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Manchester city centre - council deliberately causing more traffic?? Creating a reason for congestion charge??

There has been work done over last week on Deansgate in Manchester (UK) near Peter St after a set of traffic lights. For some reason, they are reducing the number of lanes from 2 to 1. 

At the traffic lights, it used to have 2 lanes. Both lanes were for going straight ahead (as well as one lane turning left, the other turning right). Now the left lane is only to turn left, the right hand continues to be for turning right and go straight ahead.

If someone wants to go straight ahead and someone is waiting at lights to turn right, they are blocked!! They can go on to the left lane which is for left turn only and this increases the chance of accidents and causing traffic problems. What its going to result in is traffic backing up Deansgate towards the Hilton Hotel.

Personally I think they are just doing this to create more traffic jams and traffic problems. It was a while ago that they were talking about the congestion charge in Manchester city centre. They were claiming big traffic jams were in the city centre - which they wasn't really.

To add to this, I have just read today that they are planning to close the "entrance" to Deansgate (Victoria Street) which is by the cathedral and near Harvey Nichols. The plan is to make it pedestrian only. This will just re-direct drivers elsewhere, making them busy. 

Another way to create traffic jams so you can prove we need congestion charge!?

All this after last year and you introducing the extended parking charges. Vast majority of people didn't agree with it. Shoppers would take custom elsewhere and go to e.g. Trafford Centre. 

Suarez v Evra

I know I am slow with this blog post!!!

Its been a few weeks since Suarez was banned for 8 matches. I originally planned to blog about it right after he was banned but decided to wait for the FA Report.

Past "cases" involving Evra

Before I talk about the actual Evra v Suarez case, I just wanted to mention what lots of people were saying about how Evra is an "unreliable" witness. They bring up that he has claimed racism against him previously and they were unfounded. Even in the official LFC statement it mentions it - (HOWEVER, that statement is an embarrassment). 

The 2 previous cases were involving that Chelsea ground man and the other was against Steve Finnan. The Chelsea case was not Evra who claimed racism.  The Steven Finnan case was actually a member of the public. I believe is was a fan who was hard of hearing so lip-read what Finnan apparently said. 

Suarez v Evra

I think we will never know 100% exactly what was said because it was kind of Suarez's word against Evra's.  Suarez actually admitted using the word "negro". Suarez said he only said it once but Evra claimed he said it several times. Either way, the word may be acceptable in his home country but is not here in the UK. He should know this since he's actually been playing in Europe for a few years. He said he never used it on a derogatory way. Why bother saying it to Evra?? Personally, I think he knew what he was doing and was trying to wind up Evra. 

An apology - kind of

Suarez has kind of apologised for it. He said "I never, ever used this word in a derogatory way and if it offends anyone then I want to apologise for that." So he's not apologised for saying that word but just saying if someone was offended . Maybe if Suarez, right at the start of all this and just after the match, admitted that he used racist language. Said that although the language he used was acceptable in his home country, understands that it is not accepted here in the UK and that in the heat of the moment, acted like an idiot and used the racist language and was sorry for doing so. Maybe then it would have been OK and not all drawn out like it has been.

FA Report

I admit I have not read all of the FA Report but have read the key bits and read articles on people who have read it. Its not nice reading some of the things which are alleged to have been said and done. Of course, there are 2 sides to every story and there are discrepancies between what Evra and Suarez said. Reading the report and the points it makes, it makes the laughable statement which Liverpool FC released even more embarrassing.  One of the most laughable points from the LFC report was about the fact that Suarez's granddad is black. Its like that automatically means he can't be racist and its not possible he used racist language???

Some points :

  • Suarez said he "pinched Mr Evra's skin in an attempt to defuse the situation". WTF??! How does pinching someones skin defuse a situation. 
  • The FA's case, according to the report, was that Evra asked Suarez why he had kicked him, to which the forward replied: "Because you are black."
  • When Evra challenged him to repeat the answer and said he would "punch him", Suarez said: "I don't speak to blacks."
  • According the the report, Evra then told Suarez he was going to hit him, to which the Uruguay international replied in Spanish: "Dale, negro, negro, negro." That translates to "okay, blackie, blackie, blackie".
  • Suarez denied the charge. The report stated that Suarez said he "used the word 'negro' in a way with which he was familiar from his upbringing in Uruguay".
  • Suarez has said he said "Por que, negro?" to Evra, which was intended to be in a friendly way. 

If these things are true, its shocking terrible behaviour from Suarez. In fact, he could be lucky its just an 8 match ban!

It will be interesting to see what happens when he comes back especially if when playing United - which could be his first game back! Also, United play Liverpool in FA Cup next week so will be interesting what LFC fans reaction is to Evra.

Fire in commercial building on Peter Street, Manchester [VIDEOS]

Took 1 video on way to gym. Was about 5-6 fire engines, police and spotted an ambulance (but no sirens or flashing lights so a good sign). There was a fair amount of smoke - didn't see any flames. Smoke was coming from top of building. 

The building isn't residential and I think may be completely empty. There are offices next door I think - hopefully no one was inside and everyone is OK. On the ground floor it used to be a club called Baby Grand and only recently building work was being done and scaffolding was around building.

On the way back from gym there were more fire engines - about 10. No sign of the "normal" ambulance but walked past an incident support ambulance - didn't seem to be doing much. Most of the firefighters appeared to be standing around watching another firefighter go up a ladder. There was less smoke about but smoke was still coming from top of building.

