Why.
Which is how a british woman I knew when I was 24 reacted when I told her I might move out of France to live elsewhere and was considering a job offer in Manchester. She made me repeat the city, to be sure, and then her face fell, she stayed silent for a good minute, and she just asked "but... Why? Why Manchester of all places?!", which was hilarious. Then I told her there was another job offer in Glasgow but it was short term so I wasn't considering it and she just went "No. Don't." Poor thing.
Now everytime I hear "Manchester" I hear her voice repeating "why?!".
If you ask an English person, *every* English city is that bad. Either its snob central, warren of crime, or just that fucking boring. London is an exception, if you're from London it's the one good city, if you're from outside London it's the worst one of them all.
That's a right dogs dinner. I once seen a guy drop a pie on a night out and he picked it up and shared it with his mate. It didn't even look like a good pie!
It's like a shit Ramsbottom Habour
Spoken like a true Becclesford resident. You always think you're so superior just because you're near the the Hemble Hills! Everyone knows it's just a rubbish Spelton-on-grange
Spelton-on-grange is twattastically up itself. I went to a cafe there once and was charged £7.50 for a cheese sandwich. And the server was a stuck up bint, too.
Honestly mate their ego has gone into the stratosphere ever since the Heartbeat reunion show was shot there. Loads of tourists too who visit as its directly en route to Lower Sherringsbury
And on top of that the U.K. is rife with people who will slag off their town endlessly, but then jump down your throat if you dare to say the train station is a bit dirty
I just went up to the north this past weekend and was searching Reddit for "what's there to do in \_\_\_\_\_". The first answer to all of them is always to go visit the train station and take the first train out of there.
Folk from Glasgow love their city. I've never really understood why but they love it. Only folk I've ever heard complain about Edinburgh are folk from Glasgow...
This is me… but my reasons are usually, why would you leave sunny warm for cold, grey, wet England.
Aware some countries are further north and colder than UK, but not many are as consistently grey and wet.
Where was the British woman from? Because some people from London and the South East (and South Coast) who never travel north seem to think it’s still the 1920s there.
Manchester is a vibrant, multicultural, multinational city with a buzzing nightlife, music venues, clubs, bars, Universities, sports facilities etc.
Its industrial but modern, it’s revolutionised and regenerated itself into a booming hub for art, fashion, business and entertainment.
It has amazing history too; both historical and cultural; its a great city tbh.
I found Southeastern England not very friendly. Polite yes, but not friendly at all. some people act holier than thou, others are passive aggressive to the extreme, and some others take you along for a ride if you don’t stand firm on the ground. (And I had life experience growing up in an Alpha world city to compare to). A lot of fakes among the local people. You have to grow a thick skin and knowing how to stand on your feet in order to survive.
People in northern England are genuinely far more “authentic” so to speak.
As a Londoner who moved to Manchester, you have your answer. Saying that a lot more of us have made the move, the younger generation are much more open minded and Manchester has a good reputation these days. It’s known as a desirable place to live.
Figure it's here I should drop a recommendation for the film "24 Hour Party People" which tracks a history of the music scene and history of artist development in the city
Didn't Manchester have a period when it was essentially Detroit of UK? A city with collapsed industry, high unemployment and crime rates, poor infrastructure?
It's low point was probably when the IRA blew up the town centre in 1996. Since then there's been a lot of money spent on redevelopment, although that has somewhat led to a problem of gentrification and homelessness.
Not at all. It’s definitely in the top 5 cities of in the UK economically and has amazing night life, per square meter, and enjoyed a very successful revival over the last 30 years on all fronts.
Nah it is very urban though so if you prefer greenery etc then it won't be for you, they still have parks but not as many or as big as other cities.
Personally I like Manchester and there are much worse places in the UK and France than it, also I'd choose Manchester over most of France but I do like cities.
Fair point, but I would argue that it doesn't: it's quite frustrating that there aren't some nice, decent-sized green spaces in the city centre.
To get out to the peak district isn't a 20 or 30 minute journey. Manchester needs more green spaces for people who live there to be able to walk to, or get to within just 15 minutes or so.
