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Published: August 19th 2007
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Sunday, up pretty early to get on the road to Manchester, but seems like a nice day for it… she says until about half-way up someone tips a bucket out upstairs and it does not let up. Traffic on the motorway is down to 50mph, with very poor visibility. Quite tiring to drive into… at Sandbach I decided I wanted to pull off even though there was only about half-hour to go, and aquaplaned rather close to a concrete wall! Got over that, and headed to Stockport to catch up with Tam and Andy for 2pm lunch… ended up with a 4.30pm lunch, but well worth waiting for (Very nice!). Got a chance to go to Platt Church in the evening and catch up with a few people - many of whom are able to keep in touch with via Facebook (great tool!), and obviously excited about ideas for the trip so went through options several times, and got lots of advice from people!
Monday morning, nice late start (didn’t even hear Tam/Andy leave), then sorted self out, wrapped some of my sold items up from Amazon, then headed towards Chorlton to have my eyes tested. Hooray, don’t need new
glasses although my eyes have got marginally worse… wondered why I was wearing my glasses so much more - apparently I’m getting older, so my eye muscles are weakening, although the actual prescription stays the same - strange! Quick trip into
Salford Quays, but really wasn’t in the mood for staying there, so decided to see if I could get the parking at Erika’s - and on second circulation, found a space - ‘ray! Headed into town, spent probably a couple of hours in
Blacks having a look at all the sale stuff, and came out with some of those sandal things - think they’ll be indispensable. "Typical" city experience in Blacks, some guy came in with a knife, threatened the assistant, and got away with about £500 worth of coats! Met up with Tam/Andy in
Café Nero, to pass on keys, and headed back in time to meet Erika on her way out of the gym. We settled down with a bottle of wine or two, a very nice lasagne and my travel lists to throw stuff out/make decisions on trip, and Elli came over. By the time we’d finished chatting it was late, so we walked Elli back to her
lovely hotel room!
Tuesday was going to be my book plan day, and I was going to turn everything off, but I started doing stuff to my trip plan, and before I knew where I was I was late to go and find some lunch, but thought, oh well, Karen said to meet at 7pm so still got time. Got back about 4.15, sent a quick email to Karen to check we were still on, and had totally missed that we were meeting at 5, so dashed off again, met at the Phoenix (2 meals for £5, or is it £6!) on Oxford Road, and had a good old catch-up for about 3 hours, then meandered back to the flat with a bag of popcorn and did some more trip planning, crashing at about 1am, shortly before Erika made it in!
Wednesday was my big wandering around all the travel shops day, and I was pretty successful in most of what I was looking for, some of it in the sales of course (I’m not called Bargain Bex for nothing), had to head back to the flat to drop it off as it was getting heavy - which
does not bode well for adding it into my case for a 15kg aimed limit! Met Erika, Tam and Andy and went for a meal at
Wagamama, never been there, but good to get into the Asian cuisine, as think have pretty much worked out my route! Evening was eagerly anticipated,
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at the ABC - surprisingly full cinema, considering it was on continuously in about 6 screens. Another enjoyable film, and looking forward to the book - not long to wait now, although I won’t be able to collect mine until Monday.
Thursday, got to
STA for 10.30am, expecting that in about an hour RTW would be sorted, but it was a little longer than that. 2.5 hours later, I had paid for my RTW flight, and booked my two
GAP Adventures trips. I still have decisions to make about buying bus tickets for Australia/New Zealand (which I understand are cheaper over here, particularly with a YHA card), and various other things, but the route is all decided/booked, and just waiting for my e-vouchers now. Can’t believe have finally done it!!! Trip route can be found on:
RTW Itinerary Headed down Oxford Road to give Erika back her keys,
and, surprisingly, ran into 5 people I knew - I know that happens in Winchester, didn’t expect it in Manchester, although Oxford Road is the most likely place to meet! Then got in the car and headed for Birmingham.
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