Shopping

Yesterday was a curious day. Rob had to go to Manchester to do a tedious payroll module for his course, and came up with a cunning plan that Em and I would go with him and do some Christmas shopping. So we got up at stupid o'clock and got the train. The journey was uneventful and after we left Rob to go and find the hotel, Em and I went to a Costa Coffee and contemplated the relatively empty pavements outside and thought that perhaps the day would be productive and perhaps even fun.

First we went to some small and interesting places in the back streets by Picadilly Gardens. Em was particularly taken with Pop Boutique and if the logistics had allowed, would have transformed their house into a 70's paradise.

After this we went to the Arndale Centre. By now the city was predictably busier and the giant monument to consumerism was crammed with people. After a couple of hours it was getting somewhat wearying and we needed food. The food court was packed, but we got lucky because the only place without a queue was Taco Bell. I went up and ordered a burrito, quesadilla and two portions of churros without queueing at all, while KFC next door had a queue about 20 people deep. I think I started a new trend since as I was waiting for our food, the queue for Taco Bell suddenly grew hugely. The food from there isn't great, it's basically semi-Mexican fast food, but it's a nice change from McDonalds or KFC.

We saw a nice laptop in Currys, an Asus Vivobook with a touch screen and Windows 8. It worked surprisingly well, with the touch screen being a complimentary input device to the mouse and keyboard. The only thing it needed was a more substantial hinge to stop the screen wobbling when you touched it. I think that's the way it needs to go - instead of touch screens becoming the only input device, an additional one to the usual mouse and keyboard, at least for desktops and laptops. Dockable tablets are probably the way to go.

Finally we met up with Rob, went to Forbidden Planet and got the train back. We got a sack of takeaway food from Sainsbury's and ate it in front of Michael Portillo riding astonishing railways in Switzerland and making a prat of himself trying to talk to locals.

Today has been a fairly unproductive day, but I did spend an hour or so sorting out some Christmas shopping online when I wasn't sitting around watching DVDs. I also had a go at making macaroni cheese, which came out rather nice and there was enough for tomorrow lunchtime too.

Patrick Moore has died. Shame as he was a real character.