Holly Wong, 9, knows the truth.

Today was, so the papers said, the most depressing day of the year. Coincidentally, as a good way to tackle this, Louise and I had half-planned a cultural outing. We discussed it last week.

“Would you like to go and see this exhibition at Urbis on Monday?”
“Isn’t Urbis closed on a Monday Louise?”
“No, no it isn’t – I’ve checked the website.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes. 100%”

We got there. Closed. I gave Louise a look. She knew exactly what it meant.

Later on, Dunk invited me round to his for the Liverpool derby. I thought I’d pick up some beers from Carrington’s. Closed. What is it with Mondays? The game was okay, a 1-1 draw that didn’t make either team look particularly good. Dunk showed me this brilliant article (click here) from the International Herald Tribune that collected children’s advice to Barack Obama following his election. Charming stuff. My winner is Holly Wong, aged 9, from San Francisco, who wrote…

Dear President/Mr. Obama,

The best thing about living in the White House would be running around like a maniac. The thing I would like least is the work.

- Holly Wong, age 9, San Francisco

NTS6

Cup, 53-55 Thomas St, Manchester

“I’ll have the sheep’s cheese, rocket and red onion marmalade sandwich, please.”
“That’ll be £3.85. Would you like it toasted?”
“No thanks.”

I walked with Pip down to Urbis Square, unwrapped my sandwich, and found out why they were so eager to toast my sandwich - its posh Barbakan bread was stale. I wonder what Mr Scruff would think about that. That posh bread is probably free from additives and preservatives, so I think I had one of Monday’s sandwiches. I knew I should have gone for a pie.

Manga exhibition at Urbis

I popped down to the Manga exhibition at Urbis this morning, and particularly enjoyed this mural.





I met Kate, who said that she'd had an interview there that day that had taken the form of a 'why you shouldn't throw me out of the lifeboat' group exercise. She picked Ray Mears, good thinking!