Burton Road

My new apartment is on Burton Road, West Didsbury. it's a nice street, with a couple of pubs, some small clothes shops, a bakery, convenience stores, and even a nice cafe that makes decent coffee. I know, many of you won't believe this, but it's true. There is also a very small but pleasantly dark wine bar.

I can sit in my window sill and watch the street life, looking up Burton Road towards Lapwing Lane (this fabulously named street becomes the even better named Fog Lane in Didsbury). It's busy, but not noisy, and has a good feel about it. There are lots of students here, so it's a young crowd, as well as more well-heeled members of the professional classes who cluster wherever the wine and coffee is. The 'other side of the tracks' is two blocks up the street, in Withington, and with any luck the tram will be built through here on the airport route, which would conveniently put some literal tracks where the metaphorical line is. In Manchester, the layout of the city doesn't reflect clearly delineated class borders, like in Sydney. The neighbourhoods here are very small, so all the classes are much closer together. This doesn't mean they get along any better, however.

It's about 30-40 mins to work on the double decker bus, but only 15 mins back home in the evenings. I never get tired of sitting in the front seats of the top deck. I buy a Megarider ticket, which gets me a week's travel on any Stagecoach or Magic Bus in Manchester. It's expensive, but given that a day ticket on one route only is 3.30 pounds, it's worthwhile.

The photos are all taken looking out from my apartment, to the April snow.