A quiet day today at least until my advice bureau this evening so thought I'd tell you about my weekend, or some of it at least.

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The day starts as a continuation of yesterday, talking to Radio Manchester about the transformational possibilities of the Royal Opera House Manchester, but the day isn't all arts and culture.

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Highspot of the day will I hope be a leisurely lunch with my son and daughter dining al fresco and enjoying the fantastic Manchester sunshine. Better still they're paying, son feeling particularly guilty about failing to deliver a father's day card although why he feels more guilty this rather than any other year I don't know.

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An uncomfortable few minutes at Resources and Governance Scrutiny explaining why the presentation on this year's State of the City report wasn't available. Something to look forward to when they next meet in four weeks when I'm assured it will be ready.

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First stop this morning is Manchester Central for the opening of the Greenbuild Expo, an exhibition and conference dedicated to promoting sustainable construction (on today and tomorrow) and then I join the National President of the Federation of Master Builders plus representatives from the Modern Masonry Alliance and the Builders Merchant Association in the trade launch of the Get Britain Building campaign.

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Delighted to say that there is at least one Council officer who thinks this blog might be attracting sufficient readership to make it suitable for advertising purposes. If it did could offer real opportunities as an income generator to help maintain vital Council services in these cash strapped times so I'll give it a go.

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Yesterday representatives from two countries, six cities and four political parties met in Manchester Town Hall to discuss forming a campaign for a national High-Speed Rail network.

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The dust is settling over last week's elections and time for a little reflection.

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European Election Day and voting as soon as the polls open. Not allowed any party politics here so can't say how I'm voting but it won't be a big surprise.

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Strolling from the Town Hall to MMU at 7.30am and it's still quiet enough to think. Do the walk any later in the day especially in University term time and the pedestrian flows are so great that concentrating on staying on the pavement becomes a fulltime activity. Fortunately, one of the outcomes of the Greater Manchester transport package should be wider pavements down here and an altogether better environment for walkers.

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