Last weekend I went to the Edge. Having never been to Alderly Edge in Manchester before it was a shock to find out that Alderly Edge does infact have an edge!

Last Sunday, 2 August, I was lucky enough to get to the Manchester Evening News Arena for the last performance of Walking with Dinosaurs.

The experience was truly magnificent & my 5 year old son Ben & I sat through the whole show completely open-mouthed!

In a bizarre occurrence for an English summer’s day, 2^nd August ‘09 saw no rain. Even shockingly-er, it happened to coincide with a massive outdoor event in Manchester’s Skyride – in which 1000s of cyclists hit the streets of Manchester to raise awareness of just how cool cyclists are, despite the helmets, florescent jackets and those trouser clip things.

A signed photo.

The event saw a few miles of Manchester’s city centre roads being closed down to allow the cyclists free and safe passage in their route from the Town Hall up to the Velodrome and back again. Cyclists of all ages and abilities joined in. Including a couple of guys on Penny Farthings, strangely.

As this year I decided to scrap my car in favour of a much more environmentally friendly and road-tax dodging option of cycle-power, my girlfriend and I decided to join in.

Our first lap was marred with children on stabilisers causing periods of extreme slowness, but the 2^nd lap gave me the opportunity to unleash the power that laid dormant within my thighs and travel at my (admittedly-not-all-that-fast) top speed… until my back tyre inexplicably exploded (just as I was overtaking someone on a bike much more expensive than my own).

Luckily, the gel within my tyres seemed to fix any cracks and after a quick pump-up, I was off again… just in time to see crazy bmx stunt-riders at the Velodrome jumping off Land Rovers with only their back-wheel attached… which kind of put me in my place with regards to my ability.

You can visit the Skyride website by clicking here, and as a special treat for all the females out there, you can have a signed photo of myself in all my bicycle glory.

The new Manchester United strip has been released

I must say it is pretty bad, what’s with the black ‘V’ – it’s just not right, that shouldn’t be on the shirt!

View the kit here

by Space Invaders of course!

I’m sure many people have seen one or two obvious space invaders around Manchester… but there’s a total of 47 hidden around the streets of Manchester.  Check out the link for a map of where to spot them.

http://www.space-invaders.com/map_manchester.html

The space invader street art is an idea from artist Invader. He started his project in 1998 in Paris, where there are a total of 704 space invaders. The majority of the little critters are in the 1st and 2nd Arrondissements…  which brings me on to the next part…

My Manchester Space Invader hunt is going to extend to Paris in a couple of weeks time, when I will be staying only 5mins from The Louvre for a week…  minus one night when I will be spending some time with the Disney characters.

Here is one of the space invaders in Manchester, any ideas where it is?