Thursday, May 22, 2025

22nd May 2025



 How did the trip go?  Well first of all Manchester was so crowded.  There was a football match, not in Manchester but in Bilbao but fans had decided to descend on the city and watch on pub televisions.  We all met up in a bar with tall chairs.  Outside the street was lined with tables and many, many young people enjoying their drinks.  Then the meal at another place that dealt solely in chicken and 'dirty chips'  Something wrong there.  Actually I did have the breaded shrooms so there was some vegetarian around, the crunch was good.

Not only are the pair getting married but also trying to buy a house, they have their eye on one and are waiting for a surveyor to look at it.  Their rented property is having a losing battle with mold, a common enough problem with the older British houses.  Wedding plans are well under way and Ellie is a confident person

I am impressed by the trams as they move silkily past but if I lived in Manchester would definitely be run over by one.  The railway station had police and rail police on patrol and guarding the entrances and there was already some drunkenness around.

Andrew's architect friend has also almost finished the drawings for this house's makeover but it will probably be next year before it is started.  There is of course the planning law to go through.


Cocktails are the order of the day, not for me, the rim of salt is very off putting.

Being a party pooper I did not like this.  Some call it a mural or graffiti

They are a very happy and loving couple


14 comments:

  1. Glad you survived Manchester. My girls are great fans of cocktails (not all have salt around the rims!) Was that mural meant to be dogs? Tom and Ellie look happy. Is their home to be in Manchester? Keith was a Manchester lad, but having travelled the world felt no real affinity to it any more.

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    1. Lillie loved making cocktails - I think it is the shaking. Poodles perhaps, the graffiti, it has become so widespread, Banksy really started something. Both of them are in PR. Tom has just started a new job with publishers. He reads books all day (He has always adored reading;) non fiction which he then has to sell to the media.

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  2. Clashing with a Big match was probably not a good idea! But it's lovely to hear about weddings and house plans.
    That mural is very hard on the eyes.

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  3. Exactly Sue and Manchester lost as well but I am not into football, so am not worried. We were in the Northern part of the city. Fashionable according to my daughter, there must be a university around somewhere because students often volunteer at the shop.

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  4. I have never been to Manchester. We keep saying we must go, so having finally made it to Birmingham last year, perhaps we will still get there one day. Arilx

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    1. One place to visit is the John Ryland Library Aril. It is almost like a cathedral, an extraordinary building. I find Manchester overwhelming with its tall buildings, not skyscrapers, though there are a few, but old buildings.

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  5. How exciting for the happy couple. Hope all goes smoothly for them and they have a wonderful life together!

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  6. Lovely for you to spend some nice time with Tom and Ellie before they smash the champagne bottle of marriage upon the bow of their dreams. Manchester is for lovers.

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    1. Mmm, Manchester is somewhat scary but it has the hallmark of a capital city. It is very cultural up North as well. But yes happy to see the two of them. The wedding will be one of the great moments in my life.

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  7. We liked Manchester a lot, as tourists. We used the tram a couple of times, as it helpfully went past our hotel. I glad you had a good time, and I like the mural.

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    1. Yes Andrew the mark of the mural sorts out township and cultural values. Plenty of restaurants and bars and of course the Arndale Centre for shopping.

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  8. i find Manchester quite difficult to navigate - it is a big city.... i used to deliver beer there, and it always amazed me how sprawling it is, and how difficult it can be to simply go from one street to the next street over....... there's definitely always something going on though..... it's a proper city. Glad you got time to bask in the glow of young love with your grandson.

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  9. As far as navigation is concerned, the family just whip out their phones and I presume just Google the route, sadly beyond me. It still seems strange that the little blonde curly haired boy has grown up;)

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