Great selection of flowers…read more Located very close to Oxford St Train station. The staff are super friendly

I've lost count of the amount of bouquets of flowers I've bought from Venus over the years…read more Suffice to say, there's been a lot and they've never let me down. The prices are a little steeper than other florists but the fact their flowers are so breath-takingly beautifuly makes it worth digging a little deeper. I've bought star-gazing lillies, birds of paradise and bunches of long stemmed roses from here and they're never died or wilted on me until at least ten days later. The staff are super-friendly too and clearly as passionate about flowers and foilage as I am about bourbon, cowboy boots and vinyl.

The most beautiful flower shop I've ever visited. The bouquets are simply jaw-dropping - a very…read moretalented and lovely bunch of expert florists that can't do enough to help make every occasion special. Highly recommend.

The Flower Lounge is a new florist on Barlow Moor Road that always catches my eye and occasionally…read moredraws me in. I love the minimalist layout of the interior which make the bouquets, vases and gifts jump out at you. The owners obviously are very keen interior designers too and they've done a great job. You can choose your own blooms to create the perfect bouquet or purhcase one of their spectacular arrangements. The colours combinations are so vibrant. You can tell a lot of love and talent has gone into each one and the best bit is they start at just £20! The gifts also appeal to every pocket, with candles, vases and hand made jewellery starting at only a few pounds. This florist really is a breath of fresh air.

Let's be honest, flowers can't erase a stupid argument or replace a family heirloom you've smashed…read more They can however, help you get out of the dog-house and back into your loved one's good books. The trick is, you need to buy as big a bouquet as you can carry and you need to hand-deliver them with a humble apology, a big hug and an even bigger kiss. I can't help you with the last three but I can recommend you get the flowers from The Northern Flower. Situated on Tib Street in the Northern Quarter, it's a cracking little florist that sells a small but brilliant selection of everything from roses, lillies and gerberas to birds of paradise, exotic flowers and big plants. Everything is reasonably priced, the staff are friendly and accomodating and they also sell a small selection of wine and champagne. Good luck and god speed!

If I need flowers I head here. They for a while had a tiny little pug puppy, being a man I usually…read moredon't fall for such pathetic things, but this thing is cute, like definition of cute. Any way northern flower is a small shop front that hosts all manner of lovely green matter. At different times of the year they keep all varietys of plants from orchids to the very cool carnivorous plants including pitcher plants and monkey traps (they dangle down and have been known to catch monkeys in their huge pitcher mouths). The folk behind the counter (always one girl whenever I'm there) knows her stuff inside out and can advise you on an easy to care for birthday present, gift for the girlfriend all the way to more technical beasts such as the before mentioned.

Bed of roses, blue orchid, daisy lane, build me up buttercup yes the music industry understands the…read morepower of flowers do you? Bon Jovi, The Foundations, The White Stripes, Blue October and The Stereophonics all knew that they were dealing with one of the most powerful aphrodisiacs known to man and thus created great songs for them. Boardmans Teleflora is probably the tiniest spot on the map on oxford road but is home to any bouquet your or her heart my desire. The businesses owner knows flowers and thus can save any man who can't tell a lily from a daisy for that someone special so don't just grab the first set you see have a chat and no doubt your bacon can probably be saved.

Teleflora does sound ridiculously like a Pokémon doesn't it? But what is it really? In fact its not…read moreeven in The Oxford English Dictionary. The closest match is 'teleferic', meaning cable car, first used in October 1916 in Windsor Magazine: 'we walk a little way and then go up by the teleferic'. I am willing to admit that the implications of teleflora and not related to teleferic in any way whatsoever, so mentioning teleferic is completely irrelevant nonsense. It does however, hold the key to decoding the meaning of teleflora. Tele comes from the Greek verb 'to carry'. Cable cars carry people. Flora means plants, as we all know. So the title of this florist is now read Bored Man Carries Plants. Are you bored? Why not spice things up with some lovely exciting anti-boring flowers? Plenty are on sale here, and for very reasonable prices indeed. An alternative way to alleviate boredom would be to have a beer next door at Big Hands. Or you could do both. I like both.

The selection here is getting really good, especially later in the week. I bought 2 beautiful…read morefloral scarves I wear almost on a daily basis for £15 from Mandalay, definitely worth checking out. More recently I had the best banh mih I've had in the UK from a stall whose name I can't remember and which may have disappeared - argh! Grandma's Touch, despite the odd name, seems to be selling some interesting arepas (beef and plaintain - yes!) although sadly when I was there they had mostly run out (I think, they seemed a bit confused and kept mentioning the name of an arepa that wasn't on the sign I was looking at) and so I had the less interesting beans and cheese (the arepa itself seemed good though, and is gluten free). Other choices included grilled cheese sandwiches, Mexican, Spanish, Caribbean and pastries. SO NO PRET, YES?

I usually avoid Manchester on a Saturday for the sheer volume of people. That's where I've been…read moregoing wrong. I'm not sure which speciality market was on today but it was amazing. First off there's food. My favourite type of market. There's regional food, Lancashire beef, cumberland sausage, Cumbrian cheese. Stalls with Eastern cuisine and curry, looked really really good. Homemade fudge and toffee for the sweet toothed. A strange one: ostrich, kangaroo and wild boar burger stall, if you're feeling particularly curious. Then there's some homemade cupcake and chocolate stalls. A variety of homegrown foods here. Once your belly's satisfied you will find lots of craft and jewellery shops, some very pretty delicate pieces. Some Amazonia gifts perhaps? Lots of fairtrade items. Then there's the shubbery and plantation stalls if you're into your gardening. Once your food's part digested why not tuck into some home brewed beer, with the strangest of homemade labels, cat piss? shit stew? brain damage? At £3.50 a bottle, go try. So that was my day and observation at the markets. According to the website it was supposed to be the crafts and gifts market being the first Saturday of the month. Was much more than that today. Any who Manchester markets give good value, quality, local produce. Support.

