Buying things on AliExpress

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Screenshot of the AliExpress home page

I’ve been using AliExpress to buy occasional items since last summer. For those not already familiar, AliExpress is an online marketplace, where various businesses can sell products direct to consumers. The majority of the businesses on the platform are based in China, and it’s very similar to Shein and Temu in this regard. In my experience, AliExpress tends to focus more on technology, but its sellers offer a wide variety of things.

Before I continue, a disclosure. I’m a member of Amazon Associates, and so whenever you buy something from Amazon having followed a link from this blog, I get a small amount of commission. AliExpress is an Amazon competitor, and I do not get any commission from AliExpress. That being said, you can use this referral link if you want.

Shipping times

The big difference between buying from AliExpress (or Shein, or Temu) when compared with, say, Amazon, is the shipping times. The products you buy from AliExpress are usually shipped, on demand, directly from China. This means that orders to the UK typically take a week to arrive, if they’re in stock.

You do get regular shipping updates, both by email and in the AliExpress app, telling you when your items have been dispatched, arrived in your country, cleared customs and are finally out for delivery. It’s worth noting that, once in the UK, orders are generally delivered by Evri (aka Hermes). Whilst we seem to have a good local Evri courier at present, I’ve also had horror stories in the past, so bear this in mind.

Another thing to watch out for is extended delivery times. I’ve bought items where the expected delivery time has been measured in weeks rather than days, and this wasn’t obvious prior to payment.

Choice items

Many items for sale on AliExpress carry a ‘Choice’ flag. If you buy enough of these at once, then you get free delivery. What this means – I think – is that the individual sellers will send their products to a central dispatch point, where they’re collected together, put into a larger padded envelope, and sent internationally as one package.

Unlike Amazon, who mostly use cardboard for their packages, expect to receive lots of hard-to-recycle plastic packaging when your order arrives. And while we’re talking about the environment, bear in mind that your order will most likely be shipped by air, and so incurs significant carbon emissions. By contrast, products shipped by boat to a UK warehouse before sale will have incurred lower emissions on the whole.

Prices

Because you’re buying directly from sellers in China, the prices are usually lower than anywhere else. Typically, I’ve seen the same items costing 50% more on Amazon than on AliExpress. Note that some prices exclude VAT, so when you get to the checkout, don’t be surprised to see your total go up by around 20%.

Coins

Coins are the currency AliExpress uses for its loyalty scheme. Once you have an account, then performing various actions whilst using the AliExpress app (and specifically the app, not the web site) rewards you coins. This can be as simple as opening the Coins page of the app each day, or writing a review. There are also games within the app that you can play for coins.

When you buy products, you may be able to redeem some of your coins against the total cost. You probably won’t be able to pay for a whole order with coins, but it may knock a few pence off. I currently have 866 coins as I write this, which should amount to approximately £6.78.

I’m guessing the whole idea with coins is that you’re tempted into opening the app regularly, and so are tempted into buying more things.

Discount events

AliExpress has regular events where discounts are available. These are either coupons, e.g. save £5 if you spend £30, or discounts on products. Usually, there’s a discount on Choice items on the first day of the month, for example.

Helpfully, AliExpress sometimes indicates if a product will be cheaper in the near future. Usually, the difference is just a few pence, but it’s worth noting if you don’t need an item urgently. And, let’s face it, if you’re already expecting to wait a week for delivery, a few more days to save a little may be worth the wait.

The best things I’ve bought from AliExpress

I’ve reviewed a number of items that I’ve bought from AliExpress over the past year or so, but certainly not everything. Of those that I have reviewed, here’s a list:

I’ve also picked up a MagSafe power bank, that I use regularly, a colour changing Zigbee smart bulb, and a USB-C to 2.5mm audio jack adaptor. I’ve bought multiple sets of cheap Lenovo ThinkPlus wireless earbuds, so that I have a set in each bag that I use regularly and so am never without headphones. They won’t win any audiophile awards, but they’re good enough.

The best bargain was something that we bought for our nine-year-old, to help with one of their disabilities. It cost £20, versus £150 for an almost identical product from a specialist UK disability store that we also had to buy.

