I agree, the fun not knowing what was going to turn up has gone , part of the fun was having a radio tuned into Manchester Control waiting for weird and usually unheard flight numbers descending towards Man.
Although I went to MAN on many div days I preferred to scan the airways listening to aircraft being scattered throughout the country, and for the ones diverting to MAN I liked to see it sail over from 5-miles out over the 7th storey of a block of flats..!.
It is good to read Internet messages to see what is going to turn up in advance but prefer the 'un-certainty' ....