This Blog Post is 90% About the Northern Quarter

Vanitas

Although I've missed a few days of blogging, I've racked up a few bloggable experiences in the last week. The main reason I've not blogged is this pain-in-the-arse phone, on which I haven't had a working main camera for a month. I've looked into digital cameras but they're extortionate. My friend has ordered the phone part and says he'll fix it.

Without a camera there hasn't been the opportunity to get visuals, but I've still been to a few events. Thursday night: Manchester Depression Bipolar and Anxiety group met in Chapter One Books in the Northern Quarter, a scenic book and coffee shop on Lever St, complete with wood, candlesticks paper, jazz music and trickling water feature. A very peaceful, incense-laced venue although not private, which would be ideal for our group.

There's a possibility that we might be looking into visiting Barking Tales at Zombie Shack. It's a stand-up comedy night with a mental health twist. Keep your eye on Meetup as it's only an idea as of yet.

Friday night: Manchester Cool Bars dropped into the opening night of Vanitas, a Mexican Halloween themed bar in Manchester Hall.

The large, pre-war building on Bridge St has been converted into a big, 90s style club reminiscent of Peter St's Infinity, but with a Mexican 'festival-of-the-dead' theme complete with fire-breathing podium dancers in gothic makeup and huge painted murals on the high walls. It was a quiet night, considering it was an opening party, which meant the live bongo and sax players were a little out-of-place, but it will doubtlessly pick up as it's centrally located near competitors Toybox and Panacea.

I'll check it out again soon.

Saturday night I was out with Manchester Cool Bars again, touring a few Northern Quarter bars. I organised the meetup this time, and it was the most-attended event I'd ever put on. We started in Flok at Stevenson Square, a Spanish sherry bar which the group pretty much filled. By the time we moved on, Soup Kitchen and Eastern Bloc- the two bars I'd planned to go to- were full, so we went back to Flok to formulate a plan. Heading further into the Northern Quarter we found Shack, a kind-of beach hut style place. A bit chavvy, but still a good laugh. We finished at Pen and Pencil, a cosy arts-and-crafts themed joint. I kept updating the Meetup page as we moved around, which helped latecomers, but different people went in different directions. A great fun night, and something I definitely want to run again in the hope we can get into the aforementioned full bars.