Month: July 2016

Hollingworth Lake

by
Hollingworth Lake

I’m a bit behind with uploading photos to Flickr, and so it’s taken me until now to write about a day out to Hollingworth Lake. We went right at the beginning of May, on a scorchingly-hot Sunday afternoon.

Despite its name, Hollingworth Lake is actually a reservoir built by humans, and not a natural lake. Built at the end of the 18th century, it served as the main water source for the Rochdale Canal – the canal that runs from Manchester, across the Pennines to our home town of Sowerby Bridge. By the 1860s it had developed into an inland tourist resort, and nowadays, it’s part of a country park. It still has the feeling of an inland seaside resort, as it retains some its hotels, pubs and amusement arcades. There’s also a sailing club based there.

Christine had been a few times before but this was my first time. I’d passed it a few times; the bridge in the background of the photo carries the M62, and I’ve had driving lessons nearby. Most people drive to get there and there are several car parks by the lake. On busy days, it may take you quite a while to find a parking space. If you don’t want to drive, Smithy Bridge is the nearest railway station (with signs saying ‘Alight here for Hollingworth Lake’) and is a short walk away. There are regular buses from Rochdale.

There’s a footpath all the way around the lake. It’s around four kilometres (2 ½ miles in old money) and makes for a nice gentle stroll. There are a couple of cafés at various points, and on hot days the ice cream vans make an appearance. It’s a nice, varied walk, with a section of the park set aside as a nature reserve.

You can view a few more photos in my Hollingworth Lake album on Flickr.

A day out in Liverpool

by
Liverpool

A couple of weeks ago, Christine and I ended up with a Friday off work and no plans. So, on a whim, we decided to go to Liverpool.

In the past, we would have caught the train. It takes a couple of hours from Sowerby Bridge, with a change in Manchester. But we decided to drive this time, which proved to be quicker and (probably) cheaper. We decided to stay the night, and we could bring all of our seven-month-old’s paraphernalia in the car as well. We managed to get a room in the Holiday Inn Express in the Albert Dock, which was great. It’s located in one of the old warehouses, above what used to be the studio for This Morning on ITV. The rooms still have the brick barrel-vaulting and ironwork intact, bringing some character to an otherwise bog-standard budget hotel.

We last came to Liverpool in 2010. Back then, we spent a couple of days in the city, before catching the ferry to the Isle of Man. This was before the Museum of Liverpool had opened, so now that it is open and established, we popped in. The gallery about the Liverpool Overhead Railway most interested me, as you can imagine, but the rest of the museum was worth looking around too. It’s also home to several of the Superlambananas that were created for Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture event in 2008. There’s plenty about the history of the city, although some of the exhibits about Liverpool’s suburbs will be more of interest to locals than those visiting.

Liverpool

Liverpool is one of my favourite places to visit. The area around the Albert Dock is fantastic, as is the Liverpool One shopping centre – it’s a great example of a retail development that blends into the city, rather than dominating it. I’m sure we’ll be back again in a few years time.

Pokémon Go

by
A screenshot of Pokemon Go on iOS

It probably won’t surprise you that I’ve spent quite a bit of the last week playing Pokémon Go. I downloaded it within hours of its official UK release; the screenshot shows how far I’ve got, and overall, I’m level 11. This is mostly through capturing Pokémon on the way to and from work, and on my lunch break.

Christine has been playing it a little longer. She has an Android phone, and so she was able to sideload the APK file from a third-party web site prior to its official release on the Google Play Store. She’s therefore slightly ahead of me, and has had the benefit of being on maternity leave to have more time to catch Pokémon.

I’m enjoying it, although it is further exacerbating my iPhone’s battery issues. As I write this, Pokémon Go has used 51% of my battery over the past 24 hours. Even before last week, I was struggling to get through a full day on one charge. To be fair, I use multiple Bluetooth devices with my phone, and use it on a train journey with frequent tunnels. So my iPhone’s battery was already getting a strong workout even before I started playing. But, notice how my phone was already down to 61% before 9am in the screenshot.

I haven’t added any Pokémon to gyms yet, and have only played a couple of battles. I’m waiting until I’ve collected more, and had the chance to upgrade or evolve them. Many of the nearby gyms have Pokémon with combat power over 1000 already, and my best is under 800.

It’s been fascinating to see how much of a phenomenon Pokémon Go has become. It’s already outperforming many other social apps, including Twitter and Tinder, in terms of how long people use it. And the news has been full of stories, both good and bad, about the game and its players. I never played Ingress, its spiritual predecessor, but I had friends who did. It seems that Niantic, its developer, has found the perfect balance between Ingress’ gameplay, and the popularity of the Pokémon franchise.

I don’t know how long I’ll keep playing. At the moment I’m still discovering new Pokémon and enjoying levelling them up – even if I’m sick of always finding Drowzees everywhere. Maybe the game will become less fun or stale after a while, but at the moment I like it.