On one of the Home Assistant Facebook groups I’m in, another member said that he doesn’t buy anything from AliExpress that can be plugged into the mains, for safety reasons. Indeed, of the things I’ve bought, only the smart bulb, and a couple of Zigbee smart plugs, are things that can be plugged into the mains. I’ve not had any issues with any of them, but I think it’s a good rule to follow. It’s certainly possible to pick up items from AliExpress that shouldn’t be legally sold in the UK, because they’re not compliant with our safety laws. This is true of most marketplace platforms, including Amazon.

…and the things I’ve regretted

Not every purchase has been worthwhile. I reviewed this six port USB car charger in March; since then, some of the plastic has come off, and I don’t use it anymore. That’s mainly because our new car has ample built-in USB ports and so it’s no longer necessary, but I don’t know if I’d feel safe using it now either way.

There was a USB charger cable that looked like a three-tailed whip, featuring USB-C, Lightning and micro-USB ports on one end and a USB-A port on the other. It claimed to offer 100 W charging, although my understanding of how USB-A works means that’s arguably impossible. It’s certainly not met my expectations, although I still use it, and it cost barely more than £1.

I also bought a tyre pressure monitoring system, with smart dust caps – again, for our old car. The monitoring unit was solar powered, and was designed to stick to a window. The glue on the sticky pads quickly failed and so the monitoring unit regularly ran out of power.

Whilst I had regrets about all of these, collectively they add up to about £15 of wasted money.

Using an iPad as a desktop PC

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An iPad connected to a docking station for use with an external screen, keyboard and mouse

If you have one of the newer iPad Air or iPad Pro models, then you can plug in an external keyboard, mouse and screen, and use it like a desktop PC. All you need is USB-C docking station with USB and HDMI ports. Indeed, I’m writing this blog post on the WordPress iOS app, but using my USB keyboard, mouse and external display.

Docking station

The docking station I’m using is this Orico model (sponsored link), which has an HDMI port, three USB-A ports (two USB 2, one USB 3) and a USB-C port. This USB-C port supports Power Delivery, and so it can be used to charge your iPad whilst it’s plugged in.

Other docking stations add Ethernet and readers for SD and TF cards, but this one doesn’t. And yes, iPad OS does support Ethernet when connected to an adaptor – I’ve tried it myself with a USB-C Ethernet adaptor that I normally use for my laptop at home.

What it’s like to use

Apple’s information page about using an external display is a bit vague. In my experience, the external screen would only show output once I had also plugged in my keyboard and mouse – it wouldn’t work with just the screen plugged in. That may be a quirk of the Orico docking station.

Rather than mirroring the display, the external screen was an extension of the iPad desktop. Apps would open on the iPad screen, and to get them to open on the external screen, I had to flick down from the top to reveal the menu bar and use the Window menu to move them across. With Stage Manager enabled, you can have multiple apps open in different windows on both screens.

I didn’t see a noticeable reduction in performance – the iPad seemed pretty capable of outputting to two screens. But it did deplete the battery faster, as I hadn’t plugged in a USB-C cable into the docking station to charge.

But why?

So why would you want to do this? Compared to my Windows laptop, which takes a minute or two to boot up, my iPad is always on and launches immediately from standby. Therefore, if I need to do something on a big screen quickly, it’s quicker to plug my iPad into a docking station than booting the laptop up.

It’s also a way of experiencing how Apple has repositioned iPad OS as being somewhere between iOS and macOS, rather than just iOS on a bigger screen. Apple wants the iPad range to be useful for actual work, rather than merely larger screens to consume content.

Finally, apologies for the photo above not actually showing the iPad with my screen, keyboard and mouse. My workspace is a mess at the moment, and I didn’t fancy tidying it up just for this blog post.

The World of Glass

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A photo of the entrance to The World of Glass in St Helens

Until a few weeks ago, I wasn’t aware that there was a museum dedicated to glass in St Helens. But Diamond Geezer recently visited on one of his non-London gadabouts, and so I took our nine-year-old along to The World of Glass last month.

The World of Glass opened in 2000, and fulfils several roles as a museum. Obviously, the focus is on glass, and so there’s a history of glassmaking starting with the ancient Egyptians through to the present day. In particular, it focusses on glassmaking in St Helens – the location of the museum is no accident. If your house has windows made by Pilkington Glass, then St Helens is where the company was founded. And, as the town’s main museum, it also covers the history of the town, especially during the Industrial Revolution. It’s also home to the St Helens central library.

