Back in the baking months of this gorgeous summer, Maya and I had a research day to follow the course of the River Medlock – find where it rose and where it sunk beneath Manchester. And for me, as an outsider to Manchester, to get a feel of the maze of culverts and open waterways this city straddles. We were on bikes so our ability to zip about the streets added to the thrill of the chase.

I can’t reveal everything we discovered that day on this post as it would spoil your treasure trail hunting, but one thing safe to share is how fascinated I was with a river so shallow (and so cluttered with tyres, unpaired shoes and other rubbish) can hold such a potent place in my imagination. How the discovery of something I previously knew nothing about and is, for the most of my time in Manchester, out of view, can have such influence when I walk the streets. It seems to echo the pace of pedestrians overground: that very ordinary element of a city has suddenly been heightened. It’s current, depth and hydro-dynamism is increased by its invisibility. Of course, this apparent absence is what love affairs are made of.