Monday 6 July 2026 - A Hot Pot Supper with the Dixie Beats

This was another great night of jazz with the Dixie Beats and a full house of around 100 jazz fans at Eagley Jazz Club in Bolton. They are in full flow above, beyond the raffle prizes.
 

What a way to spend a warm summer's evening. The fliers, with all the information you should need, are below. As usual, click on the images for better versions.

The Manchester 10K Run, and a bit of Jazz

On 31 May 2026, 'Team Owen' took part in the Manchester 10 kilometre race, together with over 38,000 other runners. Owen overcame his difficulties to finish in a personal best of under 1 hour and 5 minutes. Remarkable, as he was hoping to get a time of 1 hour 15 minutes. He was accompanied by Jan, Sue and Paul, who all helped each other to dodge past the 1 hour 15 minute runners with whom they set off.

Here are Sue, Owen and Paul at the finish.

They raised a four figure sum for NSPCC. Donations can still be made here.

Well done, Owen, who is pictured below with his mum, who kindly produced lots of goodies in a bid to preserve Owen and the rest of the team's state of euphoria.

Full results are here. Whilst the running area was crowded, there was plenty of space nearby to linger in Manchester's familiar sunshine.

Next day, the Aire Valley Jazz Band entertained us at Eagley Jazz Club. An excellent evening's entertainment once the band had quickly set up after some of them had been delayed on the M62 motorway.

The  Aire Valley Jazz Band's musicians are:  

Andy Henderson (cornet, vocals and band leader),  Andy Wallis (reeds),  Eugene Farrar [?] (trombone and vocals),  Jim Wright (banjo and vocals), Phil Kampen (bass),  Rod McNamara (brilliant on drums).

Monday 20 April 2026 - Manchester Jazz

We enjoyed a great performance from this excellent band, led by Roger Browne on piano (face hidden in the above picture), the band's other musicians are Late Phil Lucas on trumpet, Roger Bird on clarinet, Jolly Richard Slater on trombone, Allan Willcox on bass and Chris Pendlebury on drums.

Another fine evening's music at Eagley Jazz Club.

4 to 8 April 2026 - Easter Week in Timperley

Saturday saw us parkrunning, with no photos for either this week or last week, but the results are here for 28 March (Sue: 30:29 running with Owen, Martin: 33:15), and here (Sue: 25:03, Martin:33:09) for 4 April.

On Saturday night we were treated by Richard and Jenny to a performance by their friends who go by the name of The Gelatos. The venue was Matt & Phred's in Manchester, and the performance was excellent. They have a Facebook page here, and the AI overview is as follows:

The Gelatos are a high-energy jazz quartet specializing in 1940s/50s swing, jump jazz, and Italian-themed classics. Known for performances at venues like Matt & Phred's, their lineup generally includes Peter Riley (vocals/bass), Siena Lloyd (sax/clarinet/vocals) and Bex Hughes (piano/vocals). They also have a drummer who wasn't in the line up tonight.

 

The pictures are self explanatory.

On Monday Sue and I enjoyed a 5km walk from home. The foliage on the trees in De Quincey park is blossoming...

Monday evening found us at Eagley Jazz Club, for a performance by the New Orleans Joys.

Here's the flier:

The band members are all well known to the jazz fraternity and with such an impressive lineup of musicians, they can't fail to please!  

Richard Slater (Trombone), Howard Worthington (Bass),  Brian Woods (Drums),  Andy Wallace (Tenor sax and clarinet),  Malcolm Horne (Banjo and guitar) and the brilliant Andy Henderson (Trumpet), depping for Dave Pogson, who is out of action following an accident.  

On Tuesday Sue enjoyed an outing to 'Jump Heaven'. I joined them for lunch in a garden centre.

"That baked potato with cheese and beans was very tasty!"

Wednesday was great grandma Dot's birthday. 101. So we took some lunch - her favourite sausage butties, and found that my nephew Toby was already there with his children, Bea and Rupert. There was cake. A vaccuum cleaner was needed. A friendly cat joined the celebrations.

No pictures from that I'm afraid, but I did take one of St Margaret's - en route to Dot's, where Sue was ringing a complex chime as part of the Easter programme.

That brings us up to date. 

We are looking forward to Stage 8 of the GM Ringway Trail tomorrow. See here.

Some readers may recall an encounter with a 'SPUNCH' event on 30 December last year (see here).

There is a similar event on Wednesday 15 April based less than 1km from our house, so we've enrolled for the two hour version, aiming to start around 4:15pm. See here for entries.

We have also entered the Mike Dunne memorial 10K at Wythenshawe on May 3rd. I ran many times with Mike before he succumbed to cancer. It's only £20 to enter, and the money goes to charity. See here.

