Free Comic Book Day

[ganimede]

For Free Comic Book Day last year, I'd made a point of going to patronise my local comic book store. I used to go to it regularly back when I bought comics a lot but it changed hands several years ago and hasn't been the same since. Case in point, last year the owner was restricting everyone to one comic and I was treated like I was committing a

Comments

[hobbitblue]

Such a great haul, must look up the Lady Mechanika one as the art was so amazing.. and 7 miles? Wow.

[ganimede]

I know, I couldn't believe it either! It was over 15,000 steps which apparently works out to just under 7 miles. I think most of it was from wandering round and round St Johns looking for the toilets.

[hobbitblue]

heh, could well be.. shouldn't they be near the food court? I've not needed to find/use them, always used the clayton square ones when in that part of town tho come to think of it, now they've revamped it all those have likely gone,,

[ganimede]

Should they? I don't know. In the shopping centres in town here, the toilets are in different places - one has them on the very top floor and the other on the very ground floor. The problem with St Johns was that the signs on the top floor were unclear and it looked like they were on that floor rather than downstairs.

[hobbitblue]

Well its the logical thing and other places with food courts tned ot have the loos nearby, when the food court was designed into the build i mnean, which i think is the case with St Johns.. I've got lost in St Johns so often its silly, and the market scares me even more from that point of view!

[ganimede]

I realised after I commented that none of the shopping centres in town have food courts so it doesn't occur to me that the two would go together! That would obviously make a difference! St Johns is not brilliantly laid out, is it? And the market is just weird.

[hobbitblue]

Ah, yes, that would account for not thinking along those lines. The Arndale food court at the top of the long escalators (assuming its still there, not been in decades), the Trafford Centre and Meadowhalls all have their loos near the food.. The market gives me the eebie jeebies, not sure why, the atmosphere is just so.. still.. bit airless too which is likely the problem.

[ganimede]

I've not been to the Arndale for a while but I think the food court is still at the top of that looooong escalator. I've only been to the Trafford Centre and Meadowhalls once so I don't really remember where theirs are.

The market seems rather closed-in and cramped, that probably doesn't help. There's an indoor market in town here which is more open (and noisy!) so it's not as bad. It's amazing how much difference it makes if there's no windows though.

[hobbitblue]

That's good to know, tho i doubt I'll be going there (even if i were in Manchester it wouldn't be the Arndale..) Meadowhalls twice for me, I *think*, yes, once with uni friends and once with mum and dad. To call the Trafford Centre thing a food court is damning with faint praise really, given that huge area with the seating in the middle and then actual restaurants upstairs. The loos there are done out on an Eyptian theme, the ladies I particularly remember because the ceiling has a mural type thing of a little Egyptian boy peering down through a hole in the roof, like he's peering into Tut's tomb.. Bit odd, come to think of it but I always thought it was cute and clever.

Markets, even indoor ones, should be reasonably open.. I still miss the old Wigan market, the new market hall that replaced it was certainly less tattered and smelly and likely more hygienic, especially the food/butchers stalls, but it lost a lot of its atmosphere. But at least it still had some!

[ganimede]

I've only been in the Arndale food court once and I didn't think much to it then. There's much nicer places in Manchester to eat, there's a really nice soup place (Soup Kitchen) that's close to the Arndale but it's down a side-street so no one really knows it's there! The problem with the Trafford Centre is that it's difficult to get to unless you have a car, it's quite a way out of Manchester.

If the markets are selling food, then they definitely should be more open. That's not the kind of thing you want to be all enclosed and stinky!

[hobbitblue]

the last time i went there was with my boyfriend Michael so that was 1993, and i remember they had a restaurant done out like a Pullman, the food was very good and he fancied the waiter, who was a bit young for my tastes.. so its been a while. Yes, no car is a bugger for getting to the Trafford Centre, i dont' currently think i've enough energy for all the walking through it either.. mum used to get one of those disabled scooter things to get around on when we went there, she'd go zooming off joyfully with us wandering along behind (tho i was a fairly fast walker then.. :) )

Yep..

[ganimede]

The Arndale has changed rather a bit since 1993, especially considering half of it was demolished following the IRA bomb in 1996. I think I'd only been once or twice prior to that so I don't really remember what it was like then. I've been several times since though. The Trafford Centre is far too enclosed for my liking, it seems a bit claustrophobic. It hadn't opened long when I went, it's probably changed a lot since then.

[hobbitblue]

Oh, good point.. I've been past or near it since then, when Manchester got a facelift, but not sure I went inside, the food court stuck in my mind because of the long escalator and the pullman thing..

I really like the Trafford Centre, though one of the best places, the market type area at one end with lots of small independent shops/stalls was taken away and replaced wiht a huge John Lewis which was such a shame, too mnay generic shops as it is. But there's Selfridges which has a cool food/deli bit, and a pen shop and a couple of fancy goods and ethnic shops (assuming those are still there), and I really love the Dim sum restaurant, and the decor and fountains and.. yeah, somewhere i'd love to go again at some point :) I found it quite light and airy, personally,

[ganimede]

That's one of the serious downsides to places these days, all high streets and shopping centres have the same shops. There's so little left in the way of quirky shops or independent ones. Even if you go to a town you've never been to before, it seems the same as all the rest because it's all the same bogstandard chains!

[hobbitblue]

Yes, and then then when you do find a little shop thats not a chain its either dowdy and dusty and well hidden or on the verge of closing down for lack of customers :(

I get the impression there's more in the way of interesting independents down South (at least, when I google for various cool things the addresses are invariably several hundred miles thataways..), though I think Chester still has some decent places, York too mayhap..

[ganimede]

That could describe half the chain stores these days. But yes, most independent places seem to be less than brilliant or miles away from anywhere. Or too expensive. Independent bookshops always seem to be so pricey compared to chains like Waterstones or the online sites, it's hard to patronise them when you're having to spend double.

I think Chester has some independent shops, it's been years since I've been to York so I'm not sure about that.