WAR!

What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, but you do get some excellent museums as a consequence (plus lots of misery, death, displacement and long legacies of mistrust etc).

In an attempt to get me some culture - other than the stuff I get from my daily dose of yoghurt - Trump and myself took ourselves off to The Lowry and Imperial War Museum North at Salford Quays yesterday. Nothing particularly contentious happened, I didn't get into any arguments with anybody*, the weather was baking hot (I had my legs out), and there were some OK photo opportunities, some of which are shown here...


Art
In addition to the collection of works by Salford-born painter LS Lowry, there was a pretty interesting black and white photography exhibition on in the Lowry. This is the lowry...

Here's me in black and white, scratching my hairy chin while looking at a black and white of a woman with a hairy chin.

Oh, it's not black and white afterall, but you get the picture.

There was this room that was filled with corrugated cardboard stuff...

This particular piece was next to an area that was being refurbished as a "Family area", where kids would be allowed to scrawl on things with crayon. I suppose it'll save a few pushy parents cleaning the walls and furniture at home.

And here's a piece of photographic art that I wish to name as "Irate handbag woman", due to the fact that handbags, satchels, whatever you want to name them, are a complete pain in the arse and you can never find what you want without getting very very annoyed.

Marching as to the war museum

So this is the route to the Imperial War Museum, an inspiring construction with a design that is supposed to depict segmentation of an earth torn apart by conflict... apparently.

To get there, you wander over a rather bouncy footbridge that crosses the Manchester Ship Canal.

On the other side of the bridge is the shiniest building on earth, no idea what it is, but it is quite imposing. This is a photo of the side of it, a solitary English flag fluttering from a closed window. I like the way the clouds are reflected from the windows. Super.

As you approach the museum, you get to see the "Shard" of the bulding. This is quite a landmark and you can climb up it - my legs still hurt today.

The clouds were ace yesterday.


*

One thing that got my back up yesterday happened during a visit to, surprise, surprise, ASDA. Sent on an errand to fetch a newspaper and a bottle of water (it was fucking hot), I despaired at fridges filled to overflowing with Coke (suprise, surprise) and yet absolutely no water available. Tossers. I spoke to the lad at the till and said that, although it was too late, they could do with putting some water in the fridges for people to buy. He pointed to a small corner and said "There was some in the corner, but it's all sold out".

Since there was only space for about 20 bottles of water, it was little surprise that it had all gone on the hottest day of the fucking year. Perhaps they should put less Coke out (since none of the 500 hundred bottles of the shite had shifted) and more of the stuff that people clearly want to buy? Or even restock the shelves when they're empty instead of larking about the aisles with England flags stuck to their hats.

Idiots.

I got told off for having a go at him. "Why should he care, when he's only on £6 an hour?" I don't give a shit whether he cares or not, he and the rest of the numpties in there are still getting paid - they're not volunteers for fuck's sake.

Shitting dump.