Entry to the museum is through an original brick cone, used for glass making and designed to draw cool air in from the bottom. This features an art installation by Johnny Vegas – yes, that Johnny Vegas – who is local to the area.

Inside the museum

Though this is its 25th year, it’s clearly had some updates to its exhibits since then. I think it manages to strike a good balance between things in glass cabinets, and interactive exhibits to keep kids entertained. Certainly, our nine-year-old enjoyed learning about fibre-optic communications, and the various light and colour mixing activities. Its star attraction is a chandelier that was salvaged from Manchester Airport during a refurbishment, made of hundreds of hand-blown Venetian glass tubes.

As well as the main exhibition, there’s an art gallery in the main building. Then, there’s a bridge over the Sankey Canal to the Tank House, which is the proper old bit. This is the remains of an original glassmaking furnace, used by Pilkingtons. Much of it had been filled in with rubble, and had to be dug out by archaeologists. You get to go down into the tunnels (hard hats available) to see inside the furnace. Incidentally, the bit of the canal next to the Tank House was known as ‘The Hotties’ because the water used to cool the furnace would be pumped out here, warming the canal water. There are photos of it being used for bathing.

We visited on a Sunday, which meant that we didn’t get to see a glass-blowing demonstration. These take place on other days of the week, usually at 12pm and 2pm. Whereas the museum itself has free entry, this is a paid-for addon.

In all, we spent a couple of hours at The World of Glass. If you stop to look at everything, you could probably eke out another half an hour, plus the time for the glass-blowing. There is also a café, although the menu was very limited when we visited.

Accessibility

As mentioned, entrance is free, though donations are welcome. As befits a museum of its age, accessibility is pretty good, although the Tank House tunnels are a confined space. It’s on two floors with a lift available.

There’s a small pay and display car park on site, which is free on Sundays and Bank Holidays. It’s also a very short walk from St Helens Central station, which has direct trains from Liverpool, Wigan, Preston and Blackpool. St Helens bus station is a little further, but still within walking distance.

Now it’s November

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Good grief, are we really almost at the end of 2025 already? I can’t believe it’s November now.

We had a quiet end to October, as both Christine and I had bad colds. Indeed, we had several days booked off work together, and the best that we could manage was a trip to Costco in Leeds.

For us, November promises to be a busy month. We have a couple of weekends already accounted for, including a trip to Thought Bubble in Harrogate. We went last year, for the first time since 2016, although I didn’t blog about it at the time. You can read about our first visit in 2014, if you like.

We’re also off to York, to visit my parents, on another weekend. As I hinted last week, we’re planning to see Matilda when it comes to Bradford, provided we can pick up some affordable tickets for the three of us.

At work, we’re starting to interview people hoping to enrol on courses for next September, and so I’ll be busy with those.

This November is also another anniversary of sorts, as it marks 15 years since Christine and I moved in together, and therefore 15 years of us living in Sowerby Bridge. That means that, in early 2029, I will have lived in Sowerby Bridge longer than I’d lived in York.

Unblogged October

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A photo of Fountains Church on Chester Street in Bradford

Last month, for the first time, I did a summary blog post of things we did in September, but that didn’t merit a whole blog post. So here’s some of the things I did this month.

Away day in a former nightclub

Every now and again, we have an ‘away day’ at work. This time, it was hosted at Fountains Church, located on Chester Street in Bradford, pictured above. I’ve been in the building before it was a church, as it used to be three separate nightclubs: Revolution (the national chain of vodka bars), Walkabout (the national chain of Australian-themed bars) and Dr Livingstone’s, a nightclub themed around Dr David Livingstone, a colonialist and explorer. I visited them all regularly back when I was a student.

It was weird seeing the building now used as a place of worship.

A blue postbox in Manchester

A blue postbox on Liverpool Road in Manchester

On the way back from seeing Brains, Bogies and You, we walked past a blue postbox on Liverpool Road in Manchester. Normally, British postboxes are painted red (or occasionally gold), so this one is unusual.