The industrial history of Manchester is really interesting (well, to me at least). [Martin Zero](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFSnjW15v_hnbkczhbYc8fQIkO67oAE4n) on YouTube often explores the city and goes into all the hidden parts
I have to aggree, that industrial Victorian look is charming. But it might get boring and depressing after a while. I don't know though, I never lived in such places
Places like the northern quarter remind me of Brooklyn. My New Yorker partner makes the comparison all the time with Manchester so not weird at all. He loves Manchester and it’s one of his fav cities.
Reminds me of that story from a couple of years ago about some football player's wife who was in absolute despair about having had to live in Manchester.
Something about how the city is horrible, the food is disgusting and the other women are all too skinny(??).
Di Maria's wife :
“We were friends with Gianinna Maradona, Sergio Aguero’s wife, and we travelled to Manchester on vacation for a year. It was always horrible! We came home and I said: ‘If you’re ever transferred, make sure it’s anywhere in the world but England.
“I didn’t like it at all... I can tell you. People are all weird. You walk around and you don’t know if they’re going to kill you. The food is disgusting. The women look like porcelain. Angel and I were in Madrid, at the best team in the world, perfect food, perfect weather, everything was perfect. And then came United’s proposal....
“I told him ‘no way, no way’, but he kept saying we will be a little more financially secure and we have to go. We fought about it... We try to be closer when things go wrong. I don’t blame him for going there. It was horrible, so horrible. I just told him, ‘Darling, it’s horrible, it’s nighttime at two o’clock.’”
It's a slight exaggeration, but the sun going down at like 3-4pm in the dead of winter is probably rough to deal with if you're a region closer to the equator.
Factory: both in terms of the city being at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, as well as Factory Records (Joy Division, New Order, The Happy Mondays).
24 Hour Party People is one of my all time faves
trailer’s a bit cheesy 20 years later but the film holds up brilliantly
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HFiyEegpKUM&pp=ygUcMjQgaG91ciBwYXJ0eSBwZW9wbGUgdHJhaWxlcg%3D%3D
[Pic for those who haven’t seen it.](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ee371f1f4191818c95dd7f5af76d8ad0e1d58287/5_14_607_364/master/607.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c090a96d4d419e5abc446290b08ca4be)
It should be a painting.
Here’s the original source. Scroll through to image #19 but they’re all great. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/gallery/new-years-eve-2016-party-10673550
And Arthur Wellesley, Prime Minister at the time rode on one of the trains.
Better known as the Duke of Wellington he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo 15 years earlier. I think it’s just a weirdly great amalgamation of time, things we’d consider “modern” bashed together with people born before the US War of Independence. So cool!
Also the first commercially successful steam locomotive was named after Wellington’s victory over the French at Salamanca in Spain earlier the same year in 1812.
Sheets and towels are the Manchester department in shops here. Old fashioned to use that term now, and it might be called 'linen' instead. Even though sheets and towels are made of cotton, from Pakistan or Egypt or China.
Had 2 x 50 £ notes in my blazer's inner pocket because they didn't fit in my wallet. Checked my pocket a few minutes before going through security. Left my blazer in one of those grey baskets for bags/clothes at the body scanner before I went through it. As I was coming out one of the officers had started checking the basket with my luggage, I didn't think much of it. A little later after I had left I checked my pockets and I only had 1 bank note left. Good luck proving it....
Bomb. I used to spend a lot of weekends in Manchester as a teenager before the IRA detonated a truck bomb there in 1996. I don’t go back very often but I’m always struck by how much the city changed after the explosion.
Saigon! In 2010, I was flying out to Melbourne, Australia for Xmas with my daughter from London, but there was a snow storm that shutdown Heathrow.. but I managed to get a flight out from Manchester.. and getting the train out of London to Manchester was like getting the last helicopter out of Saigon…
The word _chester_ (extant only in toponyms) indeed originates from Latin _castrum_ “fortress”. Plenty of toponyms across Europe and Britain that still refer to these Roman fortresses.
