Manchester and getting here

Hey everyone,

We arrived in Manchester at the crack of dawn on Wednesday UK time after travelling for what seemed like forever. Flights were all good although we were disappointed not to be able to have a celebratory champagne as it was only available for business and first class!! Manged to compensate with a beer and G&T respectively.

We arrived at Abu Dhabi feeling pretty tired so headed to the departure lounge to await and next flight and decided to have a bit of kip on the floor - fell into a dead sleep and luckily a nice lady came and prodded me awake with her foot to inform, us that the plane was about to board. We probably would have slept right through but managed to catch the plane and got into a very cold (but not wet) Manchester where we were picked up by Sarah's Aunt Nina and Nanna - a few tears and we felt very happy to have the long haul out of the way.

Spent Wednesday trying to stay awake, so went and picked up Sarah's 2 y.o 2nd cousin and went for a long walk around Heaton Park. Much to Sarah's delight it even snowed a little (her first time seeing snow). We had a hot chocolate lakeside and then wandered through an animal farm and went to a cool playground. Little Joe warmed to us both and by the end of the night was sitting next to me feeding me his pizza!! It was good fun. Finally we went to sleep and stayed that way for about 12 hours.

Thursday we headed off by ourselves into Manchester, and, after battling with the light rail ticket machine (made Metlink look half sensible!!) we wandered around checking the town out. It is a strange mix of old and new building and is just like most other big cities - full of shopping malls and cafes. They have a Manchester Eye (like the London eye or the Melbourne one - but it actually works) but it was expensive and small so we did not bother with it. After sussing the town centre out for a few hours we headed home and rested over a few drinks (finally having the celebratory champagne) and some traditional English fish and chips.

Today we headed to Skipton, a small village about 40 miles out in the countryside. It was very beautiful in that English village fashion, with the canal through the centre and lots of great pub names (the Cock & Bottle being my personal fave). Had a good lunch with a pint and then headed back into the city after a spot of shopping for some more Merrel shoes (Nina bought Sarah a pair and i got some too - prob about1/3 of the price at home) and a great warm jacket for me. Tonight promises to be fun with a night out in Manchester with Sarah's cousin Paul and tomorrow night we are out for a big family dinner before a rest on Sunday and a re-pack of the bags for our flight to Gibraltar.

So far we are off to a great start - weather has been cold but no rain and some sunshine, Sarah's family are looking after us and we are feeling relaxed and ready to hit Africa next week.

Sarah and Ben