We got up bright and early, paid our bill and checked out of the hotel. We decided not to stop for breakfast to give us plenty of time to arrive at the airport before our scheduled flight.

The journey was not with us and we were beset with delays, arriving at the car hire outlet much later than we had intended. We fuelled up in the petrol station next door before checking the car back in with the gentleman that we dealt with on arrival.

Despite cutting it tight, we arrived at Rome airport in time for breakfast. Mr C still missed out on his cooked English breakfast because in Italy breakfasts are continental style. I chose a pistachio croissant which was something new to experience.

The flight boarded early and the pilot anticipated a timeslot ahead of schedule but this didn’t happen and our flight left on schedule. On arrival at Manchester airport, we passed through immigration and made our way to the baggage reclamation area.

Mr C always likes to position himself on the far side of the baggage conveyor so that he has plenty of time to recognise our luggage; he prints distinctive luggage labels that are easy to recognise. My fear always is that someone will grab my case as it travels slowly around to where we are positioned.

This was the day that that happened…

I had identified my case and it had the distinctive luggage label but before it made its way to me a lady grabbed it off the carousel. I ran across to her shouting excuse me and as I got nearer, I said ‘this is my case’. She looked down at the case and realised that although it was the same type of case as hers, it didn’t have the yellow ribbon that she used to identify her case. Thank goodness for Mr C’s luggage labels.

Luggage successfully retrieved we drove home via Wilmslow Garden centre for a late lunch where I settled for apple tart rather than something more substantial.

We picked up a ready meal on the way home (chicken Kiev) which we enjoyed after unpacking and watching the latest episode of Dr Who (no spoilers).

Before unpacking I put up my VE day 80 window display ready for the day of commemoration the day after.

For various reasons I wasn’t able to lay my potential holiday clothes options out on the bed then reject some, keeping my packing to a sensible level before packing my bag the day before travelling as I usually do.

This left me feeling stressed out packing at the last minute whilst Mr C sorted out some last-minute things and fuelled up the car for the journey to Manchester. Whilst he was out, he picked up a mini fish for lunch before packing his bag.

We set off mid-afternoon for Manchester and our overnight stay in the Premier Inn. The Satnav picked a scenic route to Manchester along roads that we don’t usually travel along. We enjoyed the delightful route enhanced by the glorious sunshine.

When we checked in at the Premier Inn, we found our room perfectly located for a bit of plane spotting as they made their final approach to the airport runway. The experience was enhanced by a live plane tracking app on Mr C’s phone.

We dined in the Griffin rather than our usual Tatton Arms. We were welcomed, shown to our seat and told to order at the bar when we were ready. When Mr C went to the bar to place the order there was momentary confusion when the lady who served him said that that they weren’t accepting any more food orders. The man who had greeted us informed her that we had pre booked so we were not walk ins and she promptly took the order.

A few minutes later someone rushed up to our table and apologetically informed us that our choice of meal (chicken schnitzel) had run out! We took a few minutes to choose other options, in my case scampi. When the food arrived it was delicious. Before we left, I couldn’t resist the urge to have my photograph taken with my VE 80 virtual challenge medal next to Churchill who was part of the Griffin’s VE day decorations.

We returned to the hotel for a nightcap. We found the bar to be scruffy with few people, no atmosphere and no beer (they were waiting for the order to arrive). It was a Friday night!!  The atmosphere was a stark contrast to our experiences there before they rebranded it in 2024. Before the, the bar was fully stocked and the room was full and buzzing.

After this less than satisfying experience, we retired to our room for an early night in preparation for our 7:10 am flight to Rome.

We woke up on time and left the Premier Inn. It was raining lightly (as it often does in Manchester) when we stepped out of the building.

After travelling to the airport, we checked our car into the meet and greet service which also gave us fast track through border control.

After checking in our luggage, receiving our boarding cards and proceeding through border control it was time to relax a little and enjoy breakfast. My breakfast, an almond croissant, was delicious but Mr C’s cooked breakfast was underwhelming.