Just for Britain: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_(placename_element)
I visited some years back for a conference, and had an afternoon to just walk around the city. The first thing that popped into my head is the memory of coming across a lovely, small church/chapel with a garden around it. Grey bricks and arches in some medieval style by a minor road.
Spent a good while sat on a bench there.
Manchester's not the gloomy gray hellscape its reputation would have you believe.
Frasier. The classic US sitcom which featured Jane Leaves as Daphne Moon, a physical therapist originally from Manchester. (Her character is an expat living in Seattle the entire series)
England, England, across the Atlantic sea.
And I'm a genius genius
I believe in God, and I believe that God believes in Claude
That's me. That's me. That's meeeeee
Why. Which is how a british woman I knew when I was 24 reacted when I told her I might move out of France to live elsewhere and was considering a job offer in Manchester. She made me repeat the city, to be sure, and then her face fell, she stayed silent for a good minute, and she just asked "but... Why? Why Manchester of all places?!", which was hilarious. Then I told her there was another job offer in Glasgow but it was short term so I wasn't considering it and she just went "No. Don't." Poor thing. Now everytime I hear "Manchester" I hear her voice repeating "why?!".
Is Manchester that bad lmao?
If you ask an English person, *every* English city is that bad. Either its snob central, warren of crime, or just that fucking boring. London is an exception, if you're from London it's the one good city, if you're from outside London it's the worst one of them all.
Literally tradition to hate every town and city to the point where people opinions on places are meaningless rehetoric
Don’t listen to MuckingFagical. He’s from Ravenstow. They’re notorious for making stuff up on the internet. It’s a shithole too.
Bloody Ravenstow! Not like my precious Bletching-on-sea
That's a right dogs dinner. I once seen a guy drop a pie on a night out and he picked it up and shared it with his mate. It didn't even look like a good pie! It's like a shit Ramsbottom Habour
Spoken like a true Becclesford resident. You always think you're so superior just because you're near the the Hemble Hills! Everyone knows it's just a rubbish Spelton-on-grange
Why does this still all make sense
Spelton-on-grange is twattastically up itself. I went to a cafe there once and was charged £7.50 for a cheese sandwich. And the server was a stuck up bint, too.
Honestly mate their ego has gone into the stratosphere ever since the Heartbeat reunion show was shot there. Loads of tourists too who visit as its directly en route to Lower Sherringsbury
And when you're in London, the hate stays within zone 6 and becomes a council vs. council battle
Truth! I’m in Barnet and have developed a natural aversion to both Hackney and Kensington & Chelsea because I think their councils are stupid.
Mate, EVERYONE hates fuckin' Hackney, I'm in Harrow though, so the closer places I hate are Stonebridge and Chalkhill lol.
And on top of that the U.K. is rife with people who will slag off their town endlessly, but then jump down your throat if you dare to say the train station is a bit dirty
Wait 'till you visit *Birmingham*
Could be worse, could be Wolverhampton.
I just went up to the north this past weekend and was searching Reddit for "what's there to do in \_\_\_\_\_". The first answer to all of them is always to go visit the train station and take the first train out of there.
Except Hull. The trains are usualy cancelled but they have a realy nice bridge to jump off of.
I think it's similar in Italy, however we don't have a city we talk positively about :P
Folk from Glasgow love their city. I've never really understood why but they love it. Only folk I've ever heard complain about Edinburgh are folk from Glasgow...
This is me… but my reasons are usually, why would you leave sunny warm for cold, grey, wet England.
Aware some countries are further north and colder than UK, but not many are as consistently grey and wet.
Also if you are from London. Everywhere is shit except London. Londoners aren’t magically positive. Source: from London.
I have no idea, I didn't end up moving there, but I've been curious ever since xD
Where was the British woman from? Because some people from London and the South East (and South Coast) who never travel north seem to think it’s still the 1920s there. Manchester is a vibrant, multicultural, multinational city with a buzzing nightlife, music venues, clubs, bars, Universities, sports facilities etc. Its industrial but modern, it’s revolutionised and regenerated itself into a booming hub for art, fashion, business and entertainment. It has amazing history too; both historical and cultural; its a great city tbh.