Fortunately, a plaque on the side explains all. Originally, blue postboxes were more common, as they were used for air mail post. Nowadays, air mail no longer needs to be sorted separately from domestic post, and so all but one of these have been removed. The only remaining genuine blue air mail post box is outside Windsor Castle. This one is actually just a regular post box, painted blue.

This specific post box was painted blue because it sits next to what was the Manchester Aerospace Museum. This later became the Air and Space Hall of the Museum of Science and Industry, but was permanently closed a few years ago.

Playing with an ESP development board

Back in July, I picked up an ESP development board (sponsored link) to use as a firmware flasher. I’ve been experimenting with it, to try to add Wi-Fi control to an existing non-smart device. Let’s just say that I need more soldering practice, but I’m hoping to write more about it should I succeed.

Danny Boyle in Sowerby Bridge

I didn’t spot the film crew myself, but Danny Boyle has been filming scenes for his new film Ink in Sowerby Bridge, near where we live. It’s a biographical film about the early life of Rupert Murdoch. It’ll be interesting to see if we can recognise the filming locations when the film comes out.

Much of Happy Valley was also filmed locally, as was the more recent CBBC series High Hoops, so we often see filming trucks parked up around the town.

Old posts brought back

I’ve also re-instated a number of old blog posts written in October 2015 from the Web Archive. These include Losing the Language of Love, which I quite enjoyed reading again, and several posts from a trip to London that month:

We also went to Crossness Pumping Station on that trip, but unfortunately my post about it was never indexed by the Web Archive and so it’s probably lost forever. It’s a shame – it’s a very interesting place. It’s not often that a sewage pumping station would be Grade I listed, and it’s only open on selected days of the year.

Rude Science

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A photo taken during the Rude Science show at the Halifax Victoria Theatre

If you like explosions, or want to know what chemicals make up a fart, then the Rude Science live show may be right up your street. Especially if, like us, you have kids in the 6-14 age bracket.

The Rude Science show came to the Victoria Theatre in Halifax last weekend, and so we took our nine-year-old along. It was hosted as part of this year’s Halifax Comedy Festival, which runs until Sunday.

Rude Science is hosted by Stefan Gates, who has hosted and guested on a number of BBC TV shows, for both kids and adults. He’s also the author of a number of books – we picked up his Rude Science (sponsored link) and Insects: An Edible Field Guide (sponsored link) from the foyer after the show, and had them signed. Oh yes, I should mention that Stefan has a thing for ‘eating the science’ and this includes various substances used during the show.

The show is very well put together, considering that it incorporates highly flammable materials and lots of different cameras (including infrared) and smoke machines. Certainly, there were only one or two minor balloon-related technical hitches. And whilst it wasn’t quite a sell-out crowd, there were very few of the 1500 or so seats remaining empty at the Victoria in the showing that we saw.

Rude Science is well targeted at upper primary and lower secondary school aged kids, and has a good balance of being funny, engaging and educational. Our nine-year-old really enjoyed it. The show remains on tour for the rest of this week, with it being half-term – it’s in Hull tonight, Guildford on Thursday, Chelmsford on Friday and Reading on Sunday. At each venue, there’s usually a lunchtime and afternoon slot, and, with an interval, the show runs for around two hours. It’s then back on the road for February half term.

Meeting the Map Men in Leeds

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Mark Cooper-Jones and Jay Foreman, aka the Map Men, in front of a crowd at Waterstones in Leeds

Last week, I went to meet the Map Men at Waterstones in Leeds. They have a new book out, called This Way Up, which you can buy from Waterstones or Amazon (sponsored link).

The Map Men are Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones. They’re both stand-up comedians, and Mark used to be a geography teacher before going into comedy, hence the interest in maps. Jay, meanwhile, has long had a YouTube channel; I first came across his ‘Unfinished London‘ series many years ago. Mark and Jay started collaborating on their Map Men series way back in 2016, with a video about Bir Tawil:

The show started out primarily as a sketch show that happened to be mostly factual. This became an issue when Mark and Jay found out that teachers were using their videos in classes at school, and so newer episodes undergo rather more fact-checking before they’re published. In all, there’s been 34 episodes across four series, with each episode typically getting 3-4 million views. They’re good – they manage to be entertaining whilst also educational.

