Yes, Manchester may not be quite as old as London, or as enormous as New York. But what we lack in size or age we make up for in easy to get to quick sights to see for the seasoned tourist.

And to help us on our way Google have invented a snazzy way for getting the recommended Manchester tourist sights. They’ve set up a way for the locals to add interesting places, it’s called Google City Tours. The sights are shown on a Google Map.

If you click on the Google City Tours link it currently shows a variety of different places to visit, including:

• Greater Manchester Museum of Transport
• Manchester Museum
• Museum of Greater Manchester Police
• Manchester Jewish Museum
• Salford Museum and Art Gallery
• Ordsall Hall
• The Gallery of Costumes
• Heaton Park Tramway Trasport Museum
• Museum of Science and Industry

and many others…

Try it, you may find something you’ve never heard of and yet is worth a visit.

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This is aimed at those who’d love to live in houseboats, own their own liveaboard, maybe run their own boat charter or have their own sea-going fishing boat.

This post is slightly unusual as a Manchester friend has asked me to see if you’re interested in his pride and joy, a 20 metre 14 berth launch.

So here goes…

The Osprey Liveaboard

The boat is an ex-RAF launch called Osprey. My friend is an ex chief engineer who loves to make things work exactly right. So he’s taken a long time making it into a comfortable liveaboard for divers and he’s run Osprey as a boat charter operation.

He got the boat approved in early 2005 and she chartered in the Western Isles, in Scotland, during that season and was due to return for the 2006 season.

Unfortunately due to serious health problems in the family he wasn’t able to take the Osprey out in 2006 and she was moved to Yoker, Glasgow where’s she’s been cared for ever since.

The family’s health issues remain unresolved and as he’s now reached retirement he and his wife are reluctantly putting the Osprey onto the market.

Some Liveaboard photos

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A Bit Of Boating History!

The boat was built in 1959 by Saunders Roe in Anglesey for the RAF as a rescue target towing launch.

She was stationed in Portrush (Northern Ireland) servicing the North Atlantic until 1968. She was then transferred to the Royal Navy as a fast despatch craft for the Commodore of the Clyde.

She was stationed in the Grand Harbour, Greenock, until 1984 when she was sold and converted into a dive vessel, with dive platform at the back and accommodation for 12 divers, plus crew and captain. You can see the layout and accommodation in the picture below:

Liveaboard Layout and Boat Accommodation

The boat is 20 metres long with a beam of 6 metres and a draft of 1.7 metres and weights 43 tons.

If you’re interested in knowing more about the boat, including equipment  email me at Osprey at acornservice dot com. Alternatively just leave me a comment!

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Well we had a beautiful day on Thursday, 4th June. Friday was great until about 4pm and then the heavens opened.

Today? Well Saturday is looking gloomier.

Basically, today’s weather has been a lot more of the same. It’s chucking it down. I can see a couple of very bedraggled marshals standing at the front of the main gates.

It has brightened a little since about 8:30am but it is still pouring down.

Luckily the concert site is up on a rise so there is reasonable drainage down into the rest of the park.

Hopefully, the weather will clear but at the moment it looks as though it wants to keep going all day.

Good luck if you’re coming to the concert today!

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Situated where we are we can’t hear the Oasis gig at all, as the concert is on the Bury Old Road side of the park.

Two of Kay’s cousins borrowed a small bit of our drive to park their car and went to the concert.

Their verdict? Fantastic!

Our verdict on the how everything seemed to work?

Traffic appeared to keep moving and there didn’t seem to be the horrific traffic jams we all expected.

There was an enormous amount of people walking around Middleton Road but the park and ride buses seemed to be working well.

Having said that the Middleton Road main gate wasn’t really the focus of foot or car traffic as most people were channeled out of the gig through the Bury Old road gates and the Sheep Foot Lane one.

I know the plan was that tram passengers should make their way to Bowker Vale to get their trams home. That is they wouldn’t be able to use the closer Heaton Park tram station, possibly because it’s smaller than Bowker Vale. All I can say is I hope Metrolink laid on special tram services with double carriages for everyone.

I suspect the traffic will be much more chaotic for the remaining Oasis dates at Heaton park if the weather continues nice, although the forecast is rather gloomy over the weekend: rain is expected.

Remember there are a vast raft of parking restrictions around the area. And as I said before the Heaton Park Sainsbury’s car park is closed to Oasis traffic and again the car park’s 8 foot high gates will close long before the gig finishes!

For those who want to see how the park is laid out check the Heaton Park map and note that there are now 2 further large gates for pedestrians to exit between the Grand Lodge entrance and the text saying Bury Old road on the left of the map at the bottom.

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I live right outside Heaton Park where the Oasis concerts are being held.

Looking around the area my advice would be to use the park and ride facilities at Prestwich and elsewhere or to come by tram, arriving either at Heaton Park or Bowker Vale tram stations.

Otherwise it will be a complete nighmare for you. Traffic is fairly nose to tail with the quite small amount of rush hour traffic we normally get on Middleton Road. So you can imagine what it’s going to be like with a vast army of concert goers.

Basically the Middleton road and Sheepfoot Lane roads are completely coned off to prevent parking. And I know that Heaton Park has some parking inside but there’s no way it’s going to be able to meet the needs of the estimated 70,000 Oasis fans. And I suspect it may be all be used up by the buses that will be running into the park anyway.

And just in case you’re thinking of coming on the motorway and parking in the big car park at the Heaton Park Sainsbury’s there’s a notice warning for you not to go in as they’re closing the gates.

