Thanks for the lesson jimharri, I genuinely thought it was purely a scouse thing.
Reading up it was interesting to see just how many students are in Manchester in total. As you say this area around the two Universities is obviously very heavily student populated.
That was pretty much what I was expecting to hear mrbelfry. I'll be whizzing him down to the ASDA and market first of all! And to the local Asian and Middle Eastern supermarkets, I just wish we had some near us. My sister lived near Finchley in London and I had a field day when visiting, topping up on all sorts of stuff. Then picking up some real bagels from the Jewish bakeries in Golders Green before setting off for home. He'll no doubt have tons to do via the SU and Uni itself, but we just wanted feedback like yours about the actual area.