Vega, BHMC, Arcade Fire

What a scrum! The Mountain Equipment sample sale in Hyde was far busier this weekend, with people walking around carrying armfuls of down and hard-shell jackets so as to stop anybody else picking them up. Somehow from within the melee, Laura managed to find a couple of anoraks for her cousin and his son, and to find me a Vega jacket, in Facebook blue. The only imperfection was that the zip was stuck; easy to repair, surely. At only sixty pounds, it was around a quarter of its retail price. Ker-ching!

“There’s an open day at the old College on College Road,” said Kath on speakerphone as we drove back from Hyde, “do you want to go and look round?” The College, known to some locally as Dracula’s House, is the new home of the British Muslim Heritage Centre. The building has intrigued me through its fence for a good period of time, and the chance to look around it – indeed, inside it – thrilled me to my bones. I was interested to find out that the gothic stone façade only extends across the front elevation of the building, and that the back and the sides are red-brick in keeping with the contemporary buildings of its day. The restoration inside the former college reminds of that of the John Rylands Library – elegant, and very much in keeping with the tone of the original. The plans for the building are stunning. I look forward to seeing them bloom.

Chaz and Bill came up to Manchester for the Arcade Fire gig, so I met them for a drink or two before. We met Laura and Kath at the Rain Bar later on, and then saw Martin and his friends inside the gig. The band were awesome, and we had a great view from the side of the stage. Weird Jim, Paulos and Steve were all there too. Afterwards, Chaz and Bill came with us to Dukes for a skinful. I was so drunk that I had a portion of skanky chips on the way home. What a brilliant day!