. The aggregator grabs all of our blog posts in one big feed and puts them up there on the screen in one easy-to-find place. It's the place to go if you want to see what Manchester bloggers are writing about, but don't want to spend hours visiting blog after blog. If you've signed up, it's brought readers to your blog. It's a good thing for all of us.

Rich writes: "Right now, somebody else taking over working on it sounds good. I'd be happy to hand it over to anybody who has time to spend on it. However, I'd warn you that it needs more than a little maintenance work - I'm thinking starting afresh with some more robust software is the way to go, and I definitely don't have the time to do that."

Won't you help? If you want to help save the aggregator, email me on themanchizzle at gmail dot com and I'll put you in touch with Rich. I'd do it myself except that using blogger is about as far as I go with technology and that.

New blogs that run with the wolves

Don't pay any attention to my silliness. I'm just getting bored with writing "more new Manchester blogs" every week or so and have decided to mix it up a little. These blogs don't really run with the wolves... or do they?

Tin-men is the blog of a 21-year old computer nerd struggling his way through the last part of a degree in Manchester. His latest project is MSG - no, not the dodgy flavour enhancer but something called the Manchester Student Guide. Looks well studenty.

It's high time I added this link to MEN Online Editor Sarah Hartley's Life Through Food, by far the strongest and most consistent of the MEN blogs. I hear they're getting some new ones soon.

Warhead's blog is written by a self-styled Grumpy Old Man. It's also on Six Apart's VOX platform, which I haven't seen much of. Other new personal blogs include Julesy's World and Lewis Henshall's blog.

How did I miss Adele's Labour Blog? Cripes, it's nice to see a political blog written by a woman for a change. This is your spot online for anything relating to Labour politics in Manchester, nationally and even internationally, as one of her recent posts features butt-kicking orator Barack Obama.

Hooray, it's another Mancunian Live Journal community. This one is for activists.

And finally, two veteran Manchester bloggers, Skipper and Mantex, have teamed up for a new Heaton Moor community blog called On The Moor. Roy of Mantex writes: "It's a mix of local gossip, moans about the council, plus the nearest we can get to celebrity news (local writers in our case). And piccies of course." Sounds good.

(Wolf picture from Dance With Shadows. We seem to be doing an animal thing lately with the pictures. Yeah, I have no idea what that's all about.)

A little birdie told me...

We love it here at the Manchizzle when a local boy makes good. You remember our old blogroll comrade and latent twitcher Conscious & Verbal left Manchester some months ago to seek his fortune? Sure you do. Well, he's now the proud owner of a shiny new blog called Flat Out Norwich.

It is, unsurprisingly, about "Norwich - Norfolk - the East of England - and the stuff that happens. Culture. Arts. Chat. People who blog. It's about finding out who is blogging flat out, out there, and compiling a big ol' blog roll so we can all spend more time reading about each other. It's blog love. Blove, if you will..."

Go visit and say hello.

(Brilliant canary picture courtesy of Bird Health.)

Two new magazines in Manchester!

Death of the print media? What? Manchester's about to get itself two shiny new magazines, and neither one is called Time Out (no word on that launch, BTW)

RevolveWire is a new Manchester-based magazine about culture and creativity. It's quite beautiful, and is edited by the shockingly multi-talented Ruth Heritage. The theme of the first issue is looking, and it should be available soon from stockists nationally and then some. *Blatant Plug* I contributed an article in this issue about blog fiction and an interview with the amazing Sarah Hepola. (Coughs awkwardly, changes subject.)

Who's Bob? In his own words, Bob is "a new free magazine that's as honest, unpretentious and approachable as its name suggests, bob is here for you. interested in the things that make you love life, bob will be a trusty companion ready and waiting in all the best haunts around manchester. bob launches in late march."

Check out that pilot issue on their website. Looks pretty dang good to me, and even features writing from email ninja and huge Manchester Museum fan, Andrew Shanahan.

Go on, shower them both with love and affection.

Asian Invasion, Part 3: Chaophraya

There's a lot of hype about this new Thai place, Chaophraya. Based on my first visit, it's entirely justified. Of the three places I reviewed for lunch, this was definitely my favourite. It could be one of the best restaurants in the city, though time will tell.

Its location makes it convenient to most of the offices in the city centre, and it seems the word has definitely gotten out. On the Friday lunchtime I was there it was very busy - I think I managed to get the last table in the bar area, most of which were either very high, or way down at floor level. They pad thai and other noodle/rice dishes for under a fiver, and have lunchtime "tapas" selections of skewers, dumplings and various deep-fried bits at £5-£8.

