Wednesday 21 April 2021

Coronavirus streets in Manchester - XXIX

It is cool outside

Even as the temperature is failing to rise in the last few days of spring as we move into summer, Mancunians are making the best of the eased lockdown. I have avoided the crowds, but they cannot be escaped, all outside, alfresco dining in the evening with heating or blankets to keep the patrons warm.

The coolness means not many are sitting on the grass though the litter they leave behind is evident everywhere you go. The annoying thing is the selfish and antisocial dog owners who do not clean up after their pets after the footpaths or pavements have been fouled.

No trampling by tram

On my home straight this evening just after I passed the Victoria Station to my right, I noticed one of the public trams leaving Exchange Square for the station was not moving at the speed one would expect. A man who appeared to be walking on the other side was in fact in front of the tram, holding it up.

Normally, the tram driver would sound a warning to pedestrians in their path, but this was a different kind of trouble who first sauntered in front of the tram, then lay on the tram tracks before doing sit-ups and taunting the driver to call the police to take him away.

We all have crazy

Fascinating as it seemed that I stopped to take some pictures, one could not say if this was a death wish, a mental health scenario, or a desperate cry for help. It was not long before I saw a police van travelling on the tram tracks to the location and you can only wonder what became of the man. It might well make the news.

Man lying down on the tram tracks

Man doing sit-ups in front of a tram on its tracks

Maybe, sometimes we just need that license to be crazy and constitute both a nuisance and inconvenience to others as a test of what we might be capable of. Then the other part of the story we may never know of is what the consequence of that moment of madness has wrought. Then, in the scheme of things, Manchester is coming back to life with all its idiosyncrasies. Our streets, our treats.   

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