Two external forces have had an effect on my beloved team’s season in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. One has had a positive one; another one was a huge negative. The ‘R’ word featured in both of them; it is not the ‘R’ word you may be thinking of. Continue reading “(Still) A Grand Old Team to See: Fourteen Days Which Knackered The ‘Bridge”
Here we go again, another eight days left of 2017 to enjoy. You know what that means: turkey, tinsel. If you can find anything on the ol’ telebox this Yuletide, good luck to you! O.K., forget that line: there seems to a few festive goodies across the channels. New Year’s Day 2018 will see the ITV Network Premiere of Spectre, the latest James Bond film. Continue reading “Merry Christmas and a Peaceful 2018 from East of the M60”
“This is Yorkshire Television, in colour…”
The creator of East of the M60 [Stuart Vallantine] now has another outlet for his writings. Whereas East of the M60 majors in blog posts east of the aforementioned motorway (from Rochdale to Stockport boroughs via Oldham and Tameside), some of its wit and wisdom has crossed the Pennines. Continue reading “S.V. Goes East of the Pennines”
Some of the best laid plans are never planned at all. Some of them are made on the hoof, or they just fall into place. Serendipity and spontaneity can make for the greatest of journeys as we lose ourselves in another town, village, open space, or on a bus you never thought of catching.
My first circumnavigation of 2017 was a classic example. I left Chez Vall thinking “my first work day of 2017”. So I caught the 220 to Stalybridge bus station for the 0746 train to Salford Central. Continue reading “An Accidental Circumnavigation: South Lancashire by Bus, 03 January 2017”
You will be wondering “why on Earth is The Chase’s Ann Hegerty in an East of the M60 article?” Well, the story behind this picture takes us to December 2014. After meeting her with (Tremendous Knowledge) David Rainford at The Water House in Manchester (in early 2013 after a Poetica event in City Library), I had finally got around to joining a local quiz team. Since the close of 2014, I have been involved in the quiz teams for The Wheatsheaf and The Lodge Hotel. Regular readers of this blog would know for sure the two pubs are in Dukinfield. Continue reading “Sleepless Near Settle: Sleeplessness And My Childhood”
What a year 2016 has been – most of which have been memorable for the wrong reasons. As a thank you to all readers old and new, to East of the M60, here’s this year’s Christmas card.
This year’s Christmas card is inspired by a Christmas jumper pattern. Continue reading “A Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year from East of the M60”
I am probably the last person on Earth to be associated with silence. In nearly ten years of running East of the M60, my online life has multiplied. Firstly, my first online experience was via college, since 1996. This was in The Good Old Days of Netscape 2.0, when Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser was a mere upstart. We chatted to distant friends by email. As for our friends closer to home, we used to go to the pub. Continue reading “The Joy of Silence and the Music of Being”
Before I begin, it has been a while since our last edition of The Not So Perfect Ten. It has been even longer since we did a Not So Perfect Ten based on a bus route number. The last was a countdown on the 409 service (which only mustered nine entries at the time). The previous one to that was based on the 343 service. Continue reading “Is This The 346? The Not So Perfect Ten”
Before I went to bed, I learned about the possibility of more tasty radio stations coming my way. “Whoop whoop I thought,” thinking my erstwhile DAB receiver would benefit from a few new stations, using the DAB+ system. Then I realised the only one I would have been likely to listen to was Steve Penk’s Wind-Up channel. Chris Country was definitely out, so my opinions on the Manchester digital multiplex’s selection was met with a “meh”.
Continue reading “Ringing the Frequency Changes: AM to FM and DAB to DAB+”