I found Southeastern England not very friendly. Polite yes, but not friendly at all. some people act holier than thou, others are passive aggressive to the extreme, and some others take you along for a ride if you don’t stand firm on the ground. (And I had life experience growing up in an Alpha world city to compare to). A lot of fakes among the local people. You have to grow a thick skin and knowing how to stand on your feet in order to survive. People in northern England are genuinely far more “authentic” so to speak.
That's because you're getting closer to France. It rubs off.
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Speak for yourself
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I do believe she was from London. Thanks for your detailed answer!
As a Londoner who moved to Manchester, you have your answer. Saying that a lot more of us have made the move, the younger generation are much more open minded and Manchester has a good reputation these days. It’s known as a desirable place to live.
Figure it's here I should drop a recommendation for the film "24 Hour Party People" which tracks a history of the music scene and history of artist development in the city
I love that film, great soundtrack obviously too.
Didn't Manchester have a period when it was essentially Detroit of UK? A city with collapsed industry, high unemployment and crime rates, poor infrastructure?
Same was true of many northern industrial towns as their industry died off.
Probably about 40 years ago
From the 70s through the 90s it had a major decline But, to be honest, it was never the worst
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It's low point was probably when the IRA blew up the town centre in 1996. Since then there's been a lot of money spent on redevelopment, although that has somewhat led to a problem of gentrification and homelessness.
You can replace Manchester with Rotterdam and London with Amsterdam and it could've been a Dutch story.
Manchester is a fantastic city. I moved here 8 years ago and I’ve never left. It has so much going for it
Manchester is a great place to live, I lived there for 8 years, and enjoyed it a lot great city
Not at all. It’s definitely in the top 5 cities of in the UK economically and has amazing night life, per square meter, and enjoyed a very successful revival over the last 30 years on all fronts.
Nah it is very urban though so if you prefer greenery etc then it won't be for you, they still have parks but not as many or as big as other cities. Personally I like Manchester and there are much worse places in the UK and France than it, also I'd choose Manchester over most of France but I do like cities.
The Peak District is just outside Manchester, I imagine that more than makes up for the lack of greenery in the city area.
To bring some balance to the beauty of the Peak District, there's also Bolton just outside Manchester.
Fair point, but I would argue that it doesn't: it's quite frustrating that there aren't some nice, decent-sized green spaces in the city centre. To get out to the peak district isn't a 20 or 30 minute journey. Manchester needs more green spaces for people who live there to be able to walk to, or get to within just 15 minutes or so.
Maybe that's why she reacted so badly then. I'm not much or a city girl, and this happened in one of the greenest cities I ever lived in.
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I think it's just a bit ugly/industrial
The industrial history of Manchester is really interesting (well, to me at least). [Martin Zero](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFSnjW15v_hnbkczhbYc8fQIkO67oAE4n) on YouTube often explores the city and goes into all the hidden parts
+1 for Martin. Manchester has some of the most awe-inspiring Victorian and Georgian infrastructure in the world.
For me it's a plus. I really love the industrial architecture of UK and USA (especially New York).
I have to aggree, that industrial Victorian look is charming. But it might get boring and depressing after a while. I don't know though, I never lived in such places
I think its a very different kind of industrial when You think about them. Comparing NYC to Manchester is just weird.
Well it's not what the film industry thinks. Manchester is commonly used as a film set for 90s NYC
Yep the Northern Quarter is frequently used.
Places like the northern quarter remind me of Brooklyn. My New Yorker partner makes the comparison all the time with Manchester so not weird at all. He loves Manchester and it’s one of his fav cities.
New York and Glasgow less so, albeit far far smaller. I think Glasgow is one of the few if not only grid layout cities in the UK
It used to be, now it's a really good city.
Reminds me of that story from a couple of years ago about some football player's wife who was in absolute despair about having had to live in Manchester. Something about how the city is horrible, the food is disgusting and the other women are all too skinny(??).