But I had my heart set on Som Tom (£9), a cold salad of shredded green papayas, veggies and prawns. I ate this years ago, in a town near the Cambodian border, prepared by a toothless grandma with a mortar and pestle, and it was unforgettable. God, doesn't that sound like pretentious foodie nonsense? It's true, though. I was visiting my friend China in Surin.

Anyway, I digress. The Som Tom at Chaophraya was very good - shredded veggies and peanuts slathered in just the right amount of sweet-spicy-fishy seasoning, with those little red peppers providing a potent kick. There was a generous serving of grilled tiger prawns alongside, not the little dried shrimps they use for this dish in Thailand (apparently they're very hard to get hold of here.) The service was good, though one waiter did scowl at me when he realised I'd asked for tap water, and he'd just opened a bottle for nothing.

I don't usually spend £9 on lunch, but it'd be well worth the extra dosh for the food alone, even if the atmosphere wasn't impeccably gorgeous. The place is an oasis of burbling fountains, carved statues, and muted lighting - much thought has been put into the decor and it shows. They even have posh hand lotion in the bathroom that smells like orange blossoms.

And you just never know who you'll see in these places. I spent ten minutes staring at this guy a couple tables away from me, trying to remember where I knew him from. Eventually I realised it was Dave Spikey, Chorley's Ambassador of Culture, and felt like a prat.

Chaophraya
Chapel Walks (Above Sam's Chop House)
Off Cross Street
Manchester
M2 1HN
0161 832 8342

Asian Invasion, Part 2: Mai Bai

Sushi sushi sushi, everywhere except Manchester. Until now you could only sample this gift of the Japanese people to mankind in two locations here: The YO! Sushi treadmill in Selfridges and New Samsi on Whitworth Street, both scandalously overpriced and fairly mediocre quality-wise. Recently we got Wing's in the Arndale Foodmarket (reviewed here) and Sapporo Teppanyaki in Castlefield, which I think has the best sushi of the lot.

So here comes another sushi-slinging joint. Mai Bai fills a nice little gap if you're in the vicinity of Albert Square and don't fancy soup or sarnies, it's on Princess Street just across from the Town Hall. Of course, lots of other people have this idea, and on my first visit bang in the middle of workday lunchtime the place was absolutely heaving. Come after 2:15 if you want to eat in peace.

God knows why, but conventional wisdom seems to hold that the English are a tough sell on raw fish. Maybe this is why most sushi places here fill their menus with rolls made with cooked fish, and even weirder things like meat and cream cheese. Mai Bai is no different - cooked rolls easily outnumber raw fish rolls on their menu (chicken teriyaki roll, anyone? Jesus.) This saddens me. To put it plainly, if it ain't raw, it ain't sushi, except for that omlette stuff.

The folks at Mai Bai seem to make most of their sushi beforehand, and sell plastic containers of the stuff in a refrigerated case. I'm told you can ask for things to be made up, even combinations they don't have on the menu, but I wouldn't like to try it when it's busy. I asked for some unagi rolls the second time I was there but they didn't have any eel in. Instead, I got a so-so California roll, which weirdly seemed to have mayonaise in it. The second time I got a very spicy kimchee roll, which was good, but in both cases I'd have preferred more filling and less rice. Both times, some miso soup and hot, in-shell edamame went down a treat. If you go that route, though, you're not going to get out of there for less than £6 or £7 if you want a drink too.

I haven't tried Mai Bai's Japanese-style noodles yet, but am looking forward to it. There were quite a few people busily slurping away both times I visited.

The decor is a little clinical - lots of gleaming metal and white walls, and rows of high stools and counters that make it seem like the kind of place designed for eating in a hurry, or maybe performing elective surgery. But they do have free wi-fi for customers, so you geeks might want to linger. I'll definitely be back for more Mai Bai - it's convenient, reasonably priced, and will satisfy my sushi jones. But more raw fish, please.

Mancubist reminded me to tell you that Manchester Confidential is running an offer where you can get 2-for-1 on hot food there, if you give them your email address (and let their e-marketing elves have their way with it, of course.)

Mai Bai
37 Princess Street
City Centre
Tel:0161 238 9191

Asian Invasion, Part 1: Ning

Coming to Manchester from NYC a few years back, I really missed the huge selection of ethnic restaurants - I was especially homesick for Asian food besides the ubiquitous Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi and straight-ahead Chinese on offer. But lo and behold, Manchester has suddenly gotten a mini-influx of new restaurants serving up other Asian cuisines. And I've been checking them out at lunchtime. Here's a triptych of
sorta-reviews for your consideration:

Part One: Ning

Ning is located at the top of Oldham Street, well past the invisible line where the dodgy discount stores and down-and-out pubs start to outnumber the hair salons and record shops. This isn't exactly a buzzing bit of manc right now, but I'm sure the owners are hoping that the promised transformation of Ancoats into a yuppie breeding ground will bring the punters their way. Could be a smart move, if they can stick it out.

