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a-state agents

New year, new challenge… house hunting. Without Kirsty and Phil to help my partner and I are relying perseverance, the Rightmove app and a helpful estate agent or two to help us on our way. Just a couple of weeks now into ‘the search’ and I’m getting increasingly frustrated at the poor quality of the estate…

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done and dusted

Dissertation submitted – whoop! In recovery mode right now, however insights from this endeavor to follow in due course so stay tuned folks. Image c/o Mr. T in DC licensed under Creative Commons.

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three is the magic number

Getting my juices flowing for 2011… 1. Manchester International Festival (30th June – 17 July 2011) – MIF, Manchester’s festival of original new work returns in its third incarnation this year. Already announced as part of the festival Victoria Wood will write and direct That Day We Sang, a story of the joy of music, singing…

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sEo is the word

Letters of the day… S is for Search E is for Engine O is for Optimisation This morning I went to get my link juice flowing at a free workshop with Manchester based SEO consultants theEword. Being a social media geek I’d already been impressed by their work earlier in the year on the Manchester…

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pre and post xmas highlights

Bored of the snow, ice and unpleasantly cold temperatures yet? If so here are some hot events to enjoy in Manchester during December and January. First up the HldTght‘s, Joyride Playground, kicks off at Soup Kitchen on the 13th of December and runs until the 16th of December 2010. This event will be an open…

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the story of stainboy

Have you been following the Twitter adventures of Stainboy, creation of the original Mr Kooky, Tim Burton? Burton has been using the micro-blogging platform to resurrect the character that originally featured in his book of children’s poetry, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories. The new story is being constructed line-by-line using tweets submitted by…

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you won’t find any frozen turkeys here

Meet Grotto, a welcome new addition to the Northern Quarter. This pop-up shop is the perfect antidote to the crowds of Christmas shoppers that have started to descend on Manchester streets. The concept has been developed by Fraser Chapman and one69a, and is located in the former Mooch Art gallery on Oldham Street* Grotto prides itself in bringing you glorious Christmas gifts made by the fair hands of some of Manchester’s most talented artists. From sculpture to sweatshirts and paintings to poetry they’ve got gifts to suit even the fussiest of friends this Xmas. And best of all it’s not going to break the bank, with items starting from 50p! To…

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this charming read…

Think of Manchester and music often comes to mind, maybe most notably the melodies of Morrissey and co. Exploring this legendary band is a new collection of essays on The Smiths edited by Sean Campbell and Colin Coulter. And it wouldn’t be the launch of a new book without a bash to celebrate. To mark the occasion Waterstones will be hosting an audience with the editors, contributing author Sheila Whiteley, music journo Simon Goddard all chaired by Mr Dave Haslem himself. The event will be followed by an after party, undoubtly fuelled by a classic ’80s soundtrack, at the Northern Quarter’s very own TV21. Find the event on Facebook, if you’re that…

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