Got to be honest, I'm actually getting pretty sick of bleating on about how quirky, quaint and…read morefolksy every shop in the Northern Quarter is. I'm not a fucking pixie. I'm not setting up home with an elf. I'm not planning a vacation in Narnia- I don't need bricka brack, I don't need keepsakes, I don't need fecking chintz- that's why it's called chintz, if it was any use to me it would be called 'the essentials'!! The NQ has sold us a hippy dream that can never be. Being a boho mash head who sits in coffee shops talking about Neil Young, collects dolls and Japanese backpacks and is generally too arty to care about 'the system maaan' is an expensive past time so either these fakers are secretely high flying lawyers or daddy is a patient and giving man because the good ol' NQ is one of the most expensive and business minded monsters in Manchester! Sell me a dream I can achieve Thunder Egg!!

Until I checked out their website, I had no idea that Thunderegg was a shrine to all things…read moreJapanese.. but now it all makes sense. It is a cute little shop in the Northern Quarter selling clothes (Cutie, Gorgeous - brands like that- yes please), vinyl toys, plastic headbands and jewellery. The till area and near the fitting rooms are like if a harajuku girl started up her own branch of Accessorize. They sell Hello Kitty, Paul Frank, Emily Strange and the clothes aren't even that expensive - I tried on a spotty grey/ purple dress for £18. There was a fair amount of the old leopard print and plenty of sequins and sparkle for autumn parties ahead. Also towards the back I found a Herve Leger style bandage dress with an exposed zip. Ok, fair enough all the 'slebs were wearing those six months ago but I think in Normal-Time that's still a good buy.

Rooted on Quay Street close to the famous Coronation Street set, Flower Style is a floral paradise…read more I popped in there last week to buy a bouquet for my friend Helen who has thoughtfully provided me with a gorgeous god-son. The exterior is so inviting with topiary plants framing an almost Parisian green entrance. The lady who greeted me knew exactly what I wanted. Hardly a flower buff, I requested an unusual exotic arrangement and I was shown the most incredible array of worldwide flowers. Service was quick and the flowers were so beautiful that I wanted to keep them for myself. The choice of flowers is extensive, curious, unusual and alluring. The bouquet was reasonably priced at £40 and it was made to look extra special. This is designer floristry at high street prices and Flower Style is a keepsake for my blackberry.

Masako Art & Flowers is a beautiful little gallery situated just off the canal in Castlefields. It…read moreis both an art gallery and a florist. Masako is a Japanese artist who moved to the UK in 2005 after studying as a nurse, and then as a flower arranger! She then met Phillipe Aird, a Manchester based contemporary artist whose art is on display in the studio next door, and set up shop in Castlefield. On her website she writes that flower arranging and painting are complimentary activities, each providing ideas for the other and allowing her to transpose shape, colour, texture and design between the two areas. Sounds a bit mad, but once you've been to the little gallery, you'll have to agree! She still operates as a (relatively) normal florist with some beautiful flowers available. She offers floral designs for homes and office, and table arrangements for parties. There's a few quirky differences as well, such as the option to take along your own vase, and have it filled with flowers that suit it!! I must say I'm not a huge fan of flower arranging, I just don't seem to be affected by the subtle differences produced by getting the perfect ratio of sprig to chrysanthemum, so for me it's the paintings that really make this place great. I used my detective skills to trace the flower influence, by noticing that the paintings are all of flowers. They are all beautiful designs pained with bright but natural colours, and often outlined with very thick gold, silver or bronze paint, giving them a deep three dimensional texture. Have a look through the photos and see what you think. It's a pleasant walk along the canal to the gallery anyway and you can always stop at the picturesque Dukes 92 along the way, so you've nothing to lose by baying Masako a visit.

WHSmith at Manchester Piccadilly is a pretty good branch, especially for a travel store, the prices…read moremight be really high, to the point I can't understand why as there are multiple rivals nearby selling many of their items or similar items for less, but they do have a pretty good selection if you're in a rush, ahead of getting a train. I do like the special events they seem to have on here, they sell Airpods and more recently they brought the Carabao Cup here ahead of 2020, giving supporters the chance to get a selfie with the trophy, this was a pretty cool experience to lift the trophy right before Manchester City defeated Aston Villa to retain the trophy for the third year in a row at Wembley back in 2020. (This was an experience offered by Carabao as part of their trophy store, but it is nice to see the store arranging experiences like that) They do also sell the IRN-BRU Energy drink range here, they are one of the few stores outside of Scotland to do so, I think it tastes terrible and at 2.5x the price of Carabao, it isn't worth it, but if you do love IRN-Bru, you'll probably like it. 4* - For a travel location, this branch of WHSmith is good, although I do prefer grabbing my drinks and travel stuff from the Co-Op just outside the station as the store looks a little better inside and is much cheaper.

The Observer? Tick Sunday Times? Tick…read moreTelegraph? Tick Mojo magazine? Tick Elle magazine? Tick Food and Travel? Out of stock. Thanks WH Smith for almost making my Sunday afternoon.

She certainly does! Lord the things she makes…read more Hannah makes handmade bangles, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, broaches and other accessories all with a fun and quirky edge. Carry on Hannah.

Hannah makes AMAZING things!!! In fact she makes jewellery for mazine shoots, music videos,…read morecelebrity videos, music festivals. Hannah is a very talented lady indeed. Hannah is a self-taughtcostume jeweller and splits here time between this Manchester base and a base in London. Everyone who is well in the know knows that Hannah's jewellery is up there with the best. Don't be left out and branded uncool get down to this fab lil shop :)