We boarded the plane on-time but shortly afterwards the Captain announced that there would be a slight delay due to Air Traffic Control congestion. We took off 25 minutes late but the Captain was able to regain some of this time during our flight.

We cleared border control without any problems but the baggage reclaim was stressful. Some bags arrived on the conveyor belt and circled round and round without anyone claiming them but many bags did not appear. Just after Mr C’s case appeared (and was retrieved) some airport baggage handlers started randomly removing cases from the conveyor belt. Mine was one of them so we rushed to reclaim it.

Luggage retrieved; it was time for us to pick up our transport to our hotel. We were greeted by two Jet 2 reps who guided us to a place to wait for our driver. Eventually we were joined by a family who had been held up due to the baggage reclaim confusion.  Now that the travel party was complete, we embarked on a long trek up and down stairs and escalators before we arrived at the car park where our minibus was located. This wasn’t the end of our walking journey It was also a long trek across the car park before we arrived at our taxi.

Our journey to the hotel ran smoothly and our room was ready. We dumped our cases in the room and ascended to the hotel’s roof top garden for lunch. We chose to share a plate of charcuterie and cheese accompanied by focaccia. Whilst dining we were constantly misted with water jets fitted into the pergola.

Comfortably replete we walked into town passing a couple of lovely fountains, arriving at the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs. The church is beautiful and refreshingly cool inside giving us respite from the 90-degree heat outside.

Back at the hotel we showered to remove the afternoon’s heat before dining in La Locanda Di Bacco where I chose seabass accompanied by roasted rosemary potatoes. This was followed by a shared tiramisu which was delicious.

We returned to our hotel for a nightcap in the roof top garden.

Although we were both quite disorganised in our packing and preparations, we actually managed to set off on time for our overnight stay in the Premier Inn. We always choose to stay overnight in a hotel near to the airport when we have an early morning flight, it allows us to get to the airport on time without additional stresses.

The journey to Manchester was horrendous with torrential rain causing spray and difficult driving conditions on the motorway. In addition to this, too many drivers were travelling too fast for the difficult conditions. We had a brief stop at a motorway service station, then continued our journey to the Premier Inn where we checked in and relaxed in the room with a refreshing cup of tea before dining in the nearby Tatton Arms. I had a small portion of fish and chips accompanied by a delicious glass of Pinot Grigio blush.

After dining, we retired to the Beefeater bar  that is attached to our hotel for a nightcap. We didn’t linger too long; the drinks were expensive and the room was extremely chilly. We returned to our room where we warmed up with a refreshing cup of tea before an early night in anticipation of our 3.30 wakeup call to allow us to get to the airport on time for check in.

All packed and ready to go on our travels to Italy, we set off mid afternoon for our overnight stay in the Premier Inn near to Manchester airport. We chose the quick route using the motorway which turned out to be unexpectedly slow and the fading afternoon light led to unpleasant driving conditions. This caused us to stop off at a motorway service station to have a refreshing cup of tea in Gregg’s before continuing on our journey to the Premier Inn.

It was almost time for dinner when we arrived at our overnight hotel. We did a quick recce of the airport to find where we needed to leave our car for the ‘meet and greet’ service before heading off to the nearby Tatton Arms for our evening meal. On arrival we were told that food was only available until 8pm. The waitress took our drinks order and gave us the specials menu. We were left waiting for some time…

Normally  we wouldn’t have minded but we were conscious of the kitchen closing at 8pm. Our order was taken 15 minutes later. Shortly afterwards the waitress came back to us and apologised that we had been left unattended due to her being in the office upstairs. She went on to say that our drinks would be on the house. We enjoyed our meal before returning to the Beefeater (next to the Premier Inn) for a nightcap before an earlyish night in readiness for our early morning check-in at Manchester airport.

In the afternoon after Mr C had finished his ironing and packing we headed off to Manchester where we were staying overnight because of an early flight the next morning. The SatNav took us on our normal route passed Jodrell Bank. The radio telescope’s dish was upturned and as it had just started to rain I had visions of it becoming a large swimming pool.

