Back to school at the Continental

It's a new school year, and so it's time to dust off that school timetable and add some curriculum-based events to your diaries:

General Studies:
Tuesdays – starting tonight – will be our weekly pub quiz night. We'll be starting at 9.30pm and each week we'll include a general knowledge round, and three other specialist rounds taken from picture rounds, entertainment, sport, history, music and all the trivia favourites. It’s 50p a person to join – all teams welcome – and ½ of the money goes out in team prizes on the night. The other ½ goes to a snowball question and this prize money will roll over every week until someone gets one of these stonkingly tough questions right. Warren is the quizmaster, so be warned. The winning team will also get a gallon of beer. That's eight pints – get studying now!

English:
The first Thursday of the month will be our monthly book club. Do you have books on your shelves gathering dust, which you've always meant to read? Want to read them before either you die or they get sent to Oxfam? Come and join us for a monthly book discussion at 7.30pm in the conservatory, with coffee and cake or maybe a readerly glass of wine. We’ll pick books democratically with titles drawn out of a hat. And if you don't already have the book, the lovely people at Waterstones have offered us a 10% discount on reading group books. If you're interested in joining us then drop me an email on ruth@newcontinental.net and I’ll email back the book we'll be reading for October.

Music:
Looking for somewhere to showcase your musical talents? Keep an eye out for our regular acoustic open-mic night, coming soon to the snug. We're going to start this in a couple of weeks, so dust off your guitars, write some lyrics, and get practicing. If you want more information about this, drop me a line on info@newcontinental.net. We've also got the monthly jazz nights on the last Sunday of each month, kicking off on the 28th September with Preston's favourite jazz saxophonist Harold Salisbury, Gary Culshaw on bass and Jonathon Hartley beating the skins, joined by Manchester guitar talent Mike Walker.

Drama:
Coming up in the events space we have a couple of Saturdays booked in for children's theatre from Dynamic New Animation, and a 2-week Christmas run for their play 'Atishoo!', which has been performed at Bristol's Young Vic & the Lowry Studio, Salford. We'll also be having visits for the grown-ups, from Second Nature Theatre Company (who've won a Manchester Evening News theatre award recently) & one from Mike Heath, whose work has been performed amongst others at the Library Theatre Manchester & The Lowry Studio.

Art:
You'll soon be able to see some work from local photographers Helen Cooper and John C Taylor on the walls. This is shortly to be accompanied by a wider exhibition of local artists, which will adorn our walls for the near future.

Home Economics:
As if we need to mention what's going on here…lots of lovely food, that's what.

Beer Studies (we run a pretty liberal school, ok?):
Plans are currently being brewed for the inaugural Continental Oktoberfest – We'll announce the details shortly, but look forward to a long weekend of great beer and music in the new events space towards the end of next month. Of course in the meantime, you can still pop in to enjoy our wide range of cask real ales, bottled beers, draught lagers, wines and spirits any time (not forgetting the superior selection of soft drinks, tea and coffee).

Why not book the school gym?:
The Events Space (formerly Captain Coconuts) is nearly completed, and will be available to hire for private functions in the very near future – email us for information on our availability and rates, and to find out what The Continental team can do to help with your event. You guessed it, the email address is info@newcontinental.net.

If you've got any other ideas of things you’d like to do or see at the Continental, please let us know!

We’ll see you soon,

The Continental Team