Here we go again!

MANCHESTER UNDERGROUND
It was reported today that the Department of Transport had admitted that a tunnel linking Manchester's Piccadilly and Victoria railway stations was one possibility being considered. I remember similar plans in the 1970's that came to nothing and the reason then will be the same reason why they won't come to fruition now. You can sum the whole thing up in one word COST! It would simply cost too much. In 1970 the cost would have been five million pounds, which was much too expensive then. Today it would cost five hundred million pounds, which would be much too expensive now. There are a number of alternatives to the Picc-Vic link and if you scrawl through the archives of this blog you'll come across some of them.
PICCADILLY TOWER (S)
I intended to tell you about the Piccadilly tower a couple of weeks ago, as work has recently started on what will become Manchester's tallest building. I am, however, more exited about another tower in Piccadilly which has not been started as yet. I am of course talking about the site of the former Aytoun Street Unemployment exchange building which has been empty for several years now. I heard/read that the building, which is still standing (just about) has been sold for five million quid to a developer who is going to demolish it and build a sixty storey tower. I'm interested in this project because of the location. The site is bordered by The Rochdale Canal, Aytoun Street tramway and I think it's Roby street where the Waldorf Hotel is, anyway it'll be a tight squeeze!
GOLD TRAFFORD
I see that the sun shone for the Manchester Derby this weekend, in fact the weather here was better than Rome or Athens. It was a sad affair, it being the fiftieth aniversary of the Munich Air disaster in which so many young players lost their lives. I am talking about football, in case you hadn't realised. I don't want to say too much about this fixture apart from Nice one Sven! Oh yeah, my team Man City beat Uni-ted 2-1 there were seventy six thousand people in the ground including the British Prime Minister, the Irish Premier, the ex president of Thailand and the King of Sweden and everybodys favorite ex Uni-ted and England player Sir Bobby Charlton who of course was a surviver of the Munich air crash.
DEANSGATE MANHATTEN
There was a tacky picture in the local newspaper the other day of a dozen or so high rise towers clustered around the Beetham/Hilton Hotel skyscraper at the Castlefield end of Manchester's Deansgate. The report said, and I paraphrase here, that this artist's impression of a Manhatten like skyline could be on the drawing board for Manchester. Really? I for one wasn't taken by the design of these mediocre boxes. If we're talking Manhatten, what about some of those iconic buildings like the Flat Iron and the Chrysler building? We really don't need another local authority style tower block in Manchester. Do we?
CHINATOWN!
As I already mentioned above, 76,000 people turned out for the Uni-ted v City match on Sunday and at the same time a couple of miles up the road in Manchester's Chinatown another 60,000 people spilled out onto the streets to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We went down to George street and Faulkner street in Chinatown and had a look at the Chinese arch, I've seen it many times before over the years but this time I took a really good look at it. When it was first built it was one of only two authentic Chinese arches in the western world, the other one being in San Fransisco. The red paint on the arch is reputed to be made from pigs blood. And two or three years ago the arch was restored at a cost of £300,000.
ONLINE NOVEL
Okay, I'm sorry, I apologise to all of those nice, nice people who have paid a visit to my Online Novel Space Invaders! For one reason or another I haven't been able to do very much work on the project so far. However, this is going to change. I really really want to write this novel/novella call it what you will and I want to do it Online, for you, with you, if you like. Comments, advice critique etc. are all welcomed and any comments on the blog version of Space Invaders! may very well end up in the final publication! So, what are you waiting for? Me? Duh!
FINALLY
Don't forget you can visit my really bad pub-poetry blog at: SweetTalkingGuy...
The February Issue of Nicola's Newsletter Raw Meat is now Online at: www.rawprintz.blogspot.com