We have just returned from our summer holiday city break. Living by the coast and in the countryside we now find a trip to the city is a welcomed change for us. You can't help have the small town mentality, when you live in a small town. In Dunbar you do know other people's business, people are related and not much happens. So off we went to Manchester to see the family and friends down there. It was a good journey, travelling under 70mph to save on fuel. At the service station in the Lakes a coach full of Asian people in posh traditional dress came in. They had obviously been to a wedding or something and looked very colourful. In contrast to Manchester, Dunbar has a tiny population of black people. I think there are no more than 15 black people that I can think of in Dunbar (adults included). So the sight of this crowd caused Andrew to point at them in amazement, causing us to cringe. 'Why aren't there any Muslims in Dunbar?' was asked and a brief history lesson commenced. Only 3 years ago he had been at a school where 30-40% of the class were Muslim. In fact much to the disappointment of the head, the kids organised their own football matches, the Muslims vs the Christians! How could he forget?
We had a trip into the city centre and the Trafford Centre. You could see Isabelle thinking 'why did we move away from this?' Even I was taken in for a few moments by the size and range of shops on offer. It lasted for 5 minutes and then I realised that these shops are only any good if you have some cash and part of the brain that tells you that wandering around aimlessly is fun. I used to hang around the Arndale Centre quite a bit in my teens. In those days very little other than the large escalators with tubes of flowing water down the sides of them were in place to entertain you. Wimpy was there long before MacD's, KFC and all the other fast food places cashed in on our desire for junk. These days the new entertainment is coffee. Yes it seems that you can't walk more than 2 feet without having to stop and have a coffee. Fortunately our Beck offered a staff discount at Starbucks where the kids enjoyed their frappachinos (cold milk shakes with a fancy name so you can pay £3 for the joy). Me and Emma had a cappuccino (only because it was one of the few items I had actually heard of). In fact we actually had a bucket of cappuccino each as they came in those oversized mugs they do. This led to an afternoon of visiting most of the public toilets in town for my own expresso's (no froth thanks). In a time of a credit crunch where do people find the time or money to sit drinking coffee. The good thing about it is people watching and most memorable was the tranny goth with 5 o clock shadow...it was there I realsied where Andrew got his pointing trait.
We did a few other things like go to Urbis, the Manchester Eye and went for curry. Very enriching and worth going to. They also have a Primark, so we were able to kit out the whole family for under £5. The city centre is changing rapidly with more and more high rise offices, hotels and apartments popping up. However there is little point to it all unless you have some cash in your pocket. I can't help but wonder if it is all going to come to a sudden end.
More about the trip later.
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