Tag: UK

A Gamer’s Paradise in Bury!

Sometimes the coolest places are just around the corner….

Wandering Beeb is a gamer and PS4 is his weapon of choice. I’m not far behind but I often have less time to jump on the computer. Given half a chance, I prefer the older games: I was raised on a Commodore 64 and love the text based games like ‘Cloak of Death’ (I’d love another go on that game, I’m sure I could crack it now that I’m older!!). With this shared love of computer games, a perfect date night between travel was to visit the Arcade Club in Bury, UK.

The Arcade Club was a dingy, dodgy warehouse style building down a back street. The car park was dark. It was throwing it down and I was a bit unsure of what we were letting ourselves in for.

All that changed when we got inside. From the moment we walked in, Wandering Beeb and I were overwhelmed by the huge range of games available. There’s VR, shoot-em-ups, pinball, arcade games, dance games, bizarre drum games from Japan and a section for new top of the market current games. Essentially it’s a gamer’s paradise.

The two floors heaved with the games on offer and people of all ages moved fluidly from machine to machine, trying out something new and returning to old favourites.

On the retro floor, old forgotten friends jostled for our attention, with special mentions going to:

  • Golden Axe (I’d forgotten just how annoying those little jerks who steal your potions are!)
  • Space Invaders – an oldie but a goodie
  • Simpson’s – we used to play this as a family when I was young. I’d forgotten all about it and getting back behind the controls made me remember just how much fun we had.
  • Soul Calibur – I had the Soul Blade version and loved this style of game
  • Killer Instinct – a childhood favourite of Wandering Beeb’s, his eyes were on fire when he spotted this beauty across the floor. He even remembered the special moves for his most treasured character.
  • Operation Wolf – I’d stand for ages watching my dad on this game. I have to admit, when I saw this one standing there, I had to fight back tears because I was so excited! Photos of the game went straight to my dad – sparking a conversation about the games we used to play.

On the more modern floor, Wandering Beeb and I hit the dance machines (we are both terrible), the drum kits (we aren’t much better on those either) and the new Spidey game. Taking a rest on the couches, we played Mario and Sonic whilst grabbing some refreshments, chattering about the memories the games had triggered.

Despite the looks of the venue, it was a really friendly, buzzing place and brought together a range of people, all with a common gaming interest.

It wasn’t a place that we needed to travel far to visit, but as we said in a previous post, it’s time to start looking at places close to home with fresh eyes: the eyes of a visitor. If we were new to the UK and wanted a cool place to hang out, this is where I’d be. It’s definitely a place to put on your list. See you there!

But it’s a four hour drive away…..

I live in the UK. Greater Manchester to be exact. London is about 4 hours drive away, or two hours (ish) if you stump up an extortionate amount to travel by train. I’ve been there so many times: too many gigs to mention, work meetings, visiting friends; however I am always amazed when I think about how little sightseeing I have actually done in the Big Smoke.

Sure, when I was a kid at school, we did a trip to London and visited Buckingham Palace and went to see some shows. When I came down for a couple of gigs, we went hunting the Tardis, visited the London Dungeon and the Globe Theatre, however I’ve never felt like I’ve done sight seeing properly.

The most extensive “sightseeing” I’ve ever done was in Westminster when I visited for a work event and managed to squeeze in an hour of photo snapping.

Recently I traveled down to Lambeth for work. I was staying in a hotel along the river and the view from my room was amazing. It got me thinking; if that view had been in New York, I’d have been blown away. Similarly, if I was going on a Canadian road trip, I’d think nothing of a 4 hour drive to reach my destination. So why is London (or Scotland or Wales for that matter) any different? It’s purely a mind-set.

So from now on, I’m going to try and look at my own country through the eyes of a visitor. I am hopeful that this will let me see familiar places with fresh eyes.

Manchester is Buzzing

The bees have arrived in Manchester!

Last weekend, I was trying to come up with something exciting to do when I realised, the long awaited Bee Trail had arrived in Manchester and as the sun was shining, a treasure trail to find as many bees as possible was on the cards. So I roped Wandering Beeb into the trip and the hunt was on!

The Bees in question are part of the ‘Bee in the City Trail’ – 101 bees decorated by artists, communities and celebrities as part of a public art trail. The bee symbol has taken on a more prominent role in Manchester after the Arena attack and the designers of the art trail have recognised this in their giant bee sculptures.

Dotted across Manchester, the bees are all over the wider Greater Manchester area and part of the fun is finding them. A £1.99 app provided a trail map and information on each bee – proving a handy way of keeping track of the ones we spotted.

Whilst the art work involved in each bee celebrates different aspects of the city’s culture and history, I found the most beautiful thing about the bee trail to be the way it provided a route to exploring familiar parts of the city.

Walking around the trail, we found ourselves spotting other pieces of art in the city that we’d never noticed before. It’s easy to walk about a familiar place without actually taking notice of the surroundings.

Brightly coloured wall murals, changes to familiar artwork outside often frequented bars and subtle sculptures all sprang into life around us – usually hidden and forgotten.

We spent around four and a half hours walking around Manchester, following well-trodden paths that our boots could describe blindfolded. At each turn, we spotted something new, visited cafes and shops that we wouldn’t usually notice and stopped to watch an impromptu jazz performance, left over from the recent jazz festival. It reminded me of the walks I used to take as a kid, eyes wide and soaking up the movement of the city around me. It reminded me that we can quickly loose our sense of wonder and adventure in our home town, however we can find it again with a little push.

Don’t Underestimate Local Travel

I’m the opposite of most people. I get time off work and instead of feeling relaxed and chilled out, I get bored and angsty. If I don’t have a plan for the day, you can guarantee I won’t be happy! Wandering Beeb on the other hand is quite happy spending a day on the computer, pottering about the house or watching TV. Not me. I’ve got to be on the move, doing something, feeling like I’m taking down names and kicking ass. Basically, feeling like I’ve achieved something in the day. So you can see how a week off work with no plans felt incredibly stressful to me!

Getting sick of my pacing about and mutterings about dying of boredom, Wandering Beeb struck up a plan to visit Tatton Park, a nearby country park.

I’d never been before and hadn’t realised quite how large the park is. After driving down some very narrow country lanes, the park seemed huge.

One of the main reasons to visit Tatton Park is to see the herd of deer that live there. Initially they were quite far in the distance but later in our walk, we ended up with the herd running in our direction after being spooked by some thing. It’s one thing to observe quietly from a safe space and quite another to see huge antlers coming towards you at speed!

Butterfly’s were abundant throughout the park and I spent some time trying to get a good photo – it’s harder than you think! I certainly don’t have the reflexes or camera skills to do it justice. Most of my pictures were of a fuzzy blob, slightly different in tone to the rest of the blurry picture!

After spending a lot of time on winding (read narrow and nauseating) roads, it was relaxing to be near the water for a stroll around the lake. Aeroplanes overhead quickly brought me back to earth as I contemplated my next adventure, but for now, Tatton Park bridged the gap.