On Friday I was in Manchester with colleagues from Russia at an event in the Castlefield area of town (“where Manchester makes movies”). I found it to be a pretty soulless part of the city, all warehouses and lofts and stark empty drinking dens which were totally deserted. The trams trundled past the windows of our venue for the afternoon and through the arches of the railway bridges I could make out the Granada TV studios where Coronation Street is filmed. I gazed through the drizzle outside during an afternoon of dull presentations then caught the evening train to Blackpool. As I walked to the train station I came across the Hacienda Apartments which have been built on the site of the Factory Hacienda nightclub (Madonna performed here 22 years ago!). Manchester City Council allowed developers to flatten the classic 100 year old roundhouse style building and build some tiny shoebox apartments which were then marketed using the name and cache of the classic nightclub. Cnuts.
On Saturday we bimbled through the town and had brunch* at our fave greasy spoon, Pie In The Sky. This caff is upstairs inside the indoor market on Abingdon Street and the tables overlook the stalls and shoppers below (we now know where the ‘secret’ switch (the one that opens the drawer) is located on the cash register at the cold meats and pies stall). The sub zero weather and imminent snow kept us on the sofa on Saturday night and a man on a scooter brought us pizzas. Woke up on Sunday morning to thick snow. It never snows in Blackpool as the Irish Sea keeps temperatures higher than inland so this was big news. The last snow fall was 10 years ago so the streets were full of urchins who hadn’t seen snow EVER! I ushered the dog down to the beach through snow drifts higher than his head but the wind was wickedly cold and nearly cut me in two so we headed back home for tea and toast. As I slid back from the corner shop with fresh bread I heard “Oi! Mister!” and knew exactly what was coming next. The snowball smacked me bang between the shoulders and made me smile and as I turned around I heard the culprits laugh and saw them run off down the street scooping fresh snow off the car roofs.

*brunch! the very idea of taking brunch in Blackpool is preposterous.