Di Maria's wife : “We were friends with Gianinna Maradona, Sergio Aguero’s wife, and we travelled to Manchester on vacation for a year. It was always horrible! We came home and I said: ‘If you’re ever transferred, make sure it’s anywhere in the world but England. “I didn’t like it at all... I can tell you. People are all weird. You walk around and you don’t know if they’re going to kill you. The food is disgusting. The women look like porcelain. Angel and I were in Madrid, at the best team in the world, perfect food, perfect weather, everything was perfect. And then came United’s proposal.... “I told him ‘no way, no way’, but he kept saying we will be a little more financially secure and we have to go. We fought about it... We try to be closer when things go wrong. I don’t blame him for going there. It was horrible, so horrible. I just told him, ‘Darling, it’s horrible, it’s nighttime at two o’clock.’”
I wonder exactly how financially insecure they were at 4mn€/year though.
That's what I was thinking. If you play for Real Madrid you are already making more money than you will need in your whole life.
Well, not with THAT wife on your side...
>it’s nighttime at two o’clock. Haha I had forgotten about that, that's almost the best part.
I'm from Manchester and I don't recall it ever being night time at 2 o clock, that's hilarious 😂
It's a slight exaggeration, but the sun going down at like 3-4pm in the dead of winter is probably rough to deal with if you're a region closer to the equator.
dazzling violet fade squeal wasteful money chop lock workable pie *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Stared at each other in French
an emotional moment that they still remember after all these years😌
Having lived in both Glasgow and Manchester - They're both brilliant, interesting, fun, beautiful places to live.
I bet she’s from the South.
United?
Exactly, I literally have no other connection to Manchester than knowing the football club
Have you ever heard of another football club from Manchester?
Yeah, something with a town… Manchester Settlement? Or was it Manchester Village? Can‘t recall
Manchester Conurbation
Crystal Manchester
Manchester county
Manchester district
Manchester Hamlet
Manchester Caravan?
Manchester outing?
Fairly sure it's Manchester Mansour's Sportswashing Club
Close bit it's actually Manchester Mansours Sportswashing and Financial Crimes club 1.0
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Manchestershire ?
Newton Heath Football Club?
Salford United
Manchester saudi oil village?
Manchester Etihad!
FC United of Manchester?
Well you have Man U, Wigan, Bolton, Stockport, Salford and Rochdale. Only other i can think of is Oldham but theyre non league now
Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
The problem is they always try to walk it in
Where was this from again?
IT crowd
Loved that show
I'm leg disabled
That episode almost killed me and my brother. One of the funniest bits of television in the world.
When the machine lifts him into the van...
IS RED
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Factory: both in terms of the city being at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, as well as Factory Records (Joy Division, New Order, The Happy Mondays).
Agreed. The first thing that comes to my mind are the many bands from there and how the music culture from there has changed over the decades.
24 Hour Party People is one of my all time faves trailer’s a bit cheesy 20 years later but the film holds up brilliantly https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HFiyEegpKUM&pp=ygUcMjQgaG91ciBwYXJ0eSBwZW9wbGUgdHJhaWxlcg%3D%3D
Not a word but a photo of that New Year’s Eve in Manchester with the guy on the ground reaching for his beer.
[Pic for those who haven’t seen it.](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ee371f1f4191818c95dd7f5af76d8ad0e1d58287/5_14_607_364/master/607.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c090a96d4d419e5abc446290b08ca4be) It should be a painting.
Accidental renaissance
Here’s the original source. Scroll through to image #19 but they’re all great. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/gallery/new-years-eve-2016-party-10673550
I like how so many of those are labeled "policemen helping" when they're clearly arresting them
Damn I counted exactly 76 pixels.
One of the greatest photos ever shot.
Music!
The Smiths
First railway connection between cities. I like trains.
Huh, I've lived here my entire life and never knew about that. TIL!
Wait to you hear about the first voyage.... Killed a Liverpool MP
And Arthur Wellesley, Prime Minister at the time rode on one of the trains. Better known as the Duke of Wellington he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo 15 years earlier. I think it’s just a weirdly great amalgamation of time, things we’d consider “modern” bashed together with people born before the US War of Independence. So cool! Also the first commercially successful steam locomotive was named after Wellington’s victory over the French at Salamanca in Spain earlier the same year in 1812.
