Over half term week starting at the end of October, Mum and Chloe came up to visit, and they arrived by train on the Sunday evening – a bit later planned because Chloe had originally forgotten her coat, and had to go back home to get it before returning to Tamworth to get the train with mum! On Monday, it was quite rainy, so I drove us all over to The Trafford Centre where we had lunch, and had a bit of a look around the shops. The next day was a bit drier, so we went into Stockport – mum had mentioned that she’d never been into the town on her previous visits here, so I gave them a bit of a walking tour, through some of the new developments to the Underbanks, the Market Hall and Produce Hall.
Chloe and me outside the Produce Hall in Stockport.
When Brandon came up to visit back in February, we all went to Junkyard Golf (where mum won!), so with Chloe here we decided to try another crazy golf venue in Manchester city centre – Treetop Golf. I’d found it by accident whilst doing a Google search – it’s basically above the Printworks, but the entrance is hidden away on Dantzic Street, away from the main bit. But I was really impressed with how they’ve done it. The theming is really good, and feels so much bigger than Junkyard Golf. Also, because we arrived early, we were able to go round both courses for the price of one, so we ended up spending a good couple of hours there.
Me, Chloe and mum at Treetop Golf.
After popping into the Arndale, we took the tram to Castlefield and had a walk along the Castlefield Viaduct, which is a National Trust project where they’ve renovated part of an old viaduct in Castlefield, and if they can get funding they’re planning to extend it to create a raised park a bit like the High Line in New York. I’ve gone past it loads of times coming into Manchester, but this was the first time I’d gone into it, and it’s been done really well, and would be great if they are able to expand on it.
Castlefield Viaduct.
Mum outside Factory International.
Then, to finish of our visit into Manchester, we walked over to the new Factory International / Aviva Studios which has been build on part of the old Granada Studios. It looks so different around there since the days when I worked at MUTV and would often pop into Granada to drop off tapes or use the canteen! There wasn’t much for us to see on this visit, but we sat down for a drink in the cafe and took a look around their gift shop before getting the tram home. Since it was their last night up north, we went out for food in the evening – we drove over to Parrs Wood for a carvery which was great, and then they left lunchtime the next day.
Friday was then the start of our annual CU Reunion weekend. The original plan got changed at the very last minute… we were all supposed to be meeting at Phil & Mary’s on the Saturday with a fireworks show in the evening, and then some of us hanging out in Birmingham on the Sunday – but we found out on the Thursday that they were both really ill and had to cancel! Totally understandable, but it did cause a bit of an issue because Steve & Tanya and myself had a hotel booked in Reddich for the Saturday night, and Steve had also got booking for a hotel in Manchester on the Friday and Sunday night!
Anyway, it seemed we had a new plan – Steve and Tanya drove down on the Friday as planned, and we met up for food with Alister and his wife (who drove over from Northwich), and then on Saturday I got a lift with Steve and Tanya and we all went down to Bristol instead to meet up with Ali, Helen and Dave, with the plan to drive back to our hotel in Reddich on the evening and do the Sunday activities as planned.
So we spent the afternoon at a trampoline park on the outskirts of Bristol – Ali’s kids had been invited to a birthday party there which they’d originally had to pass on, and then in the evening we went to a buffet restaurant called Za Za Bazaar in the centre of Bristol.
Buffet meal at Za Za Bazaar.
Me, Ali, Steve, Tanya, Helen and Dave.
One major change to our Plan B was that on the Saturday morning, Steve and Tanya decided that instead of doing the Birmingham stuff the next day, they wanted to go and visit a friend of Tanya’s in Oxford, which kind of wasn’t ideal for me! Ali wasn’t keen to drive up to Birmingham with the kids if we weren’t all doing it, so whilst at the meal, I did a bit of research on train times and costs, and decided to write off my hotel and stay over at Ali’s in Bristol until Monday morning instead – Plan C!
Ali and the kids buying fish.
In a way, apart from the extra cost(!), it worked out fine because it meant I got to spend more time with Ali’s kids, and I really enjoy hanging out with them. On the Sunday morning we went out to buy some fish for the empty tank they’ve got in their downstairs toilet, so spent a while looking at various small fish before they picked the ones the kids liked best! Then I took them both to the cinema so Ali could get some stuff done, and we went to see the new Trolls film. Now, I remember seeing one of the earlier Trolls films, and it wasn’t too bad in a kind of ‘kids’-film-that’s-also-taking-adults-into-consideration’ way, but this was truly awful! The story was just bad, and the script was really poor, but they seemed to like it, so I pretended that I’d liked it too!!
Fireworks in Knowle.
In the evening, I did actually get to see some fireworks! We went over to a display in Knowle, but as we got there, it got really rainy, so we just had to expect to get really wet, but luckily it was a pretty decent display so was worth it!