The Map Men Book

Every successful thing seems to result in a book nowadays, and so ‘This Way Up’ is their first book inspired by the show. It’s worth noting that it’s all new content – essentially, lots of the content in the book are things that are interesting, but would probably not make a good video. That also means that the book isn’t treading the same ground as the videos.

Here’s a couple of interesting points that I picked up from the book launch. Firstly, the first draft of the book was almost finished, when Mark and Jay realised that there was nothing about the UK in the book. So those chapters were some of the last to be added.

The second was about whether Yorkshire appears, seeing as the event was in Leeds. The answer is yes, but not a whole chapter. It comes up in a chapter about ITV regions, and how the area covered by Yorkshire Television included a lot of places which were emphatically not in Yorkshire, and didn’t cover many that actually were. For example, King’s Lynn, all the way down in Norfolk, picked up Yorkshire Television, but Scarborough, further up the coast and very much in Yorkshire, did not. The broadcast area also included the tiny county of Rutland, and thus merits a mention of Eric Idle’s sketch show Rutland Weekend Television.

A photo of me (on the left) with Mark and Jay (the Map Men) and my friend Phil

Book launch

This Way Up was released last week, and so I attended one of the five launch events being held in various branches of Waterstones across the UK. Of those five, three sold out; this one in Leeds wasn’t quite a sell-out, but around 200 people gave up time on their Tuesday evening to see the Map Men speak. I turned up slightly late, thanks to Northern Rail, but managed to see almost all of their hour-long Q&A session.

Of course, the best thing about attending a book launch is the opportunity to meet the authors, which we did after the Q&A. So, I have a lovely photo of me with Mark and Jay, and my friend Philip Lickley, and a signed copy of the book. Incidentally, neither Phil nor I knew each other would be there ahead of time (despite me saying so on Facebook – curse you, algorithms!) and yet we ended up sat next to each other.

As I write this, I haven’t yet read the book, apart from the short passages that were read out at the event. I have, however, separately picked up the audiobook, which Mark and Jay narrate themselves, and will listen to it soon.

Castlefield Viaduct

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A photo of the Castlefield Viaduct

In my review of local National Trust properties, I somehow missed out Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester. It’s one of the newest, having only been open for a few years, and occupies an abandoned railway viaduct that crosses the Castlefield area of Manchester.

It’s a similar concept to the High Line in New York; take an abandoned elevated piece of railway infrastructure, plant things on it and open it to the public. The Castlefield Viaduct isn’t as long – around 330 metres, rather than 2.3 kilometres – and it’s not yet open as a through route. That will come in time, with work hopefully starting as soon as this year. When complete, it will open up a segregated walking route from the Manchester Central exhibition centre (still often known by its former name of G-Mex) towards Cornbrook.

History

The viaduct was built in 1892, by the same firm that built the Blackpool Tower. Trains would use the viaduct to access Manchester Central station (as was) and the Great Northern Warehouse. It was closed in 1969, after becoming surplus to requirements, and has stood empty ever since. A second viaduct runs parallel; this is still in use by Metrolink trams and forms the core section of the network.

Inside Castlefield Viaduct

About a third of the viaduct is open now, and it’s being managed by the National Trust. The first section has been largely left untouched – a hard path has been laid, but the original ballast has been left behind to show the wild plants that have grown there. The second section is a series of small gardens, each managed by a different local community group. These vary – one has various native Manchester trees whilst another incorporates a pond. Finally, there’s an indoor bit, where you can find out more about the extension plans. The back wall of this is glass, so you can see the rest of the viaduct beyond.

If it weren’t for the neighbouring Metrolink viaduct alongside, this would be a quiet and tranquil place, but trams pass about every two minutes. The viaduct also crosses a railway line that is frequently used, so there are regular rumbles as trains pass.

Accessibility

The viaduct is open between 10am and 5pm every day except Mondays and Tuesdays. Though it’s managed by the National Trust, entry is free even if you’re not a member. Donations are encouraged to support the next phase of work to open it as a through route.

As it was designed for trains, it’s all on one level, and you can get up to the viaduct by using the lift at the nearby Deansgate-Castlefield Metrolink stop. Accessible toilets are also provided.

