Day Eleven Wednesday 27th September

-

 


The weather looks quite miserable outside so what better day than to go grey Manchester. Sharon and Ellie are going there to pick up some things so I pile into the back seat of Ellie's car with Ruby and Mel who start bickering because none of them want to go in the middle.

We park in the Selfridges Car park and as soon as we get to the first floor cosmetics I split from the girls and start heading to the North Quarter. Retro shops, record stores and pop culture. It's a 10-minute walk from where we are but the weather is horrible and I forgot my umbrella. I think Mel still has it.

The record shops are full of new records starting with Vinyl Revival and then Piccadilly Records. Picadilly is the most well-known and has a great selection of records but sadly they all cost more than me buying them off Amazon and getting delivered to my door.  I'm after some used records which I found at the one shop I can't remember the name of. The only record that takes my fancy is the Mermaid Avenue Volume 2 by Billy Bragg and Wilco but they want 100 pounds for it. So no records are bought in Manchester. And no luck in the retro shops. Found a cool Mod Blazer for 25 pounds but it was too big. Bummer. Anyway, it looked a bit like a St. Michaels Blazer.


So I wander around Manchester listening to New Order, The Smiths and Joy Division. I love the juxtaposition of old buildings nestled under and around new buildings. It looks very cool and gives Manchester its own definitive character. But it would be so much better with a bit of sun. I grab a sausage roll from a shop called Gregg's which I find out later are the best sausage rolls in the North West. And it was good. 


Catch up with the girls and we're off back to Lytham. Sharon is driving now as Ellie is having a sleep in the back. She asked if there were any famous places I wanted to see in Manchester and I said the Salford Lads Club doorway where the Smiths famously posed. So she took me there! Brilliant. And the sun came out so we got there in about 5 minutes and did some posing in front. Even Ruby and Mel do some posing. How great.


After a chill out back at the house we head out to Sarah's for dinner. She has bought some pies from Booths. A Lancashire Butter Pie and a Steak Pie. 13 people for dinner. I picked up a bottle of Marlborough Pinot Noir from Tesco Express but Dave also brought a few bottles so there is plenty of wine. And we had
a great time just eating and chatting. Only 2 sleeps before the big event.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day Thirteen Friday 29th September

-
Image
  Packing day and time to get out of Lytham. doesn't take long and the car is packed in no time. Swing around to the Elms to pick up the girls and we do the Tetris thing with baggage and eventually get it just right. The girls say goodbye to Michael and Brenda however we will be seeing them in a few hours. But they are very gracious to their hosts. Soon we're off across the Moors and then the Yorkshire Dales. I'm not much of a nature guy but the Dales look pretty amazing and not something I expected to see. I'm driving so I don't get any pictures but I might try to get some on the way to London. Find our way easily to Scotch Corner and the Holiday Inn we're staying in. We grab a Gregg's sausage roll for lunch then try and check in early.  The girl at the desk says they should be ready in 30. 90 minutes later we are still sitting in the lounge and eventually, we get rooms dead at 3pm which is the check-in time. Even then our rooms weren't ready so they ga...
Read more

Day Three Tuesday 19th September

-
Image
3 a.m. Tuesday Morning in London and I'm staring at the ceiling in a hotel in Ealing. There is no chance of going back to sleep so I put on the sleep channel and watch patterns squirt along to New Age music. And read. And watch Netflix and wait for the light to come through the window. We had agreed to eat at 9 but moved the breakfast time to earlier since we were starving. There is a bit of banging coming from outside my window so at first light I check out what's happening. At first, it looked as if they building a new bus shelter but then I noticed there was snow all around and lots of tracks and Xmas decorations. They're filming outside the hotel. For Christmas, I'm guessing it will be something like a John Lewis commercial or Sainsbury's. I asked the receptionist on the way to breakfast but she wasn't allowed to tell. I strolled around outside looking for familiar faces and saw one TV star but I couldn't find her on Google. They build a beautiful Xmas s...
Read more