my meg ryan moment

my affair with the writers' festival ended in the best possible way - on saturday night at a party thrown by penguin which doubled as their mwf drinks, and the launch of joanna murray-smith's novel, sunnyside. it was held at the penthouse suite of the manchester unity bulding in the city. i had always wondered what the world would look like from up there; so it should come as no surprise that i spent a lot of time out on the balcony just gazing up at the tower of the MU building, smiling and pinching myself.

the whole evening had a fairytale-like quality to it - the weather was surprisingly pleasant, and the views from the balcony were absolutely spectacular. then there was the actual tower, which we realised upon closer inspection was an apartment all on its own. mark and i peeked into it and imagined what kind of person would live there and how much the place would have cost them - then we noticed that the door to the place was open. and people were going in there an checking it out. so after waiting for a bit so as not to look too eager, mark and i climbed two stairs from the balcony into the first floor of the apartment. and this is what we found:

a living room you'd never need a tv in. floor-to-celing views of the city, all the way down collins and swanston. a compact kitchen and a walk-down-a-couple-of-stairs bathroom (with a bath, even). then up some carpeted stairs to the second level, split into another living-ish area and a bedroom. then we spotted the ladder. black metal and narrow, a small rope tied across the lower rungs hinted that maybe we shouldn't go any further. but instead of stretched taut, it was loose from having been trampled on by previous curious climbers. so myself and felicity, followed closely by mark, climbed (drink in one hand, rung in the other), to the next level.

what we found was an unfinished room with a twist on the outside, and one on the inside. a balcony all the way around the outside. we walked slowly round the whole turret, marvelling at the views, and at just how quiet it was up there. looking down, the trams looked like electrified slaters. then inside, a spiral starcase leading even further up. we put our drinks on a little table and slowly twirled up the staircase, and met another, even narrower, metal ladder. having come this far, how could we stop now?
i have been right to the top of the MU tower. how about that?