Pretty much the whole of Peter Street in closed.

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Mac OSX (Lion) annoyances

I have had a Mac now for about 5 months. Before that I was very much a Windows user. Back in the day, I could never see the day when I would be a Mac user. Possibly because my first experience with a Mac was when I worked in tech support at a call centre. The vast majority of the calls were Windows so sorting the problems was pretty much all no problem.

However, we occasionally got calls from Mac users. The support pages we had for the Mac were not as extensive as the ones for Windows. Also, I was not Mac user day-to-day so that meant it was more difficult to support. This was well before the days of Max OSX and I think it would have been Mac OS 8 - some the UI and general ease of user was not as it is today.

Anyway, I decided it was time for a change and after seeing the video about Mac OSX Lion I was impressed with certain features. I also liked what I had previous seen on Snow Leopard - when it was released I watched KeyNote speech etc. It was also time for an upgrade of my computer and being a web designer, having a Mac almost seems to make sense. (Also, I was already becoming a bit of an "Apple Fanboy" as I have had an iPhone since the 3GS - recently upgrading to the 4S - and I also have an iPad).

Using Mac OSX Lion took a little bit to get used to with certain things different. Overall I was very happy with it but it still had several things which were a bit annoying. 

  • No "cut" in Finder - you have to drag and drop files if you want to move file from one folder to another
  • Clicking ENTER key, renames a file/folder instead of opening/executing. 
  • Sorting folders - its alphabetical but it doesn't have the folders at top and then files. It treats folders and files the same. It would be much better if it hold folders at the top and then other files.
  • Delete button is a backspace button really. Have had to get used to pressing Function + Delete to "Delete"
  • No END button. No Page Up/Down.
  • Red cross close button for windows sometimes doesn't work. Have to click it a few times. Maybe its because the window isn't in focus?? - Mac OSX Lion bug??
  • No button to reload/refresh when in Finder
  • Not being able to rename Launchpad folder - possible BUG as previously been able to??
  • Not many different columns you can add/display in Finder e.g. dimensions
  • In Finder, if you select more than one file and select Get Info, instead of showing the total file size of those files, you get dialog boxes popping up showing the info for each individual file. 

Melanie C gig - Northern Star!

Went to see Melanie C with a friend the other week when she was playing in the O2 Academy in Liverpool. Took the train there as O2 Academy is right next to Lime Street station. I didn't actually realise how close it was. Got out the closest exit and could see it.

Ticket said it started at 7pm and we were in queue about 640pm. By the time we got in though it must have been about 715pm.

I planned to get a t-shirt. The usual type with tour dates on back etc. However, the t-shirts to be honest looked crap. There was a yellow and a blue t-shirt, looked really cheap and like they had gone to the cheapest t-shirting printing place is stamp something on it!! Hopefully when on the proper UK tour next year, the merchadise is better!

However, that was certainly not the end of our waiting. It was not until 8pm until the support act came. We thought it was starting earlier with lights changing and people coming on stage but it was always the same bloke and he was setting up microphones etc. Seems to do it a lot. Initially we thought it was the support act.

The support act was James Walsh from Starsailor - remember them! They are actually "on hold" at the moment and James is concentrating on solo career. He played a few of their hits and new stuff but can't really remember their songs and also he sang it acoustic so they sounded different. Most well known song is Silence Is Easy. The songs were OK but he has a great voice.

He was on for about half an hour and it wasn't until 9pm that Melanie came on. We were joking that maybe she was watching X Factor Semi-finals and waiting for the results!! LOL.

Anyway, it was all worth the wait when she finally came on stage!! It was AMAZING. She came on a sang Rock Me (from her new album). A great one to start it all off getting people cheering and dancing.

She was on for about 90 mins and sang old stuff and new stuff. Shes actually done 5 solo albums. Some bigger than others. Her debut album Northern Star is her most successful and was my favourite. Reason is another great album but if I am honest her 4th album This Time isn't really that good - I still think shes great but not keen on the songs. Only like the song Carolyna from it. Her 3rd album Beautiful Intentions is alright. Her latest album The Sea I think is great. Counting the songs on it I really like, there may be more songs in The Sea than Northern Star. Maybe?? Unfortunately its not done that well in the charts in the UK but it does mean she plays at smaller venues which in a way I prefer. Better atmosphere, closer to stage etc. She is more popular - based on chart success - in Germany. All of her albums getting into Top 20.

Back to the actual gig. As I said, she sang some old stuff and new stuff. She also sang a duet with James Walsh - her support act. She sang One by One with him - her co-wrote it with her. A brilliant duet. Other highlights included her playing the guitar while singing Burn - my favourite song from new album. Northern Star is always a crowd favourite. For the encore she sang 2 or 3 songs - can't remember now!! But one of them was I Turn To You. A great dance song and got the crowd singing and jumping and dancing - even more. Its probably her most successful hit reaching no.1 in several countries including UK and Germany.

I know Melanie C isn't generally that popular but I think shes great. Brilliant singer with an amazing voice, down to earth and is super nice. :) ;)

Overall a BRILLIANT gig. Just wish I was taller so could get better view. Anyway, going to see her next year, this time in Manchester. Can't wait!!

I have uploaded some photos below. Uploaded some videos to YouTube aswell - 

Burn
One by One (duet with James Walsh)
Northern Star 

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