We arrived at our hotel at just the right time to be thinking of an evening meal. We quickly checked into our room then searched on Trip Advisor for suitable nearby places to eat. As we were doing this planes were coming in low, almost over our heads as they approached Manchester Airport’s runway for landing. We found a suitable pub just around the corner and it turned out to be cosy and friendly. The food was good and we could watch the planes with their lights all aglow as they made their final (even lower) approach to the runway.

After our meal we drove the short distance to the airport to work out where we needed to be the next morning. We had a quick nightcap in the Beefeater pub situated next door to our hotel before turning in for an early night due to our 3am start the next morning.

Last Friday Mr C took the day off work and we headed off to Manchester so that he could go clothes shopping. We arrived at the station in plenty of time to catch the train to Wolverhampton. The connecting train from Wolverhampton to Manchester was slightly delayed. Whilst we were waiting the display boards and announcement system developed a fault and failed.  That meant that the staff had to resort to manual announcements some of which were quite amusing.

When we got on the train my reserved seat was next to a lady with a young daughter sitting on her knee. The young girl was such a sweetie and was well behaved even when she got bored towards the end of the journey. At one point she was eating sweets from a bag, one of which was a long jelly snake. When the snake was fully emerged from the bag she pointed its head at me and said, ‘hiss’. I said, ‘is it coming to get me?’, causing her to giggle and her eyes to light up. A bit later in the journey she put her finger to her lips and said, ‘Shhh’ on more than one occasion. Shortly after this Mr C snapped his glasses case shut with a loud bang. He then put his finger to his lips and said, ‘Shhh’ causing her to giggle again.

On our arrival in Manchester we hopped onto a free bus into town, where it dropped us near to the Italian Restaurant, Don Marco, where we had booked an early lunch. As we walked that last bit of the way towards the restaurant Mr C pointed out the hotel that he had stayed in a couple of weeks ago when he was in Manchester on business. The skyscraper hotel emerged from behind some classic architecture towering above its surroundings. Rather him than me! I would have felt really uncomfortable sleeping in a place like that.  The view from the higher rooms, however, is spectacular as can be seen in the photograph below that was taken by Mr C.

Lunch was wonderful. We sat next to the window with a glass of wine and the sun shining in, watching the world go by. The sun however was short lived; as we left the restaurant it started to rain. It always rains in Manchester! As we made our way to the shops Mr C showed me some of the sights that he had found when he briefly worked in Manchester a few years ago. This included The John Ryland Library, the building where he worked, and an ornate passageway which led to St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, the ‘Hidden Gem’.

We then made our way to Waterstones for a quick browse around, where I was tempted to buy a book by Antonia Frazer. When we left the shop we found that the heavens had opened and it was now pouring down with rain. I managed to take a few photographs but it was rather difficult juggling a camera in one hand and an umbrella in the other. We carried on to the other shops that Mr C had on his list and when he had successfully completed his shopping spree we returned to the station, becoming rather soggy along the way.

There were two trains showing on the board and that we could choose from. We elected for the slightly later one with a change at Shrewsbury. This allowed us time to enjoy a drink (of the non-alcoholic variety) before it was time to catch the train. Unfortunately our choice of route turned out to be a mistake. The journey was pleasant looking out at the sights as the train sped along but when we got to Shrewsbury the connection train was not waiting on the platform as it should have been. We were informed that it had been cancelled and that we would have to catch the next one! We decided to have a cup of tea rather than wait outside on the platform. As we were drinking our tea we learned that the next train had also been cancelled and that the problem was a train had broken down on the line just outside Shrewsbury. There was no information available on how long the delay would be. There was also a separate problem with trains heading for Aberystwyth where a fault had developed on the track.