The science museum is located at the original station platform. My train mad son loves it, we visit it a lot (I'm local to Manchester :) ).
My beautiful partner, who lived there. She died of cancer last year. Lovely memories, but sadness when I go there.
I’m sorry for your loss 😢
I'm sorry to read that. Lots of love to you🖤
New Order
Ah a man of culture
Football
Hacienda.
Oasis
Yessir. The crazy Gallagher bros
Same, it'd be interesting to see if similar age groups come up with similar words.
Stone roses
Their debut is still probably the greatest album ever out of MCR.
The Smiths :D RIP bassist Andy Rourke
you hear the world Manchester and Wonderwall automatically starts in my head.
Coronation street
Stone roses, oasis, the smiths
Pants (Manchester = corduroy)
Sheets and towels are the Manchester department in shops here. Old fashioned to use that term now, and it might be called 'linen' instead. Even though sheets and towels are made of cotton, from Pakistan or Egypt or China.
Shite airport
Realest answer ive seen so far
Only airport where I've been robbed. Of 50 quid. BY A SECURITY OFFICER
Explain
Had 2 x 50 £ notes in my blazer's inner pocket because they didn't fit in my wallet. Checked my pocket a few minutes before going through security. Left my blazer in one of those grey baskets for bags/clothes at the body scanner before I went through it. As I was coming out one of the officers had started checking the basket with my luggage, I didn't think much of it. A little later after I had left I checked my pockets and I only had 1 bank note left. Good luck proving it....
Kinda need to hear the story
HOW?
It is fucking awful, would rather travel to Liverpool for a flight
Main reason to go to Manchester airport: Everything to Liverpool is cancelled.
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Alrite?
Turns out…..little monkey fella
Head like a fucking orange
Did he happen to have very long arms and ask to be paid in bananas?
Bald Manc
Play a record
The Smiths.
Joy division
Bomb. I used to spend a lot of weekends in Manchester as a teenager before the IRA detonated a truck bomb there in 1996. I don’t go back very often but I’m always struck by how much the city changed after the explosion.
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Why, is it like Finnish Manchester?
torille
Sir Alex Ferguson and Oasis.
HOME well. near enough
Industrial Revolution
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Industrialrevolution
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Saigon! In 2010, I was flying out to Melbourne, Australia for Xmas with my daughter from London, but there was a snow storm that shutdown Heathrow.. but I managed to get a flight out from Manchester.. and getting the train out of London to Manchester was like getting the last helicopter out of Saigon…
Gene Hunt
Shameless
United
Orchestra
castrum (Roman fortress) What can I say, I like etymology!
See also, "Chester"
The word _chester_ (extant only in toponyms) indeed originates from Latin _castrum_ “fortress”. Plenty of toponyms across Europe and Britain that still refer to these Roman fortresses. Just for Britain: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_(placename_element)
Cotton sheets and quilts
Pilkington
I visited some years back for a conference, and had an afternoon to just walk around the city. The first thing that popped into my head is the memory of coming across a lovely, small church/chapel with a garden around it. Grey bricks and arches in some medieval style by a minor road. Spent a good while sat on a bench there. Manchester's not the gloomy gray hellscape its reputation would have you believe.
Manchestaw
A very "United" "City"
Jaime Tart na na na na na.
Tampere
The Manchester of the North.
Frasier. The classic US sitcom which featured Jane Leaves as Daphne Moon, a physical therapist originally from Manchester. (Her character is an expat living in Seattle the entire series)
United
The Fall
England, England, across the Atlantic sea. And I'm a genius genius I believe in God, and I believe that God believes in Claude That's me. That's me. That's meeeeee
the city of Tampere (in Finland)
Overpaid footballers.
"Mancunian" - I had the learn the names of the accents in the UK when studying for the Life In the UK test.
beautiful and bees.
"Whatever you do, don't mix up Manchester United and Manchester City" -when working as security for international football matches
The Beatles. *\[ducks and covers\]*
Karl Pilkington, I can't be the only one lol
Man
Cotton mills.