Also if you’re thinking of trying to go up Victoria Avenue it’s going to be blocked to concert traffic and all the way up the road is coned off.

Finally if you’re thinking of sneaking in and parking between cones or in a spot that looks vacant the police are operating a tow-away zone.

Obviously we don’t know whether it’s really going to be a nightmare but after years of living here and seeing the arrangements normally made for concerts these go way beyond what has been done before.

So like I said before make it easy on yourself and use public transport.

And then you can enjoy the show!

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Heaton Park is still (probably) Europe’s biggest municipal park. I live near the main gates and obviously enjoy walks in the park with my children. Over the last few years there has been a lot of improvements carried out in the park.

However, there also seems to be an attempt by the council to eat away at the park.

They built two new car parks, one for the new children’s playground reached via the St Margaret’s entrance.

The other car park leads directly from Sheepfoot Lane.

There was also the idiotic idea that a school should be transferred into the park. Yes it’s land, but it’s not meant for development - it’s meant for all of Manchester’s people to use.

And now the council are building two pedestrian gates on the Bury Old Road side of the park. Presumably because of the Oasis concerts scheduled for 4th, 6th and 7th June this year.

It makes you wonder how we’ve coped with "only" having the gates we have at the moment, which to give them their due do seem to be able to cope with quite massive amounts of people.

For example, there are actually two large gates very close to the two new ones plus a smaller pedestrian one nearer to the Heaton Park metro station. And of course a little further down Sheepfoot Lan we’ve the gates to the new car park and another gate a little further down from there.

Obviously I’ve a vested interested in the park remaining undeveloped, that is as a park, because I live right next to it.

But more than that, I really believe this park is the jewel in the Manchester’s crown of greenery and to chip away at it is like chipping  away at a flawless cut diamond it devalues it’s use to future generations of Mancuions.

Hopefully, these gates are as far as the council are nibbling away at the park. However, I’m not holding my breath!

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It’s a beautiful day here in sunny Manchester. A time when my mind turns to the wonders of modern government and how it affects the Mancunion.

This "New" Labour government seems to have a very clear idea that more and more attention to being able to identify people with documents will create a highly secure and well-regulated society here in the UK.

And presumably with that aim in mind Manchester has been chosen as the first place to get the new electronic personal Id.

Home Office Suggest Crime Reduction

I don’t see how the Home Office expects National Id cards to reduce fraud or other crime. Don’t they know that criminals are able to duplicate all forms of documents, including passports. Why do they think that ID cards will be any different?

According to the BBC the home secretary is quoted as saying:

"ID cards will deliver real benefits to everyone, including increased protection against criminals, illegal immigrants and terrorists" 

Surely illegal immigrants will remain illegal?

How does an Id card that people can forge protect us from criminals? And yes I know they have fingerprints on, but so what?

And equally how on earth will ID cards protect us from terrorists if they’re already here? And I’m pretty sure that they could easily get National Id Cards anyway.

Voluntary For A Price

Everyone in Manchester’s really looking forward to applying for the new "passport."  Or at least some people may be. On reflection, maybe I mean some politicians will be.

Basically it’s yet another tax on the ordinary man in the street. Luckily the tax is currently a voluntary one and "only" costs a mere £30. Interestingly it is only available to passport holders. People are going to be able to register or them online.

Apparently the information that is held is no more than used on your passport. Hmm, I didn’t know the passport required a fingerprint.

Which begs the question: why have a new document when we have an existing one that appears to do the same job?

It will be highly entertaining to watch whether anyone actually registers for this ridiculous scheme.

I’ll be looking out as to how it’s going as time progresses and will keep you updated as to its progress.

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Yes folks, it’s that time of year again when thoughts turn to racing ducks.

Once again Clayton Vale plays host to a fiercely contested duck race where the ducks are dropped off the bridge near the Clayton Vale visitors centre and sent down the river to be captured further along.

The event is on tomorrow (18th April) and involves racing ducks, face painting and other fun stuff. As usual I will be in attendance with one, two or maybe the whole brood of children.

We’ll buy the services of one or more ducks in the vain hope that this year our duck gets the coveted winners laurels.

We’re hoping this lovely weather continues so we can also grab some sun as we watch the titanic ducky struggles.

If you see me say hello!

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Well here we are once again, another hole in the road.

Over the weekend a few bollards were artfully displayed along one of the lanes on Middleton Road leading away from Manchester and towards the M60.

Today the bollards have arrived in force and it looks as though they’re opening another hole in the road next to the one that was there on the opposite carriageway.

Hmm.

The result is that for people going through the roadworks there is one lane out of Manchester.

At the moment the traffic is backing up towards the petrol station near The Heaton Park hotel. So not too bad.

However, this isn’t rush hour yet!

My advice?

Steer well clear it’s going to be very, very bad.

Other Middleton Road Carriageway Affected Too

Oh, and for tomorrow, just to let you know.  When you come in to Manchester you may still have a pr0blem.

Currently one lane on the other carriageway is also blocked as they’ve put a lorry there to take the soil from the digger.

Looks like they’ve waited for Easter holidays before unleashing this potential mayhem!

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As I checked Bury’s web site for the Radcliffe pool opening times I noticed that highly attractive phrase "free swimming."

Apparently anyone who’s under 16 or above 60 can swim for free in Bury’s pools. It’s part of a 2 year test which begins in April this year.

Sounds interesting. Although as I’m not 60 I don’t benefit. However, my children do, so we’ll be registering them!

Mind you given the age range of people that go to the pools you’d have thought it wouldn’t be that much of an issue to make swimming free for everyone!

Anyway, I’ll see you at the pool.

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