A bipolar Blog

Even in my crazy life there can be dull moments or not enough moments to make it worth writing a now post about. The solution is that I’m going to start doing a round-up of my week each Friday and post it.

So here goes then . . . .

Manchester Blog Awards 2011 – Manchester Literature Festival

This blog has been nominated and short listed in the category - Best personal Blog!

wow! I can play it cool but I’m actually quite excited by this because for one I can’t spell and my grammar is appalling. For a start dyslexia is a word that should be easier  for a dyslexic to spell and also something that can’t be cured. It’s been a thorn in my side all of my life. Even with the spell checker my written results are pretty bad.

What really bugs me is when the spelling police try to show how dam clever  well educated they are by pulling up every error I ever make (mainly on facebook). What annoys me even more is that I was privately educated and the spelling police seem to think that this should have been a cure for my dyslexia and tend to throw verbal attacks at me because I’m a posh school kid that failed. (believe me I’m not posh)

My reply to the spelling and grammar police is simple. . . .  sod off.  What I lack in spelling and grammar , I make up for in other areas such as art and design. It’s the art and design that make me my money and that is all I care about.

Ahhh Rant over

The other good reason about the award is that if I did win it would raise the awareness of bipolar.

There is an award evening on the wed 19th October 2011 at the deaf institute in Manchester.  Tickets are £5 or available on the door so i believe. checkout http://www.manchesterblogawards.com for more information.

It would be great to see some of you there!

Black-out-Berry

In a week when the already smug iPhone users were looking forward to yet another iPhone being released I was having to revert back to sending my messages my carrier pigeon. I use my Blackberry for emails mainly. I’m always on the go and can send and receive up to 200 emails per day from work, clients and Nigerian lottery scams. So for the first time in years I have had to carry my backpack with a laptop in it just to get my damm email.
Sitting in Costa Coffee in Manchester vocally begging the dongle on my laptop to connect and explaining to clients on my phone that BB is still down provided much entertainment to the smug git on the table opposite, who was showing his iPhone and Ipad off.
To top off my Blackberry misery, When it did finally come back on 4 days later I received instant messages that were meant for other people! including a photo of a dog in a clown wig and wearing a pair of boxer shorts! Then at last the email came to life . . . . well almost. Blackberry thought it would be easier for them to delete any emails stuck in the system. So the only email I got after four day of waiting for one advertising some penis cream.

Manchester Tarts

The edible kind and not the kind that hang around various parts of the city late at night waiting for some mug with a wallet full of cash to buy them a drink.

I tried a Manchester tart for the first time since 1988 . Unfortunately it meant that the diet took a bit of  hit. But I’m only supporting my local food industry after all ;)

Wiki describes a Manchester Tart as the following :

The Manchester tart is a traditional English baked tart, which consists of a shortcrust pastry shell, spread with raspberry jam, covered with a custard filling and topped with flakes of coconut and a Maraschino cherry. One variation of the original recipe includes slices of banana underneath the custard with the jam.

A staple on school dinner menus until the mid 1980s, the original Manchester Tart is a variation on an earlier recipe, the Manchester Pudding, which was first recorded by the Victorian cookery writer, Mrs Beeton.

 

I was brought up on them as a child of Thatchers 1980′s. You really must give it a try! oh and make sure you try the Banana version.  Just Google the Recipe and slave over making one OR you could just do what I did and go to Bury Market and pick one up for £1.80

Bury Light Night

Organised by the local council and Billed by the local council as a night of light and entertainment . . . so naturally I thought I would be hyped up and then a real let down when we turned up. How wrong I was.

It really did seem that the entire town come out for this. A great bit of community spirit just when we needed it in these tough times.

The even started at 5pm and finished at 11pm. there was a rather impressive fireworks display every 30 minutes and more food than I could cope with! I am the last person on earth you would expect to pat a local council on the back but this time they deserve it.

My son really enjoyed the garden of fire (as the very blurry pic below shows)

It was nice to have some family time which is a rare event at the moment. There were 1000′s of families out enjoying the night. On a normal Friday night we would all be stuck in front of the TV .
So that’s a little round up of what I have been up to this week. Thanks for reading