Arrived in Manchester

After a brief stay at the old homestead, I am now firmly in the arms of Manchester, Jewel of the North. I arrived beladen with bags on Thursday, so I’m four days in now and starting to get the hang of the idea.

The new room’s good, spacious, with a cool old wardrobe with a tie rack, and the bed’s not bad either. The new housemates are lovely, and have already invited me to join their next D&D campaign, so I’m definitely amongst my people. I’m off out this evening to meet my fellow postgraduates, and the first official course meeting is tomorrow, so by end of play tomorrow I’ll have a better idea of who I’ll be spending my time with.

The city’s interesting. I’m currently mapping it by thinking of each area’s rough Leicester equivalent, and rejigging the geography afterwards. For example, I live in Rusholme, which is basically  a little like Clarendon Park/Stoneygate, but it’s in walking distance of the Golden mile. It’s also not long before you hit the university, which has a campus feel but is more integrated into the city than either of Leicester’s. Then there’s a bridge for homeless people, and if you’re persistent you’ll eventually hit the city centre, which is like any city centre really, with the shopping park at the top of it, which is as far as I’ve gotten. What’s slightly taken me aback is that I’m used to simply walking around everywhere. Even from Oadby, Leicester is pretty walkable, but Manchester is just that little bit farther. It’s certainly not impossible to walk – it doesn’t have that London problem where you feel as if you’re walking through only tangentially related small towns, and thankfully it’s not like Birmingham, where the city planning is so haphazard you can get lost by walking in a straight line. It’s got the Leicester feel of everything branching naturally off the city centre or the uni, but it’s just that much further to walk. In short, I’ll be investigating public transport, because while I like to be healthy, there’s a limit.

I haven’t sorted out as much as I would like. The loan I’m going for requires an unreasonable assortment of evidence, which is taking time to compile, I haven’t even got round to applying for jobs yet, and I’m still a little unclear on what I’ll actually need for the course (but I bought loads of poetry books off Amazon anyway, because it felt productive). But it’ll get done, and I’ll be a bit more sure of everything once the work starts. I could be participating in Fresher’s, I suppose, but money, and I feel a bit old hat for all that. I’ll see where the mood takes me.

Considering I’ve taken  it gently, I think that’s all I’ve got to cover at the moment. Any questions or whatever, shout at me, otherwise, see you next blog!