How many theatres are there in Bradford?

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A photo of the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford.

Seeing as it’s UK City of Culture this year, and theatres are places where you can see cultural things, how many theatres are there in Bradford? I think there’s eight, and here’s a list.

By the way, I’m defining Bradford as the area within the A6177 Bradford ring road. That means that I’m not including the theatres and arts centres in Ilkley, Bingley and Keighley that are in the wider City of Bradford district. And I’m defining ‘theatre’ as anywhere with a stage and seating that can be used for performances.

1. The Alhambra Theatre

Probably the best known theatre in Bradford is the Alhambra Theatre in the city centre. Opening shortly before the First World War, and extensively refurbished in 1986, it seats 1456 people and is where most major shows take place. It’s Grade II listed, and next month it’ll be hosting the touring production of Matilda, Tim Michin’s musical adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel. Earlier this month, it hosted the annual CBeebies Pantomime which will be on TV and BBC iPlayer this Christmas.

The last show we saw here was Unfortunate, last year, but we may well go to see Matilda as it’s a favourite in our household. It’s a Grade II listed building.

2. The Studio

Right behind the Alhambra Theatre is The Studio. As the name suggests, it’s a ‘black box’ studio theatre with a movable seating rig. This can seat up to 200, and is used for smaller productions and stand-up comedy. We saw George Egg here 10 years ago, but haven’t been to another show since.

3. Theatre in the Mill

Okay, disclosure alert: The Theatre in the Mill is run by my employer, the University of Bradford. As the name suggests, it’s in part of what was the Phoenix Mill, and now forms one of the university buildings. Like The Studio, it’s a black box studio theatre with movable seating, and seats around 100 people. Its programme of events includes stand-up comedy – both performances and workshops – film screenings and shows. I’ve also been to a number of student shows here over the years, but as Bradford isn’t really a performing arts university, there currently aren’t many of these.

4. Siobhan Ullah Performance Space

Next door to the university is Bradford College, which is home to Bradford Arts School, and in turn, the Siobhan Ullah Performance Space. Although it’s primarily used by the college students, it can also be used for events and seats 125 people. Again, it’s a black box studio theatre. It’s named after a former performing arts student of the college who sadly died of an asthma attack, aged just 18. I haven’t been to this theatre before.

A photo of Bradford Live, a theatre in Bradford

5. Bradford Live

Back down towards the city centre, and next door to the Alhambra is Bradford’s newest and biggest performance venue, Bradford Live. It only opened this summer, and seats over 3000 people. It’s hosted in what was the Victoria Theatre, and later and Odeon Cinema which closed in 2000, and laid empty for almost a quarter of a century. Indeed, it survived a plan to demolish it in the late 2000s, and has now undergone a huge amount of restoration. It’s not currently a listed building.

As the name suggests, Bradford Live is more about live events and will be hosting a number of bands in coming months. Ocean Colour Scene are playing next month, as is CBeebies entertainer Justin Fletcher, and the Kaiser Chiefs are playing their first album in full in the new year. But there are some shows that you would typically expect in a theatre playing there too, such as Bluey’s Big Play, which I’m sure we’d be dragged to if our nine-year-old was a bit younger. We haven’t yet been here.

6. Bradford Arts Centre

Okay, technically the Bradford Arts Centre is even newer than Bradford Live, having opened under its current name as recently as this month. Previously, it was known as Kala Sangam, with a focus on South Asian arts. Its new name reflects its broader remit and engagement across all of Bradford’s populations. It’s located at what used to be Bradford’s crown post office at Forster Square, around the back of the Broadway shopping centre and next to Bradford Cathedral. The building is Grade-II listed.

There are several spaces in the arts centre, including a 200 seater studio theatre. We’ve been once, to see a pantomime that a friend was in about 10 years ago.

7. Bradford Playhouse

A few years ago, I used to volunteer at the Bradford Playhouse, and so it’s come up on here a few times. It was at risk of closure in 2014, but is now flourishing and is now fully accessible, following a successful crowdfunder early this year. The theatre offers two spaces: an art deco main auditorium seating up to 265 people, and a smaller black box studio theatre, seating up to 40 people. It hosts a mixture of professional shows and performances by amateur dramatic societies and dance schools. The building isn’t listed, but it was registered as an Asset of Community Value for five years in 2014.