The trains in and out of Shrewsbury had ground almost to a halt. A little while later we were informed that replacement buses for the inaccessible destinations had been booked. However there was no information on how long they would take to arrive. We were eventually informed that the first bus had arrived and that we should make our way to the front of the station. We knew by the size of the crowd that it was unlikely that we would be able to get on it. When it came down to it, the two people in front of us got the last two seats on the bus. The bus was expected to go Wellington station where people could catch connecting trains to their destination and then return to pick up more passengers. However the bus didn’t return! As we waited for what turned out to be over an hour, other coaches arrived for people going to other destinations and the track problem on the other line was fixed. Some people called for taxis and shared them with others to reduce the cost. Others called for friends to come and pick them up.

As we waited we were kept entertained by the antics on the carpark. There was some rather alarming driving in the car park as taxis and cars came and went. An accident was bound to happen sooner or later. It turned out the culprit would be a small red mini car which came in slowly and parked at a very jaunty angle whilst waiting for a passenger. When the mini reversed up to leave it reversed into a taxi! Luckily there was no damage. A food delivery lorry arrived and reversed close to another taxi before opening the rear door to offload the delivery. This didn’t look very safe and caused the taxi driver to move his car to a safe distance. After the alarming unloading proceeding, the two lorry drivers dragged wheeled crates through the middle of the waiting passengers causing them to scatter. When they went to collect the second part of the delivery they decided on a different route and nearly crashed the crates into a taxi that was parked up.

In contrast to the young girl we had encountered on the morning train there was a young boy behaving like a naughty little monkey. He was vigorously shaking one of the poles that held hanging baskets. I am not sure where his parents were whilst this was going on. Eventually a station employee walked over to him and wagged his finger in a no no motion. The boy soon disappeared.

Eventually a much smaller bus arrived and the last of the commuters (including us) going in our direction were able to get on it. The bus and driving were rather worrying and I wondered if it was going to break down. It made some alarming noises as it sped up on the motorway. As we neared our destination instead of going to the station car park (which caters for buses) the driver opted to drive to the other side of the station up narrow roads and into the town centre. At one stage he mounted the curb as he was trying to turn avoiding a taxi that had parked on a corner on double yellow lines. The bus tilted alarmingly and I had visions of it tipping over onto the taxi. The driver reversed up a bit and managed the turn on his second attempt. After he had dropped us off at the station I was wondering how he was going to get the bus out of the narrow location where he dropped us off. We eventually arrived home at 21.15, more than two hours later than expected!

I would have liked a long soak in the bath when I got home, but that was not to be. The water pump on our heating system had broken down the day before leaving us with no hot water. But that is a story for another day…

The Saturday jaunt to visit my Aunt went well and as you can see we were treated to some fantastic scenes on our outward journey. The SatNav took us on the route that skims past Jodrell Bank which is normally a spectacular sight. Today, however the radio telescope was shrouded by fog and invisible (or beamed up by aliens…).

On arrival at my aunt’s we exchanged Christmas presents then chatted for a while before heading off for a carvery lunch at The Sheldon Arms. After lunch we returned to my Aunt’s house and chatted some more before preparing tea, which after yesterday’s dramas was well received.

Yesterday we undertook a day trip to visit my Aunt who lives in Manchester. There was a time when we always used the same tried and tested route to her house. That was until I purchased a new SatNav last year and tested it out on a visit to my Aunt. The SatNav took us on a completely different, but very enjoyable route past Jodrell Bank and the Manchester City Stadium and as we neared her house it bypassed all the narrow Coronation Street type roads that we were used to travelling along.

At the point of choosing a destination the new SatNav always picks the best route to fit your selected criteria. This means that the routes are subject to change. Yesterday was no different… As we were driving along the Live Traffic feature identified a route that was three minutes quicker and asked if we wanted to choose it. We chose the new route, which took us down a tree lined lane which was especially  beautiful with the sun shining through the leaves and branches. As we turned a corner in the lane we came across a flock of sheep being herded down the lane. The SatNav works well with Live Traffic information but not so well with predicting a mobile sheep block

On the way home we were expecting the SatNav to take us through the Cheshire countryside past Jodrell bank which would have been delightful in the evening sunshine. But no the SatNav had other ideas and took us back by our own tried and tested route…

Plato (428 – 347 BC)