Auntie Knows Best

Well this week didn’t quite start as planned. The Mister and I had been watching the weather reports closely because force 8 winds were predicated for the day we were due to sail overnight. At lunchtime on Tuesday our boat for the next day was cancelled so I spent a while on hold to Condor and then before I knew it we were booked on the 5.30pm sailing that night. My poor boss watched me pack up my desk and leave before me even clearing it with him! It was that or wait until Friday night! I packed within 2 hours and my sister had to take the cats to the cattery and my friend came to clear out and clean my fridge for me!

So, On Tuesday evening we ended up on the boat trying to book a Premier Inn on the south coast for that night but pretty much everything was booked due to it being the Easter Holidays so we ended up in one in Eastleigh which was fine for the night. So, we had a couple of extra days which was surprising and on

ON Wednesday we went to RAF Cosford whih was really good but too many planes for me but The Mister enjoyed it. We then headed up to Stoke and stayed in another Premier Inn.

On Thursday we had a brilliant morning visiting Gladstone Pottery Museum which is where they film the pottery programme on Channel 4. It was so interesting and a fascinating look at bottle kilns and the pottery industry.

In the afternoon we headed up to Hyde to see The Mister’s parents and his brother and his girlfriend who are over from America. We are staying in the nearest Premier Inn which was OK – we have done a bit of a tour of them this week!

On Friday we went into Stockport to visit The Hat Works Museum. It was fascinating, especially as both of The Mister’s grandmothers worked in the hat industry. The whole place is being refurbished so they are running pre-booked private tours. It was really good. We then visited the Air Raid Shelters which I found very interesting as there were about 3000 Guernsey children evacuate to the area.

The rest of the week has been spent with seeing a lot of the family and we had some of the extended family visiting on Sunday. I am pleased for The Mister that he has had the chance to catch up with them. We have especially enjoyed seeing his brother and his girlfriend – she and The Little Miss have bonded over colouring!

I have had another fabulous weekend, even though I have driven nearly 500 miles and I am cold and tired.

On Friday I drove Oop Norf, collected The Mister and then we drove onto his parents for the weekend as it was both his birthday and his mother’s birthday. Rather freakily we arrived listening to the News Quiz on Radio 4, and when we got back into the car the next morning the repeat of The News Quiz was on, at almost exactly the same place we had left it at the night before. How weird is that?

Anyway, on Saturday we wandered around Manchester for hours, did a bit of window shopping and bought very little, other than I managed to buy just a lickle bit of craft stuff. By this point I was knackered and hungry so we headed over to Ning, an entirely fabulous Malaysian restaurant run by my friend Andy and his boyfriend Norman. The food was fantastic and they have the most amazing wall paper I have ever seen. In the words of Andy, “It’s bespoke darling”. Fabulous isn’t it? The picture was shamelessly nicked from here. If you like Malaysian food and are in Manchester, then head off to Ning… it is fab… oh and they do lots of vegan food too (just in case you happen to be visiting Peterson.)

So, all in all, another lovely, if rather tiring, weekend.