Marvellous Manchester

This morning we had to be up and out as I had a dental appointment in Manchester. The glorious blue sky made it much easier to get going! We drove into manchester and parked up.....first things first, get the dentist out of the way!

I took some shots of the trees bedecked with bright red chinese lanterns in readiness for the Chinese New Year celebrations this weekend, en route to M&S, to buy a few new summer things in readiness for forthcoming hols ;-)

A quick walk around the corner found us outside Manchester Cathedral. I've been in many times, when I used to play in the Church Girls Brigade band, but hub hadn't been inside, so we took the opportunity, and boy are we glad we did!! As we opened the door and went inside, we were met by this incredible sound... the lady on the door welcoming people in explained that it was the Chethams School of Music Orchestra rehearsing for a concert this evening and that we couldn't have chosen a better day to visit! We sat and listened for a good while, the music was so beautiful.... some of the children appeared to be as young as 9 or 10 . A young boy played a clarinet solo which was astounding for one so young, but I guess that's why they are students at Chethams! We were asked not to photograph the students for,obvious reasons, but other photography was allowed.
I took this shot from behind where the orchestra was seated.
You might just be able to make out one or two heads through the fretwork at the bottom. We stayed for an hour I'd say, eventually we left as we were both getting tearful, the music was so moving (just a pair of old softies I guess) :-)

Then we walked up to King Street, and treated ourselves to lunch at Jamie's (Oliver), garlic prawn and rocket linguine mmmmm and a glass of red, it would be rude not to ;-)

We left having been royally fed and watered, walked back through Spinningfields, towards the museums, which were quite busy as its half term, by the Hilton Hotel......taking more shots as I went of course.

It was hard to choose a shot for,today, but the lasting memory will be of the orchestra in the Cathedral, so this is the right shot to remind me of today when I look back.