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Antony

Getting Into The Festive Spirit: Manchester Christmas Market

By Friends & Family, Happiness & Joy, LifeNo Comments

Manchester Christmas Market Manchester Christmas Market Singing Tree

Manchester Christmas Market Bar It’s become a tradition that once a year, around this time, I go to the Manchester Christmas Market for a mooch around and a Bailey’s latte.

At the weekend, my friend and I completed this tradition together. Considering it was the end of November, it was relatively warm and the sun shone brightly – at times blinding our vision.

We arrived about midday and it wasn’t overly crowded (top left photo).
We started at the stalls straight outside of Manchester Victoria Train Station and began to make our way towards St. Ann’s Square and the City Hall Square. Along the way we saw a singing Christmas Tree (top right photo).

The stalls either sold food or gifts. The food choices were very varied from delicacies to more mainstream dishes. Generally most of the food stalls smelt devine.

The gift stalls had some lovely trinkets, some unique and original products (that would make perfect presents for Christmas), but also some over-priced tat.

Manchester Christmas Market Bailey's Coffee

Midway through the markets my friend and I managed to get seats at a coffee stall (above: left hand column), where we were able to enjoy our drinks. I had the Bailey’s latte as always (above: right hand column) while my friend had his Bailey’s white coffee. As we drank we talked, about many different things including: Christmas, our plans for 2014 and tablets (the Kindle & the iPad Air).

As the afternoon got later, going into early evening, the markets got busier and busier. I had expected that it would get quieter as it got later, but I was wrong. It felt like we were sardines (below: left & right). We had a great time, but maybe next year I’ll avoids the crowds by going midweek.

Manchester Christmas Market Giant Santa / Town Hall Manchester Christmas Market Crowds

Blog soon,

Antony

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Wednesday 4 December 2013

World AIDS Day 2013

By LifeNo Comments
World Aids Day HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus which attacks the body’s immune system — the body’s defence against diseases. AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) is the final stage where the immune system being depleted of its cells by HIV. Once enough of the immune system cells have been destroyed by HIV, the body is not capable of fighting off other bacteria and viruses as easily, particularly opportunistic infections. Infections like pneumonia are usually the cause of death for someone who has HIV/AIDS’.

HIV is passed on through infected bodily fluids, most commonly via sex without a condom or by sharing infected needles, syringes or other injecting drug equipment. Only 1% of mothers with HIV give birth to HIV positive babies.

Did you know that around 100,000 are currently living with HIV in the UK and that 1 in 5 don’t know they’ve got it? World AIDS Day is all about raising awareness about HIV/AIDS.

So do one simple thing for World AIDS Day, take this HIV Awareness Quiz.

I scored 9 out of 12:
HIV-aware-quiz-result

Blog soon,

Antony

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Sunday 1 December 2013

Changes to The Pink List (2013)

By Gay, History, ThinkingNo Comments

Pink List 2013 Logo

The Independent on Sunday has been producing their annual Pink List since 2000. The Pink List is a list of influential gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans gay people in the UK. Each year The Independent assembles a panel of Judges, opens up for nominations from the public and then decides who to award the 100 places to and in which order.

This year’s Pink List 2013 has been published and with some interesting changes. No longer is it enough to be gay and a well known public figure whose a role model to gay youth. This year people on the list have to have contributed or made a difference in some way.

The Independent on Sunday have created two separate lists in addition to the main pink list; one for National Treasures and one for Politicians. On the National Treasures list is the likes of Russell T Davies, Paul O’Grady, Sir Elton John, Stephen Fry, Sir Ian McKellen and John Barrowman. On the Politicians list is various Westminster Peeps.

I am disappointed by the creation of these separate lists for National Treasures and Politicians. I think it is enough to be gay and a role model, so I’d have kept the one Pink List. I’d have just put people who have contributed more in the last year higher up on the list.

I would have extended the list to accomodate the increasing number gay people coming out. It shows that we are out there in numbers and contributing to society. For easy reading, I would have split the list into parts: 1-10, 11-30, 31-50, 51-100 and 101+.

The Pink List has always missed out people that are not in the media spotlight. I think the Pink List could be massively improved by including these people who are contributing a great deal to their local communities and society as a whole. These ‘ordinary’ LGBT people are doing amazing things. Such as those Workers/Volunteers for The Albert Kennedy Trust & George House Trust, Students who’ve set up LGBT Societies in Universities and Employees that set up or run LGBT forums within their employers organisations.

The Pink List should include out LGBT parents. Its very difficult to be an out LGBT parent. Many LGBT parents worry about the impact of their sexuality/gender identity on their children, in terms of some schools institutional homophobia and bullying by other children. I discovered this through two interviews with LGBT parents for a feature article for The Gay UK. The first interview was with Paul and the other with Linda.

Finally, I think there should be a list of influential straight people who support gay rights. The gay marriage bill would have never been passed into law, if it wasn’t for the many straight people who voted in favour of the bill.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Tuesday 26 November 2013

Book Review: Inventing the 21st Century by Stephen van Dulken

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
inventing-the-21st-century-book-cover If you’re an Inventor, Entrepreneur or a Patent-Geek then you’ll enjoy reading Inventing the 21st Century by Stephen van Dulken.

Dulken a Patent Librarian, tells the patent stories of fifty of the most well known and well used inventions of the 21st Century including: e-books, The ‘bladeless’ fan, The iPod MP3 player, Apple’s iPhone, The Nintendo Wii, ‘Wave and Pay,’ Self-cleaning Glass, Self-Service Checkouts, Robot Helpers as well as others.

Dulken starts with an introduction that describes the patent world as one where technology, law and business meet to create and protect innovation. He writes that inventors need to be good at business as well – being able to do their market research, be honest with themselves and write good business plans in order to get financial backing.

Then Dulken goes onto some of the most popular and successful inventions (so far) of the 21st century. Each of the inventions has a page that describes the patent, the concept and product design/development; followed by a page that has illustrations from the patent.

Dulken concludes by giving advice on how the patent system works and recommends that anyone who wants to write a patent to hire a Patent Attorney.

The Inventing the 21st Century book blurb boasts that it includes ‘personal insights’ from some of the Inventors. So I expected that it would have a few interesting stories about where the inventors got their ideas. I’m fascinated about where creativity comes from and how it develops.

But unfortunately these personal insights were extremely limited, usually down to a sentence or two at most. Instead Dulken focused purely on the patent aspect of each invention. It’s clear that Dulken is passionate about patents, which is great for him, but not so great me. I didn’t want to read a book of facts: dates, specifications, costs, etc. which is what I felt like I was reading. However I’m sure people with a very logical mind will like Dulken’s formal style.

In summary, Inventing the 21st Century by Stephen van Dulken is a well thought-out book that aspiring Inventors, business people and some academics will find a pleasant read.

Inventing the 21st Century by Stephen van Dulken is available to buy on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony

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Sunday 24 November 2013
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