THE HULME TUNE

Was it the hottest new range, the sizzling styles or did someone burn the toast? Whatever it was, shoppers on Market Street today were treated to a bit of eye candy. Young muscular firemen, in full uniform, rushed into the USC store - much to the ladies delight. I think some of them had to be put out to cool down.

Looks like one woman has spotted something to fan her flames of passion.  But, before anyone can say “exclusive”, it looked like it was a false alarm. One shopper did manage to take a picture of 2 of the crew before they headed back to base.

As I was looking to make ends meet, I decided to pop into Tesco Metro, on Market Street, and look for some of them offers that saves me benefit money from running out. When I got to the drinks range, I noticed an offer that I just had to refuse. That Tesco was offering a bottle of Sparkling Vimpto 95p for 1 or 2 for £2.00.

In this day of credit crunching tighter budgets and supermarket price wars, do they really want to charge me more for buying extra? I think it was a mistake in the pricing of the product at the store, rather than Tesco wanting more profit. I pointed this out to the supervisor, who went as bright red as her Tesco fleece and then disappeared with the label to the stock room apologising. Maybe I should have told her that I was not from Trading Standards…sshh!

Satisfied that I helped both shopper and Tesco Metro, I treated myself to four bottles of Sparkling Vimpto Light.. no, not really, not at that price offer!

Are they sure it was 70,000 Chrysanthemums that they laid in Albert Sq. for pay-per-view? Was it not 69,999? Can they do a re-count? Great for ‘guess the number of flowers’ competition. Who’s paid for this? Us, as in Man City Council? Arts Council? Save the Beetroot Chrys’s?

The best view was from inside the Town Hall of course.

Lay a lawn in the middle of Manchester and put a pretty pattern of Chrysanthemums from an old textile  design and what do you get? News coverage! But, what’s  it for?

It’s to promote Jo Vickers, who’s an artist and senior art lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and she has a business in wedding and events flowers called “Spectacular Space”. A great advertising publicity stunt. And just to stop anyone thinking about the environmental implications of pollution in transporting the things, they will be composted for recycling. Deep Purple is a rock band.

Did anyone pay a pound to go up scaffolding to see the view from above? Me neither! I hung around to see if someone would, but it remained empty. I did see an elderly couple coming down the steps, but I think they were looking for the toilets.

If Manchester City Council asked me, I would have told them how to make some money and get the publicity. Ditch the dead heads and put a few holes in it! 9 to be precise. Then charge £3 a time to business people who want to improve their putting on their lunch break, but wait until the warm weather comes.

It’s a girlie thing, yuk.

Now, if she did it as a Manchester United logo then I would respect her turf. Even volunteer to cut her grass, feed & weed the lawn and talk to the flowers to stimulate healthier blossoming. Then picnic and sun bathe in the rain and then build a 9 hole putting course around it.

Fore!

NEIGHBOURS DAY

24TH MAY 2008 10 am - 4 pm

Bronte Street, Hulme

Some friendly folk from the Aquarius estate in Hulme are organising an event for locals to come along and meet their neighbours, have something to eat and have fun.

Things to do on the day include:

cake competition
(I’ll volunteer to taste)

family sports day
(darts for me hopefully)

create your own hanging basket
(weaving, ducking and diving)

learn how to fix a leaky sink
(by not asking fashion models or me)

bounce on a bouncy castle
(volunteers needed to keep it blown up)

face painting
(no graffiti artists, please)

hand art & meet our local fireman
(only one.. where’s Pew, Barney, McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub?)

You can taste food from different cultures
(yum, yum, in the presenter’s tum!)

And meet me in person!
(well worth coming out!)

This event will be broadcasted live on Allfm 96.9

This Saturday, 16th February, Disney officially celebrated the opening of their new store in Manchester. This was a move from its old location on St Anne’s Square to the new vibrant section of the Arndale Centre - joining the colourful array of retailers that took advantage of being strategically positioned close to Starbucks.