Chapter 3 Discovering Manchester and Surrounds

We arrived in Manchester on the 30th of May which was to be our home for the next four and a half months. We were very fortunate to be offered a place to live in Worsley (a rather wealthy suburb in Greater Manchester) by a New Zealand family who only use the house for one month each year. The house is a very typical old English home, small and antique. It backs on to some woods and a golf course. We have great neighbours and are very happy here.

We focused on getting jobs ASAP to allow us to continue travelling. We found out quickly that you can’t really rely on recruitment agencies to do this for you, and that f you’re proactive yourself, there is work available. Kristen is currently working in a newly developed building complex on their security desk and I am working for an internet-based company as a consultant (after a bad experience with an English telecommunications company).

The only thing we knew about Manchester before arriving was that it was home to the world’s richest soccer club. We took a tour of the Manchester United stadium at Old Trafford. They allowed us on the pitch, in the change room and even created a match-day atmosphere as we ran down the player’s race.

For my birthday weekend we hired a car and drove along Wales’ northern coast right out to the western most point at Holyhead. On our journey back to Manchester we drove through the Snowdonia National Park in Central Wales. We had a fantastic weekend. Wales is a beautiful place with so much history, full of castles, roman cities, rolling green hills and nice beaches. We even trekked over a few mountains in search of ‘Druid’s Circle’, a place where witches used to sacrifice children. We also had the privilege of seeing a “Holy Well”, the place where the infamous Saint Winifred apparently had her head cut off by a young Prince ‘admirer’ only to have it sewn on again by her father and miraculously living…
In the same weekend we also drove up to Blackpool on England’s west coast. Our tourist brochure described Blackpool as Britain’s tourist resort with long, sandy white beaches. Unfortunately when we arrived we found in to be a bad version of a mini Las Vegas, with long sandy brown beaches. Then a sea mist swept over the town and we could literally see only about 5 metres in front of us. Not quite the resort we were lead to believe.
It was in Blackpool that we learnt of Australia’s shock loss to Bangladesh in the cricket. This was particularly hard to take considering we spent our first few weeks gloating to the locals that our whole reason for coming to England was to watch Australia win the Ashes. We attended the Australia versus Bangladesh game at Old Trafford the following weekend which thankfully we won easily. We did however have some inside knowledge on that game, as the previous day Kris was in Manchester City Centre the previous day and saw what she thought was a familiar face. She tugged on this person’s shirt and it was Australia’s wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist with Brad Hogg. She mentioned she was from “Punter’s” home town and got the inside scoop on the weather and pitch report for the month.

Given that we come from a small place like Tasmania, we made a goal to attend a concert of some sort while we were here in Manchester to take advantage of all the big bands that visit. We ended up winning tickets to a punk concert attended by about 1000 punks who were all drinking, fighting and head-banging. It was not quite the concert we were after, but an experience none the less.

Last weekend we visited the Roman city of York (about 100 miles out of Manchester). The city is surrounded by a wall and reminded us a lot of Chester in Wales. The origins of York stem back to 200AD when it was occupied by the Romans and Constantine the Great. It was subsequently overrun by the Normans and then invaded by the Vikings. Thankfully for us the Vikings had gone and we were just greeted by nice POMS. The city is dominated by the huge West Minster Cathedral. We were fortunate enough to go underneath this Minster where archaeologists discovered Roman roads (which we walked on) and structures of their buildings that are nearly 2000 years old. A highlight of the weekend was going on one of York’s infamous ghost tours.

As mentioned earlier, we are living in a home owned by a New Zealand family who only use their home here for one month out of every year. It just so happens that this time, it’s the month of July. We wouldn’t normally mention such an insignificant event as a sharing a house for a month, but we have found this to be an unforgettable experience. The family consists of 4. John, the father is an 87 year old Maori tribe leader. Christine, his wife, is 57 and derives “energy” from almost every object and place. Ramon is their 9 year old Samoan grandson. Then there is Antony, their 37 year old son. We are unsure of how to describe Antony appropriately. He was involved in a truck accident when he was 7 and his brain has apparently never progressed since then. But he is by no means “disabled” so we hope no-one gets offended by our description. His eyes are permanently shut so he holds his right eyelid open with his finger to see. He is a prolific joke teller, the jokes are funny at first but we soon learned that they are often repeated. He sings John Denver songs whilst on the toilet. He is one of the most interesting characters we have met. He is constantly in your face. He is very famous in Auckland as he has appeared on the front-page of their newspaper because the local Mayor objected to him getting married to his Indian/Fijian disabled wife. We recently learnt he is currently writing a children’s book, get ready for the title: “When I was 7 I got hit by a truck”… sure to be a bedtime favourite for all children. Antony also has a passion for letter writing, he has asked for some of your addresses so if you get a strange typed letter in the mail from “your friend Antony” you’ll know why. The whole family decided to pitch a family sized tent in the tiny backyard and live in there for the remainder of their stay. Christine insists they get so much ‘energy’ from the woods behind them. They are quite literally made for Hollywood and sharing a miniscule 2 bedroom house with them is one unforgettable experience.
The family is also very wealthy (John is involved in huge monetary deals claiming Maori land back off the New Zealand Government) and each year they throw an over-the-top party. This year’s party was yesterday and involved an 18 piece brass band in our driveway and 75 guests. Let’s just say it didn’t take long to grab the attention of the neighbours in our usually really quiet little old English street.

The London bomb blasts are obviously big news over here. After witnessing the crowds on the underground and buses for ourselves at peak hour so many people must have been effected.

We are having an amazing time and have found all the English people and places to be wonderful. However, due to circumstances both in and out of our control we are now flat broke and may be home soon…
All donations will be gladly accepted.