The night before New Year - Manchester

Up north for the day to visit my mother in hospital, which as usual was not without it's difficulties.

Manchester has the second largest Chinatown in the UK. Having said that, it's only a few streets wide. Mancs do a cracking New Year however, being slightly less health and safety conscious as their London cousins. Here a picture from New Year 2010 shows fire crackers exploding inside a faraday cage. The crackers ward off evil spirits (and unsuspecting tourists).

In 2008 I experienced the firecrackers on Lamma Island, Hong Kong. Where there is no health and safety in place at all and I had a firework casing land on my head.