Trips & Adventures – 18 October 2018

We met at Victoria train station and took the tram to Bury Interchange. It was just a short walk to the college in Bury. The students on the catering course run a restaurant “The Three Seasons” which is open to the public.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal at a discounted price. The three course meal including coffee is just £7.50 per person. We enjoyed some great food in a very nice ambience. We even had the Bakewell tart which we had missed the previous week when visiting the town of Bakewell.

 

 

Trips & Adventures – 11 October 2018

We took the train from Manchester Piccadilly to Buxton and then travelled by bus to Bakewell, a small market town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales.

Bakewell is known for the Bakewell pudding, a jam pastry with an egg and ground almond enriched filling. It is not to be confused with Bakewell tart, which is a completely different confection, made with shortcrust pastry, an almond topping and a sponge and jam filling; Mr Kipling also made “Cherry Bakewells”, often also known as Bakewell tarts.

The origins of the pudding are not clear; however, the generally accepted story is that it was first made by accident in 1820 when the landlady of the White Horse Inn (now called the Rutland Arms Hotel) left instructions for her cook to make a jam tart with an egg and almond paste pastry base. The cook, instead of stirring the eggs and almond paste mixture into the pastry, spread it on top of the jam. When cooked the jam rose through the paste. The result was successful enough for it to become a popular dish at the Inn, and commercial variations, usually with icing sugar on top, have spread the name. Three shops in Bakewell offer what they each claim is the original recipe.

We didn’t know the story about the Rutland Arms Hotel so dined at the Red Lion which produced some wonderful home made food. I had chicken breast stuffed with vegetables and feta cheese, a huge salad and “Red Lion” chips. Other members of the group tried hominy pie and fish, chips and mushy peas.

We had a walk round the town of Bakewell including a steep hill up to the Old House Museum and past All Saints church and visited a couple of charity shops to view the books and CDs. We stopped off in Buxton for a coffee on the way back.

Trips & Adventures – 4 October 2018

The Portland Basin Museum in Ashton-under-Lyne is fantastic, but not too easy to find! Although the train from Manchester Victoria to Ashton-under-Lyne takes only nine minutes, the museum is a further twenty minute walk. We decided to take the bus.

We were directed to a ginnel which lead to the canal towpath. The museum was just a little way down over a bridge. The museum cafe was offering special meals to celebrate the International Day of Older Persons.

The 1914-18 street brought back many happy memories of drying clothes in the kitchen above the fire, the piano in the front parlour and playing hop-scotch in the school playing ground. The chip shop offered large fish for 4d and chips at 2d (that’s old money) and the grocers had a Christmas Club where you paid what you wanted each week in order to save for Christmas.

Stuart remembered spitoons and sawdust in the pub and the doctor advised against the demon drink on Mondays.

The street featured “Votes for Women” posters and had some interesting information on the sufragettes.

Everybody enjoyed the day out which also included trying on some hats and gloves.

 

In 1990, the United Nations General Assembly designated 1 October as the International Day of Older Persons.

The theme of the 2018 commemoration is “Celebrating Older Human Rights Champions“.

Older People’s Day exists and aims to challenge negative attitudes and outdated stereotypes and focuses on celebrating the achievements and contributions that older people make to our society and the economy.

Almost 700 million people are now over the age of 60. This is expected to reach 1.4 billion by 2030 and 2 billion people by 2050. This means over 20 per cent of the world’s population will be 60 or older. The LGBT Foundation advise that there are at least 7,650 older lesbian, gay and bisexual people living in Manchester.

With this in mind, enhanced attention to the particular needs and challenges faced by many older people is clearly required. Just as important, however, is the essential contribution the majority of older men and women can continue to make to the functioning of society if adequate guarantees are in place.

Human rights lie at the core of all efforts in this regard. The 1 October 2018 is also the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Growing older does not diminish a person’s inherent dignity and fundamental rights.

Trips & Adventures – 27 September 2018

If you are wondering what “Croeso i’r Gogarth” means, it is Welsh for “Welcome to the Great Norm … (oops!) I mean Great Orme”.

Three members of Out & About (Oldham’s LGBT over 50’s group) joined 13 members of Out In The City for a full day out in Llandudno, a coastal town in north Wales. After taking this group photo we made our way to a pub for lunch. When we got there I realised I had left my bag unattended on the street, but the good people of Llandudno had left it untouched.

We split into groups as half of us wanted to climb the Great Orme, north west of the town. The cliffs of the Great Orme headland jut into the sea, and ancient tunnels lead to a cavern at Great Orme Mines. A 1902 tramway has an upper and lower section, and travels to the headland’s summit. There are feral goats on the mountain which originate from India and Pakistan.

For the picture on the left, I thought for ages and ages for a witty and appropriate caption, but no I couldn’t come up with one.

Other members of the group wanted to visit the North Shore Beach and the 19th-century Llandudno Pier or just relax and chat. Stuart and Normski had a quickie at the end of the pier.

We met up at 5.00pm for the return journey. Although there were some roadworks – “Delays until October 2018” and I thought “Oh no! We are not going to get home until November!” – the driver made good time and we were back in Manchester for 7.00pm. Well done to Vinny’s Executive Travel for a great job.

Go to the website – and then click on the album to reveal more photos.