The Mancunian Yank

 I should be asleep. I'm exhausted. But my brain is running around like a dog chasing it's tail. I should get back into meditation. I should exercise. I should do a million other things, but I need to sleep, since I have a long day and an early start. So I find myself flicking through Netflix, looking for something to watch that's under sixty minutes and I find myself clicking onto the true crime segment, which I never usually watch, to be honest. The Paedophile Hunter is 59 minutes and for some reason my brain went yep, that'll work to put you to sleep  and so I put it on. I've copied the synopsis from Google: Following controversial online vigilante Stinson Hunter and his associates, who pose as underage children on social networking sites in order to identify and draw out men they assert have paedophilic predilections. For the record I love psychological thriller movies, and can watch them in the dark but I  always shy away from true crime especially anything reg...

 I'm walking home from work and it's been a long 5 hour shift. I work part time as a receptionist at a guest house but the title encompasses far more than just sitting behind a desk and answering the phone.  I not only am partially housekeeping but also the therapist, listener, and general fix it in the building during my shift, which is slightly harder when three of my work colleagues schedule their holidays within the same week, leaving my boss to scramble to cover them and me to take on back to back shifts. You can get paid to do a job but the value in it might not necessarily be found on your bank statement.  Given my ongoing journey to trying to get better mental and physical health I knew I was pushing it taking them on and tried to pace myself for the five day straight work week. Thankfully, I survived it and on the first evening of the return to my regular shift (during our three day heat wave) I felt a bit better on my walk home.  I try to leave my work at w...

 Book Review: In The Valley Of The Sun by Andy Davidson (3/10🌟) To say that this vampire hunter novel was very difficult for me to sink my teeth into would have to be the understatement of the century. I slow flowery hunter vs hunted narrative that did nothing to quench the thirst of my curiosity. I only finished reading it because I wanted it to be over as soon as possible. I suppose I'm just bored with vampire novels and am constantly craving a different aspect to it, which leads to me writing my own short stories about the fanged undead. I wouldn't go so far as to say this novel was pointless or that the stakes are high, but if you've got a long weekend to waste away by yourself you'd be better off curling up with a different novel.

 My love and passion for radio can be traced back to my teenage-hood, growing up in America. I was home-schooled until I was 13 and so, when puberty hit me along with my depression I stopped talking to my family (whom up until that point I was always very close to) and hid inside music, CDs and the radio. When I was 16 I turned the dial at 6am and discovered X107.5 Xtreme Rock Radio (we were living in Nevada at the time) and so began my alternative and extreme rock education of Metallica, Slipknot, Papa Roach and many others. I had no language to describe how I felt at that time but when I listened to this station I felt like I wasn't alone.  When I was 21 radio saved my life again when (living in Florida at the time) I found myself listening  97.9 Kiss FM. I turned it on at 5am to the sound of Danielle Monaro's laugh, and that moment sparked a love for The Elvis Duran and The Morning Show that still continues for me to this day. The show is the main reason why one of my ...

 Only a number, Fixed intent, Work hard and pay your taxes, The city is paved with your tears, Starving to feed the extra mouths, Rent paid for an empty fridge, Children with lightning gold smiles, Who possess a resilience harder than diamonds, When all is lost, Gather in numbers, As the small kindnesses accumulate, The silver lining is sharper than the knife edge, And if they didn't have the children the adults would be lost, Drowning in a tidal wave of despair, Neck ache from sticking it out and holding it high, Society has given you a number, Remember that you were born with a name. Remember that you are loved, Remember that you are capable of loving, Despite your rage, Despite your fear, You will always and forever be more than... Grief, Pain, Low Expectations, Heartbreak, The sum of all your memories and all your losses, You will always be more than just a number. ------------ A total of 6,848 people living in the city are currently without a home, according to Shelter. The ch...

Despite my low scoring of this book I found it extremely well written and the premise interesting but the crucial reasons for my low scoring are for two reasons: 1) The narrator is a one-dimensional female who never finds her own voice and therefore is completely complacent and 2) The ending was lacklustre and disappointing after leading up to, what I thought, would be a climactic ending.   In my effort to be sarcastic as possible I'll say that the story is exactly what it says on the packaging, the sister (and narrator) being Korede and the serial killer sibling being Ayoola but the side effects include disappointment and predictable plot points as Korede is the 'ugly sister' who is pretty much ignored and can't get the balls to ask her crush (who's also a work colleague) out on a date and Ayoola is the 'beautiful sister' with men falling head over heels for her but that doesn't stop her from stealing Korede's crush. If you know me then you know I c...

 She appears to vanish, although she may in fact be target practice, who knows, Invisible except for the formative attributes,  It's so easy to blend in with the upholstery, Because heaven forbid, we should speak, Fabric is not the only thing cut out and outlined here, Vibrant edges show the curves of 'Real women' because we are not daydreams or fantasies, We are queens of disguise, we hide our rage as well as the knifes we hold behind our laughter,  Words,  Wound to wound, We bleed for life and love, And hang our heads as easily as you hang your wallpaper,  Although it should be the other way around. 

I’ll get straight to the point Covid made us appreciate all of the things and people in our lives that, up until that point, most people had taken for granted; everyone from the NHS, other key workers including shop workers, post people, bus drivers and medical and delivery drivers (just to name a few). This idea is actually what kicked off my ongoing series of short stories called Everyday Heroes Doing Thankless Jobs: https://themancyank.blogspot.com/2021/08/short-stories-everyday-heroes-doing.html   Gratitude Manchester, which is on display outside The Central Library until Sunday 12th,  https://thisisgratitude.co.uk/ is a free exhibit that features beautiful Oscar statue- like sculptures painted by various artists representing different heroes and aspects of the pandemic, everything from our reconnection with nature, to our connections maintained through technology to the people we loved and appreciated through the highest and lowest points of the past year and a half...

It seemed as if the past two months had been a hurricane dream for me; one minute we’d finished the countdown on Deansgate and the next most of us were gathered inside Mackie Mayor. As usual MIF had gifted me with a lot of new ‘first times’. I got to see some incredible animal murals as well as explore Mackie Mayor with its beautiful high glass ceiling and cosy low lights. Hosted, yet again by the amazing Heidi Taylor-Wood and Carmen Ffye Paulo, who I first mentioned here: https://themancyank.blogspot.com/2021/07/mif21-looking-forward-to-tomorrow-part.html The beginning of the evening was interspaced with a few people reading their poetic entries from the new book ‘I Love You Too’ and  then there was a slight break as the food vendors opened up and the DJs started playing their sets. Unfortunately, due to the audio equipment and the size of the structure it was really difficult for me to hear what was being said into the microphone (all things that are unavoidable although ...