Farewells and a visit to Rusholme

After breakfast this morning we got packed up. It had been an enjoyable stay, albeit brief. Gill and Paul had booked an earlier train than us so, after seeing them off at Piccadilly, we caught a bus to Rusholme to visit the house I lived in for the first two years I was in Manchester. I struggled to recognise much from the bus! The Corner House where I worked in my second and fourth years at uni is no more. The student union building has been completely rebuilt since my day. However, when we walked down Brighton Grove to my former home, suddenly everything was very familiar. The trees had certainly grown a lot, but the house was still there and the routes I used to take, both to uni and to work, were the same.

We then walked down the main road through Rusholme to catch the bus back into the city centre. 'Curry Mile', as it was known locally, was little changed. There are still loads of Indian restaurants, clothes shops, and convenience stores, although I was disappointed not to see rows of colourful buckets on the pavement full of spices and unusual ingredients that I remember from my student days. Back in 1984, with no experience of Indian food, these shops and restaurants were an education into a cuisine and type of cooking that I love to this day.

Having reminisced and probably bored Mark stupid with my stories, we returned to Shambles Square for lunch. Afterwards, we walked to Victoria Station to catch the train back to Scarborough. On the way, we stopped to admire a statue of Mahatma Gandhi.Read more