8. St Georges Hall

Like Bradford Live, St Georges Hall is more of a live events venue than a theatre, with stand-up comedy and live bands. It’s also the oldest on this list, having opened in 1853. At one time, over 3000 seats were squeezed into the space, but nowadays its seating capacity has been reduced to 1335, or 1550 for standing events. It’s Grade II* listed, and was renovated between 2016 and 2019. The last show we went to see was a recording of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue in 2014.

I think that’s quite an impressive list of theatres, actually, considering Bradford’s size.

Operation Ouch: Brains, Bogies and You

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Our family of three appearing as skeletons at the Operation Ouch: Brains Bogeys and You exhibition

Last weekend, we made a return visit to the Science & Industry Museum in Manchester, to see the Operation Ouch: Brains, Bogies and You exhibition. This is the second consecutive Operation Ouch exhibition at the museum; last year, they had ‘Food, Poo and You’ which we visited in January. Twice in fact, as the first time I went with our (then) eight-year-old, and so we visited again a few weeks later as a family of three.

For those without kids (or grandchildren) in the 7-14 years old age range, Operation Ouch is a CBBC TV show hosted by twin doctors Dr Xand and Dr Chris, and in later series, joined by Dr Ronx who is probably one of the most visible non-binary people in UK children’s’ TV. Dr Chris is also the author of the book ‘Ultra-processed People’, which I reviewed back in 2023. As you would expect from a BBC series, Operation Ouch aims to inform, educate and entertain (the three principles on which the BBC was founded), so as well as teaching kids about science, it’s designed to be entertaining and disgusting too.

Inside Dr Xand’s head

The exhibition therefore follows a similar style. The idea is that you are shrunk down at the start, and enter a reluctant Dr Chris’ ear, where you can then enter different parts of his head to see how they work. There’s the brain, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and a section on touch to cover all five senses. Unlike the previous exhibition, which was a linear journey through the digestive system, the layout is more free-form, with links between the sections and back to the core brain section.

Because it’s aimed at kids, the exhibition has lots of interactive elements. We particularly liked the screen which monitors your movement and displays an image of you as a skeleton. In the eyes section, there’s some optical illusions to try out, and, as someone with hearing loss, I appreciated the ears section too. Here, you could see how cochlear implants work; I don’t have one yet, but might need one in future. There’s also a demonstration of how your hearing changes over time, as you lose your ability to hear certain frequencies. Our nine-year-old could hear everything, Christine could hear two of them and I could only hear one, even when using the telecoil through my hearing aids.

In all, we spent about an hour in the exhibition, but could have spent longer.

Elsewhere in the museum

Having only visited last year, we mainly just came to see the exhibition. In recent years, there hasn’t been much of the museum available to see; of the five buildings that used to make up the museum, only one (the New Warehouse) has been open. The Air and Space Hall permanently closed in 2021; this was across the road from the rest of the museum and is now in use as a co-working space. The 1830s buildings, consisting of a warehouse and the original Manchester Liverpool Road railway station, are also closed for refurbishment, and due to re-open in 2030 for their 200th anniversary.

The good news is that The Power Hall has re-opened, as of Friday last week. We’ll plan to visit next year, when the next exhibition is on.

Accessibility

The Science and Industry Museum as a whole is pretty good for accessibility, and this extends to the Operation Ouch exhibition. All video content has subtitles and BSL interpretation, and any audio content that you can listen to includes a telecoil system for hearing aid users. The exhibition is all on one level.

Whilst the museum as a whole is free to enter (donations welcome), the Operation Ouch exhibition is a paid-for addon. Essential carers can get a free ticket when purchased with a regular-priced ticket.

The only on-site parking is for Blue Badge holders. There are various smaller pay-and-display car parks nearby, if you don’t mind parking under an unlit railway arch. Alternatively, there’s a multi-storey NCP car park at the Great Northern Warehouse, which is expensive but probably safer and more secure. This is a short walk away.

The nearest railway station and tram stop is Deansgate-Castlefield, which is reachable from literally every other Metrolink stop. There’s a lift down to street level at the tram stop, and then it’s only a short walk to the museum.