Way out West (incorporating Way up North)

the joy of manchester

Back at Old Trafford to do a show for Esso, the football ground is its customary cheerless place, as is its location. The normally insane Health and Safety man (part of the catering department?), is somewhat subdued, and has not allowed his total ignorance to blight our activities this time. Perhaps he remembers that the last time I was here I ran over his foot with a fully loaded cable flightcase, after he had sent one of our people off-site for not wearing steel toe caps. Was he wearing steelies? I think not. Nor have people working up ladders had to wear hard hats, while those working below do not. Maybe he's growing up.

The conference seems to be going well, although I now know more about leveraged sandwich placement in the niche 'grab and go' market than I would ever have thought possible. We have a monster Coffee Nation coffee making machine right next to the front of house control position, and, as this expensive beasty does in fact produce extremely nice fresh coffee (also has a 'more power' button, yes, their coffee does go to 11), we are all buzzing with it. Otherwise, I can report that the sandwich makeover seems only to extend to the packaging and not to the contents, all reference to superior flavour and ingredients are blatant hype. As for pasties, I picked up one to try, but after spending about half an hour working my way through the list of ingredients I decided it was safer left in the wrapper. It did claim that the ham was cured, but didn't say what had been wrong with it. So far, the best in show has been little bags of mixed dried fruit and nuts, which I'm sure will demand a small mortgage to purchase. Did I mention the World Cup theming, no? Well now I have, nuff said.

Last night I went for a walk, partly to buy a bottle of water and partly because I like to explore the area I’m working in. I walked for an hour and only found a petrol station to shop in. This is an area that is undergoing ‘regeneration’, this seems to mean that everything is razed to the ground and replaced with Fast Food outlets and Sofa Shops. All around luxury housing developments are springing up; empty cardboard dishwasher boxes flutter past like industrial tumbleweed, emphasising the dirty and deserted streets. Nowhere in this miserable experience is there a shop or a supermarket, when the aspirational urban loft-dweller moves in to their converted warehouse apartment, they will find that the only option for shopping or entertainment is to get into their car and head out of town.

I would beg to suggest that the monolithic presence of Man U is a bit of a blight on the area too, the occasional need to provide car parking for up to eighty thousand fans means that there is a an awful lot of open space here.

Despite their awful website, the coffee is damn good! http://www.coffee-nation.com/

posted by Lampy @ 4/19/2006 06:47:00 pm