suchnone #375 Days 11-14 Manchester and Haslingden

The train to Manchester did not leave till 1pm but I had some shopping to do so left PSP's around 10:30 to get to downtown Birmingham. My friend Eoh who is getting married in just under 3 weeks was in need of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Selfridges has an America food market including a place to get these deep-fried confections that I could live. I grew up with Krispy Kreme and as much as the variety of Dunkin Donuts is incredible and Tim Horton's does rock, Krispy Kreme will always be my favorite. So, I make it to Selfridges in plenty of time and get in line for the doughnuts. I waited maybe 10 minutes until I was there to order. They gave everyone who stood in line a free hot doughnut and as he was handing me the doughnut he asked if this was my first time eating one.

I said: "No not by a long shot. In fact I grew up a few hours from the original store in Winston Salem, NC."

His eyes grew big and he said "Let me get my manager."

So I explained to her where I grew up and that I was 37 years old and that I had been eating these doughnuts all of my life and she says:

"Hold on." and goes and gets her cellphone and takes a picture of me. I do not know why she did that but oh well. So I got my dozen doughnuts and headed to the train station. December 27th was the first day back to work for many folks after holidays and the day they had decided to do track work all over England. The rest of my time in England would see longer waits and more people on the trains than I saw before. But in this case, I was able to catch an earlier train to Manchester but with the delays it ended up that I was only 30 minutes earlier than was planned. I waited around the station waiting for Eoh and her fiance who I have not named but I guess I should, lets call him Aci for no other reason that is sounds cool. Anyway, we finally met up and started making our way to the carpark.

Ends up the 27th is the busy shopping day in Manchester so traffic and people were everywhere plus it was almost rush hour by the time we left the carpark so it took us about an hour to get to Haslingden which is only 30 min or so from Manchester. All I know it was a much shorter trip on the way back to the train station for my trip back to Birmingham.

We made a stop for some groceries and headed to Aci's house. We also stopped by his parent's house for a cup of tea and to talk about the wedding.

It was cold and rainy and would stay that way for my stay there but we had a great time. I had bought some whiskey for him but could not remember if it was whiskey he collected. Ended up it was and he was very excited to introduce me to the world of whiskey. I had a whiskey phase back in college but until now had not had any whiskey that was incredible. After dinner of mac and cheese, we broke out the whiskey. First the Kentucky bourbon whiskey I got for them. Then a Scotch and finally an Irish whiskey that I can still taste the smoky overtones to this day. Found out later it is imported to NC and I can pick up bottle at my local ABC store. On a side note, I will be having a few glasses of if to celebrate their wedding since I cannot go to it in March.

Well, what was planned to be a relaxing few days of hanging out ended up being fast paced. What I mean, is that all of his Aci's friends were supposed to be out of town for the holiday. In the middle of out 48hr Trivial Pursuit Game, the first of many phone calls and visits started. In the end I met all of their friends except 2. On Friday we went into downtown Haslingden for some food for the meals for that day. We also stopped by the Library where Eoh volunteers. It is in a nice old building built from the same stone as Nelson's Column is made of in Trafalgar Square. Stopped by the butcher for meat pies for lunch and roast for the evening meal. The rest of the day was spent playing Trivial Pursuit and drinking pints. After roast for dinner we went to Aci's favorite local pub where we drink local real ales and played crazy eights or was it go fish, anyway...We had a table by the fireplace so after a rainy cold walk it was nice to be in front of the fire. A few of their friends showed up so we did not have to walk back to the house in the cold and I swear I saw a few snow flakes that evening.

Saturday we spent the day in Manchester. It was cold and sort of rainy and we saw a few more flakes that day but all in all a nice day.

Below are a few pictures of the places we went.


Manchester Christmas Decoration



John Ryland Library


Manchester Municipal Library



Manchester Museum


Thirsty Scholar Pub



Manchester Christmas Lights

We had shepherd's pie for dinner that night and a few more of their friends came over and we listed to music, drank a few pints, some more whiskey but the highlight of the evening was one of Aci's friends teaching him to play a few Britney Spears' songs and Wonderwall by Oasis. Just great stuff.

I had a great time in Haslingden/Manchester and I want to go back sometime soon.

Next: Day 15-16 Last Days in Birmingham