Manchester

For those who read this (is there anybody there?) who don't know, and let's face it, you all do, my dear lovely clever Flâneur has gone and got himself a new job. This is superb news on so many levels, not least because it means he can relax a bit to the end of his contract without worrying what he's going to be doing in January and how we are going to afford life without him having a job... It is also superb news because it's such a brilliant job. At last someone in the academic world has recognised his genius and that him being interesting is a good thing (not, you're really interesting, but we're giving the job to someone else). And the best bit: it's a tenured Senior Lectureship! Hurrah! No more short term research contracts and constant job hunting. All fantastic stuff.

The only downside is that this fantastic job is in Manchester. That in itself is not a bad thing - it's a great young vibrant department that he will fit in to well and the city's not bad either. However, my job is not in Manchester. My job is in Edinburgh. And I do not have a career that is easily transferred - I need to wait for a job opportunity to arise in Manchester in a suitable organisation (the uni or a business like Co-op, who I know do have an archive based in Manchester) that will pay me on some kind of equivalent level to what the Scottish Government pay me. Perhaps the problem of being a well paid archivist... Rules out the local authority as they are skinflints.

Anyway... I had never been to Manchester and we thought we should probably go down and have a poke about, so we did, for three days last week. The streets were hilariously familiar as they are currently doing works to the tram tracks, so there are road works and fences up everywhere, reminiscent of Edinburgh at the moment... We stayed in Malmaison, so as to make sure we had somewhere nice to stay while we were down there (it was our first holiday together for some time). We had a nice room (with a fantastic shower. I want that shower) and right in the city center - handy for walking everywhere. Which is what we always do when we are away! We had a nice weekend, exploring the city center and what it has to offer. We found a great little bar that serves good Japanese food and great cocktails (Walrus), a fab fab Japanese restaurant where we ate far too much but enjoyed every mouthful (New Samsi), but that also has a little Japanese supermarket in the basement, which will be handy for when Flâneur is in Manchester. I got very jealous of the fantastic looking fish monger in the Arndale Markets, and the butcher opposite, and we fell in love with Selfridges. (Or at least Flâneur did and a Paul Smith suit he spotted there! ;o) ). I also walked the length and breadth of the Trafford Center while Flâneur went to chat to some of his future colleagues. Quite exhausting!

And yet I managed to lose no weight while I was away - the discovery of Hotel Chocolat in the Arndale Centre probably didn't help... and thus my plan to lose five pounds is not going well. At all. But the shopping does look good. Similar to Glasgow but a little bit less spread out, which is good!! I'm quite looking forward to my weekends down there. For yes, we will be living between Manchester and Edinburgh, at least to begin with while my job remains up here. No ideal, but we're sure we'll cope.