Ning is billed as a "cantine/cafe/restaurant" which seems a little precious - I mean, couldn't ya pick one? It's a small place decorated in a restrained, design-y manner with lots of bare surfaces and big plate glass windows, which some drunken scally will soon careen into and shatter.

The flavour of cooking here is pan asian, heavy on the curries, rice and noodles. While there isn't a ton of choice, the lunch mains are all under £6.50. I had the grilled tiger prawn satay (£5). The satay sauce was nutty and not too sweet; the (too few) prawns were crispy and toothsome, and the rice and raw vegetables alongside just about made this enough for a light lunch.

Across the table, my luncheon companion The Mancubist seemed quite happy with his £5 Ning Curry Lunch (they have a changing selection of curries every week; you pick beef, chicken, veggie or prawn).

Based on that experience, I'd say it's a decent place for lunch if you're in the hood. The food didn't completely knock me out, and I was hoping for more street food and more Vietnamese stuff on the menu ... most of the dishes are Malaysian, which means curry and more curry. But it's a nice addition to Oldham Street.

Ning Cantine Cafe Restaurant
92-94 Oldham St
Manchester, M4 1LJ
0161 238 9088

On t'wireless

If you've been wondering what's going on with all this wireless city stuff you've been hearing about, you can get the straight dope over at the Manchester Digital Development Agency's ONE-Manchester blog.

For those of you who are just tuning in, Manchester has launched an ambitious bid to create a free wireless network that would cover all of Greater Manchester (an area of some 400 square miles) and serve 2 million people. The IP- (internet Protocol) City project would be partially funded by the Government's Digital Challenge initiative. The MDDA just got their application in last week - oy, I bet that was a big stack of paper.

Big kudos to the forward-thinking folks at MDDA who came up with the idea of blogging about the process - this kind of transparency is all too rare in government.

Whither Stevenson Square?

It seems Stevenson Square, that glum, heavily-trafficked bit of urban blight above Lever Street, is getting a makeover. I just stumbled upon this post on Rob Adlard's Blog from way back in December, possibly inspired by this piece in the MEN (in which they misspelled the name of the square. Classic). He writes:

"...the only real potential candidate for a proper square in the Northern Quarter, is to be developed by Argent, the people who brought a little bit of Milton Keynes to Manchester with the No.1 Piccadilly building.

As I’ve already said previously in this blog, they did a great job of encouraging the right kind of local businesses into the building, but its a real low point in terms of appeal and appearance showing that we haven’t really learned any lessons from the 70’s or the Arndale Centre. It really concerns me that the same people are going to be allowed to develop such an important part of our historic and unique Northern Quarter."

And, according to this press relase from architects HKR, it's to be called The Hive, no doubt to be filled with productive little worker bees hopped up on cappucino from the regulation coffee bar on the ground floor.

I didn't realise that Stevie Square was an official "conservation area" - This council site sketches out the planning guidelines, and includes a lot of great historical info. It seems the square once was exactly the kind of public gathering-place that Rob and others are calling for:

For the last three-quarters of the 19th century, the Square was popular with open-air speakers and became a meeting place and starting point for processions. The most notable of these celebrated the opening of the Town Hall in 1877 and was believed to have engaged 50,000 participants.

Rob says he'll keep us posted on the plans. This looks like one to keep your eye on. And what's with that Robot, anyway... what IS that thing? I like it.

They just keep coming...

...those new Manchester blogs, ya know. Makes me think there's something to all this media bleating about how a new blog is created every .08 seconds. Anyway, here's this week's motley crew:

Timothy W. Stanley is a doctoral candidate at the University of Manchester. He doesn't write exclusively on his academic topic, but his well-written, lengthy posts often deal with the intersection of religion/ideology and popular culture - e.g. this post on the eschatology of Betty Suarez ( star of the curiously addictive new telenovela Ugly Betty.) His latest post is a thoughtful look at the very different ideas of justice in the UK and the USA.

All My Little Words is a blog about The Magnetic Fields, written by a Nick, another Australian living in Manc. Actually, to be precise, he says it's about "grammar, The Magnetic Fields and The Magnetic Fields inspired/related ideas." If you're not familar with Stephin Merritt and his amazing band of musical genius-oddballs, check them out. They performed the one of the best concerts I've seen in Manchester at RNCM a couple of years ago.

Funky Monkey Man is the personal blog of a Mancunian gent who writes mainly about his daily life.

