Wonderwall

Summer has well and truly kicked in, so M and I made a day of it. We began with a slap-up al fresco brunch at Levenshulme’s leading veggie/vegan eaterie, The Gherkin https://thegherkin.org.uk where we found ourselves seated at the adjacent table to BBC 6Music presenter and former member of The Fall and The Creepers, the mighty Marc Riley https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Riley However, I’d broken my cardinal rule and left the house without my camera OR my phone, so was unable to record this moment in photographic form for posterity. Rookie error!

Later on, with photographic equipment now in hand, we headed over to Cheetham Hill to visit the newly remodelled Manchester Jewish Museum www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com - against the Corten exterior of which this portrait of M was taken - I loved the architecture by Citizens Design Bureau. The museum is well worth a visit. Really well done, with loads of interesting artefacts and audio clips www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/jun/30/manchester-jewish-museum-reopens-after-6m-revamp?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other. I was particularly drawn to the book shown in the Extra pictures, which belonged to Joseph Herstnitt, a rabbi who came to Manchester from near Lviv in Poland (now Ukraine) - which is where my ancestor, David Leibstein, also came from. This extract from the book, written in Yiddish, discusses extracts from the Torah, for women!

In the evening, we went over to Platt Fields for a picnic with M’s friends A and C. It was lovely to meet some of M’s pals properly for the first time and enjoy some chat in the company of a very friendly squirrel.

When we got back to M’s we discovered that her neighbour from a couple of doors down was having a 50th birthday party in her back yard and had hired a live singer! So we went out into M’s own ‘yarden’ and sang and danced along to what must rank as the best gig I’ve been to in 16 months or so!! The party entertainer performed an eclectic set list incorporating everything from Dolly Parton to The Killers, John Denver to The Proclaimers, Tracy Chapman to Stereophonics, Rod Stewart to James. At one point, clearly giddy with the excitement of it all, M yelled ‘Wonderwall!!’ https://youtube.com/watch?v=6hzrDeceEKc over the fence and elicited whoops and claps from all down the back alley, suggesting that the whole neighbourhood was enjoying the party from the safety and comfort of their own homes. The singer very kindly obliged… but when M requested an encore she was told “It’ll cost yer a fiver!” - which was fair enough! Another high point was the song that’s captivated this country over the past few weeks… yes, the inevitable cover of Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’! https://youtube.com/watch?v=4RqQMcVFhBQ (This song is dedicated to Ma Booknerd).

All in all, a very fine day indeed!