Anyone in Manchester 3rd July?

[Dave Rice]

Booked in for a Synology workshop in Manchester on 4th July at Old Trafford.

I’m staying the night before in the town centre. No idea if anyone is even vaguely near but I will certainly be finding a pub and curry house somewhere close by.

[The Duke]

Was in man today at the Christie ozzy, currently  In the worst hotel I’ve ever had the pleasure to be in, somewhere in Stone, near Stoke. I’ve been in some rat holes in London years ago. But this takes the biscuit. Got moved out the first room as there was a half eaten curry down the back of the bed! Looked like dog mess.

It has the yesterday channel so not all bad, I suppose. I’ve Forgot how good the old war docs are. Been a long while since I’ve had live TV.

Love the ‘world at war’ series.

 

[JayCeeDee]

The Duke wrote:

Was in man today at the Christie ozzy,

 

Hopefully it’s for a good news situation, they’re having great success with their clinical trials at the moment. I was on one at the Marsden and it’s been a huge success for my treatment. If the Duchess is there for that, all the best!! ? ? Thinking of you both.

[D-Dan]

I work in the city centre. I’ll almost certainly be in the city at around 4:30 – 5pm on 4th. Can’t do late though because 1. Work next day and 2. Have to travel back to Warrington by train.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Les.]

Duke, Stone is my home territory, so I would be interested to know which Hotel that is.

I will be there sometime very soon, my sister has just passed away, so a funeral beckons. I won’t be stopping at a hotel, but if anybody should ask, I could warn against.

Les.

[Dave Rice]

Hi Dan, I’m staying on the night of the 3rd, travelling back on the 4th, but I don’t get in to Picadilly until  4:30 ish (if it’s on time).

Steve, I gave up rough hotels years ago. Staying at the ibis in Portland Street, an easy stroll from the station and on the tram line to Old Trafford. Hotels weren’t much cheaper out there.

Sorry to hear that Les.

[Bob Williams]

Have to travel to Atherton, Manc, (just off junc. 5 M61) sometime in the next 6 weeks or so. Waiting for Guide Dog Rehoming, they say 6 to 8 weeks, could be longer. I don’t think we will have to stay overnight, but have friends in Denton we have not seen for 5 years and they owe us a b&b! It’s to match up and meet a dog.

Good luck and hopeful about good news for the Duchess, Steve.

I stayed here in Stone once:     https://tinyurl.com/mus9s9y    It sounds familiar, saw the biggest Roach I ever saw in the UK!

Les, you have my sympathy. Last time I went back to SoT for a funeral, it poured down. ‘Boslem’ in the pouring rain, is not a pretty sight. It was the cemetery on the hillside as you come up from The Vale.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Drezha]

Unless I’m away for work at a meeting, I should be there as well as I work near the convention centre.

I can’t help with finding a good curry place though as I’ve only just got here!

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[The Duke]

Les the crown hotel, say clear.

Sorry for the loss.

[isdarit]

Manchester has the “curry mile”  but you ask me ( being a scouser ) the whole city gives you the sh*ts  :scratch:

[The Duke]

Thanks for the good wishes gents, all seems OK atm.

Les, I’ve just out and about, and the area is very nice. One issue, I’ve never seen as many speed cameras in my life. We have two in my whole area.

The hotel is off the high street. It looks nice, but inside its stuck in The 70s, smells and grubby.

There is a few hotels in the area, but I’d go premier Inn, you can’t really go wrong, and even the older ones have them beds in. With are the best beds bar non.

The one I’m currently lying on is an old, and tired, sprung mattress.  :negative:

Not good for a guy with a goosed lower back.

[Les.]

Steve, those speed cameras! I hate them. Those roads were all my race track once, but the speed cameras all appeared 20 years ago. I was over there (1997 probably) and took a friend for a drive. She had Parkinsons and had almost given up driving her motobility car, so we went around the Leek to Ashbourne area. Back in 1966, on a 500 Velo, that was on my route to work, and a real good blast each way. There is one sweeping bend which was cranked over and throttle near the stop. 1997, BIG HOARDINGS warning you, plus a 30 mph limit plus a speed camera. All that road was dotted with them.

When visiting N Staffs, I get off the M6 at the Stoke S junction, keep to a country road, then hit the A34, cameras right in my face. I hate the damn things!

The Crown Hotel in Stone was a 17th Centuary staging post. Big reputation, seem it has lost it now.

Just across from the Crown, up Mill Street, you find an old corn mill (on the TV a couple of years ago, Kevin’s homes programme). If you follow the stream exactly 2 miles, you will pass through what was my garden until 1996.

A great area with loads of history.

Les.

[The Duke]

I’ve st got home, I think the road with all the cameras is called Stone road, it seems to run parallel to the M6. It was probably the main road before the M6 was built.

Yes the hotel is really old building, great architecture, it’s currently scafolded out on the fount, so work is being done.

I had a ride around the place last night when board and it’s a very part if the world. This morning I was in Sighford, and the drive there through the country roads was very nice indeed. The sunshine helps alot too.

Ive always said, if we had mid s French weather in the summer, there would never be a reason to leave the uk. Once you get off the Motorways the whole island  is littered with beautiful countryside. But the weather isn’t reliable. So far safer bet is to go mainland euros for two for three weeks. Which is sad.

I’d direct your fambo to the premier Inn, hard to go with them. Though the one in stone, looked an older one. But it will still have the beds. I love PI beds

Our material, memory foam is about due an upgrade, its 15 years old, but still fine so hard to justify replacing but when we do we will be getting one of the Pi Hypnos mattresses.

http://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/why/sleep/buy-our-bed.html

Probably not from PI but go direct to Hypnos

[Ed P]

If you do settle on meeting in a Pub, then I recommend booking a table for drinks/food etc as the Central Manchester pubs are a zoo between 5 and 8 pm (better ones are even worse than my unfavoured pub-chain Weatherspoons which commonly has pavement spill-over). I’m sorry that I cannot recommend good pubs as I only go a couple of times a year with my Manc SWMBO. We always go to her teenager haunts – those that survived the IRA that is! However even these are still  jumping with life in the early evening.

[Dave Rice]

Well it has public transport we’d kill for here in Bristol, so I guess it’s easy to get somewhere out of the centre if necessary.

[D-Dan]

On a Monday, The Old Monkey on Princess Street (Holts house, but has a good range) shouldn’t be too bad. It does get busy, but worse closer to weekend. If you fancied the meet up on 3rd, I could probably do it, and maybe I’ll book a days leave for 4th 🙂

 

EDIT: Of course, you’ll get work me, which doesn’t dress anything approaching free-time me. Damn, I had to buy a Fedora because the Stetson isn’t work friendly in my game.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Dave Rice]

Not intending to get too blasted as I’m paying for the training course, travel, etc. out of my own pocket ?

Back in the day as a Corporate drone on expenses… I well remember falling asleep in one meeting when someone was explaining the intricacies of the ATM protocol (that’s Asynchronous Transfer Mode not Automated Teller Machine) after the night before.

[Author]

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