Greetings from a wet Manchester where we are having a surprise holiday. Why a surprise? John was meant to be having an operation in Manchester Royal Infirmary so we booked an Air BnB flat close by so Gill could visit without a long drive.
We arrived yesterday, got up early today to check into the hospital and then at the last minute the operation was cancelled leaving us with an empty calendar and paid for accommodation (the first floor in the house pictured) so here we are enjoying the rain lashing down.
So today we spent an enjoyable couple of hours in the Whitworth Museum admiring some excellent textile displays and an interesting gallery dedicated to refugees. Most museums seem to concentrate on the Holocaust or slavery but this featured others such as the Spanish Civil War and the Armenian genocide of 1915 both of which resonate with the current problems in Gaza and Ukraine.
There was also a large display of Palestinian embroidery and wax printed materials made in Manchester for export, the example below was destined for Africa, if you bought in from a stall in Nigeria you would assume it was printed locally unless you spotted the words "Hendesons Manchester".
Eating out has been fun so far (two dinners). Just round the corner from our apartment there is a line of 30 - 40 restaurants and take-aways, almost every nationality is catered for but almost all the customers seem to be Asian families, hundreds of them. When we left tonight's restaurant there must have been 30 people in the lobby waiting for a table, mind you it was good food.
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