Iconoplex is written by Paul Robinson, who's curious about the world, and wants to enlist readers in his quest to think more. He writes:
"Over the coming months, you'll be asked to contemplate, question, discuss and improve the World in various ways. This is a wonderful place, full of wonderful people, all the more remarkable for the fact we're just a few billion walking pieces of mud on a tiny speck of rock nearby a lovely warm star. The aim of this site is to help you enjoy it a little bit more by thinking." This week he's thinking about why we blog.

Random Thoughts is "just the standard type of blog," written by a Mancunian and cyclist who lives, I believe, in Glossop. Has a nice snow picture up, too.

Scrub-scrub says of her blog: "it's: All about me...well what I think/do on a daily basis! Im 17, live in Manchester and Im studying A levels at Sale Grammar. I've applied to medical school as I really want to study medicine but I doubt Ill be sucessful! the majority of this blog will probably be me moaning!"

Another week, another film-related blog. This one's intriguingly titled Ugly RED Source of all Evil, and it's written by a Scottish projectionist who lives in Manc. And he eats pie sandwiches - also known as "slappies." I thought they only did that in Wigan.

New photo blog fotofacade is the work of Andy Marshall, who is an architectural photographer. As you'd expect, some lovely photos of buildings on there. Walter Menzies is another photoblogger based in Chesire. His latest photo of Macclesfield is entitled "Where would we be without maggots?"... I've pasted it above.

And Forgotten Classics is a literary blog whose main contributor is JdG, a writer and academic who lives in the Northern Quarter. It's linked to the Time Out (London) column of the same name, which bears the slogan "reading neglected writers so you don't have to." He has recently featured Graham Greene's minor novel The Ministry of Fear and - yes - Julie Burchill's first novel, Ambition.

TO DO: Blog workshop, My Manchester, HK art

Lots of other folks have blogged about this, but I thought I'd remind you, too. Thursday at 6pm the lovely people from the BBC Manchester Blog are holding a workshop on blogging. It's a free (you need to register) two-hour intro for anyone who's ever wanted to blog but hasn't yet, and will also benefit experienced bloggers who have questions about stuff like RSS feeds, changing platforms or installing advertising. And anyone who's remotely interested in getting involved in the BBC Manchester Blog should come along.

Incidentally, I'm going to be on BBC Radio Manchester chatting about Manc blogs again this week - should go out around 3 or half 3 Wednesday.

I found this listings site for the city, called My Manchester. A smattering of art exhibition listings, gigs etc. but the all-in-one place film listings are probably the most useful bit. However, it doesn't stretch to Bolton and some other outlying urbs in Greater Manc.

There are a couple of Asian-flavoured art exhibitions opening Thursday. Collective Identity is a group show examining the Chinese people under Mao at the Chinese Art Centre. Arrivals and Departures: New Art Perspectives of Hong Kong is at Urbis, and features the work of Castlefield Gallery co-directors Kwong Lee and Yuen Fong Ling, among others (the above image is from Gordon Cheung).

The exhibition marks the 10-year anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong, and I'm looking forward to checking it out. The last time I was in Hong Kong was before it reverted to Chinese control. I stayed here and it scared the bejeezus out of me. That was before I had seen Chungking Express though - a marvelous movie.

An avalanche of new blogs

Wow, there's like, soooo many blogs to add. Here we go.
Bend to Squares is the quite slick-looking blog of Vic, a copywriter and Australian in exile. It's basically a resource for cute art and crafty things, as well as fashion, photos and other covetable odds and ends... like the unsettling work of Marcel Dzama, which is the subject of her latest post.


StraightTalkingStreetTalkingSweet is a blog of pub poetry written by Danny Wise, aka Andy Sewina. It's not poetry about pubs, at least not mostly. "I call it Pub Poetry 'cos most of it was written after a few beers down the local watering hole." he also has a personal blog at Proper Joe's. And his partner Nicola has a blog called Raw Meat

ysr23 is subtitled "photos and that." It's the work of Thomas Mceldowney, who posts a photo a day. He's responsible for the image above - I'm sure Stretford has never looked so hauntingly beautiful.


Deltaflow is the personal blog of Julian Malik Seidenberg, a Manc student who's had a very interesting life. Really.

Elgey is currently traveling in Prague, where he is presumably drinking absinthe - if you scroll down a bit there are detailed instructions on how to correctly prepare "the green fairy." Never had absinthe myself, but always wanted to try it.


Mamucium is a personal blog - the name comes from the old Roman name for manchester, and there's quite a bit about the city's ancient history in the first post.

There's also another political blog: Politaholic, which has lately focused on close readings of and responses to political coverage in the newspapers.

Postcards from the Manchester Student Scene; That one's self-explanatory, I think. Same goes for Reel Review.

Thanks to the folks who emailed about new bloggage - Nick, Chris, Andy and the rest.