We were planning to enter the Altrincham 10K on 6 September, but it's a rather exorbitant £40. If  six people enter there's a 20% discount...

'In Between' - Family, Jazz, Jodrell Bank, Aspire, etc - 15 February to 12 March

 15 February 2026

It's always nice to see a happy grandchild.

We went to see Daddy play his guitar in Hootin' Annies Big Band.

It was great.

16 February 2026

It was the turn of Louisiana Nights to play at Eagley Jazz Club.

2 March 2026

After a spell in Wales we returned to Eagley to enjoy a splendid performance from 'The Night Owls'. Was this their last performance together? If so, a sad day.

16 March 2026

While I'm at it I'll insert here a snap of John Hallam and the Tom Kincaid Trio (featuring Dave Tomkins on Bass and Eryl Roberts on Drums). Another fine performance.

4 March 2026

Sue and I enjoyed a leisurely visit to Jodrell Bank, thanks to a birthday present that allows us to visit any time this year. So we'll be back, there's lots to see, and 35 acres of grounds to explore.

8 March 2026

A family lunch in Timperley. Everyone seems happy.

11 March 2026

Sue gave an excellent hour long talk on the GM Ringway trail to 30 or so attendees at Stockport Walking and Outdoor Group's regular Wednesday evening slot. A good turnout, also attended by the trail's PR officer.

My blog entries on this trail are here.

12 March 2026

To conclude this 'catch-up' posting, a few pictures from an excellent menu at the Aspire restaurant. Sue and I joined Paul and Jeanette for a delicious meal from the students of South Trafford College.

29 November to 7 December - Diary Update

De Quincey Park on a sunny day

29 November

A Princess came for lunch.

1 December

The Dixie Beats came to Eagley Jazz Club, performing in front of an audience of 100 who had just enjoyed an excellent Christmas dinner.

Magnificent hampers for the raffle

A guest vocalist performed 'When I'm 64' for his partner (wife?) who was enjoying her 64th birthday

 

After the raffle

2 December

This is the first time that we've noticed parakeets in the garden. They were on the washing line by the feeder before being pictured on a tree next door.

I enjoyed a walk through Wythenshawe Park, then across the Mersey and through Fletcher Moss Park to collect my car that had been lent to Sarah.

Wythenshawe Park

Simon's Bridge - look carefully and you'll see that the Mersey was quite full

A typical view in Fletcher Moss Park

4 December

A Christmas Dinner menu at the Aspire restaurant, with Paul and Jeanette.

We always start with a cocktail here, then we share a bottle of wine

Click on the image to see it properly
In addition to the above, the £25 meal includes bread on arrival
and coffee and chocolates after the dessert

The salmon starter featured a huge portion of smoked salmon

Pan fried seabass fillet (mine - delicious)

Roast rump of lamb - others enjoyed a large and very tasty portion of lamb

Chocolate Macaron

Lemon scented creme brulee

Raspberry Frangipane tart

5 December

Back to De Quincey Park.

A visit to Wythenshawe Park's courtyard tearoom saw me meeting up with Fechin and Keith, two of the other 'Oldies' who try to meet up every month. Much of the hour was spent reminiscing about my backpacking in the Pyrenees. Happy Days.

6 December

En route to Sue's family Christmas meal in Hinckley, a rendezvous with Mick and Gayle at Sence Valley Forest Park parkrun. Sue and Mick had a chatty 5km run in under 33 minutes, and Gayle and I did the same in under 40 minutes. Here we are at the start.

It was great to catch up, and enjoy the pleasant woodland through which the undulating run passes.

The full results are here.

7 December

The Tatton Yule Yomp, which for a change wasn't cancelled! Sue and I were joined by Paul, Greg and Jan. Sue's number was concealed, so there are no official photos of her, but here are four of us near the start.

I stayed back to start slowly, and when the others moved forward they found Jan, another parkrunner friend.

I took a few pictures before and shortly after the start (before everyone got too far ahead)

The official pictures (download for free) show four of us at the finish.

Martin

Jan

Greg (6291) [No comment!]

Grandad Paul, the Elf

Jeanette had kindly stayed at home and supplied post race coffee and bacon butties.

Here are our results. We were lucky in that the rain stayed away. The others did really well but I took it very gently, as is my wont these days. It's good just to take part, and I was happy to speed up to a 1 hour pace at the end.

A quick turnaround at home was followed by a visit to Sale Conservative Club to enjoy a Christmas themed performance by Hootin' Annies Big Band, where my son Mike is the current guitarist. He seems to have been promoted to a place where we can see him, his usual place having been usurped by a Christmas tree.

Dave is a resident vocalist, and he did well. A lady called Jo also performed excellently, and the two of them sang a lovely duet. 

And that just about brings the diary up to date.