We had a major storm last Wed around 6pm, with gusts up to 120k/h and loads of rain. We’ve had a number of warnings for similar storms this year, but they all passed us by. So we didn’t take this one seriously enough, and the garden table and greenhouse didn’t survive. A leg snapped off the table, and the greenhouse was violently thrown into the trees along the garden border. Will noticed this during the storm, so he, Andrew and I rushed out to rescue the seven plants, three of which had been knocked out of their pots. We ran them up to the log shed and quickly repotted them, and happily, they’re all doing fine now. The greenhouse frame mainly survived, but the plastic cover is irreparably ripped. We were all soaked after being outside less than 2 minutes.
Apart from the minor damage, we lost power, which also means no water. I made “deconstructed” chicken and lamb kebabs, which meant cooking the ingredients separately on the stove, and we played cards by candlelight that night. The power still wasn’t on the next day and we started running out of water, including bottled and filtered water. We had a similar meal the following night, using some food from the freezer so it didn’t go to waste. By this point, all of our electronic devices had nearly dead batteries, so we were without music that night too. The water came back on around 10pm on Thursday, after 28 hours, so that helped. But the power still wasn’t on when we left on Friday, which complicated preparing for the trip.
We had to print out our boarding passes or else pay a hefty fine, so I went to Nontron on Friday morning to use Franck’s computer. However, I didn’t bring our passports having already provided the info, so couldn’t check in. Franck is the fois gras shop owner, and I bought a few gifts to bring to the UK, so the trip wasn’t a total waste. At this point, Milhac was one of the few places left without power, so I took and chance and drove to Marie and Christian’s in St Pardoux. They had power and a printer, so I managed to print the boarding passes, although there was a brief power cut while I was doing so, meaning I had to start over. I raced back home in time to pack and we grabbed a quick bite before Andrew took us to the airport. Our flight was delayed slightly, and we arrived in Manchester in the late afternoon. We finally heard from Andrew that power had been restored around 8pm Friday, for a total outage of 50 hours, a new record.
David picked us up from the airport, and then we collected Gerald at the hotel in the city centre. We headed to David’s where Will and I stayed that night. We all got caught up over some lovely take-away Chinese food. David and Ludo have been living in Middleton, about 6 miles from Manchester for the last two years. They were both fed-up with London and are enjoying the quiet life. They’ve started a company that makes apps and have recently released their first game. They live next door to each other with a connecting door in the fence. David has built an amazing garden full of various plants including some tropical and many types of flowers. He has a dog called Ellie, a 2 year old border collie who is shy but friendly enough. We all go caught up over dinner. Gerald is doing very well and loves Edinburgh, where he lives right in the centre. He’s got a new man, a Scot named Douglas, and so far that’s going well. After dinner, Gerald got a cab back into town and we all crashed after 11.
We always having trouble sleeping away from home, but weren’t prepared for it to start getting light before 4am. I awoke thinking it was much later, and then we both woke up at 5:45 and couldn’t get back to sleep. We had been without email / internet access for nearly 3 days, which is a lifetime in our line of work. There was one minor problem that I was able to fix that day, and no other emergencies while we were away. We had a leisurely morning around David’s and then headed into town with a quick stop at the Tesco to print a photo. For Gerald’s birthday, we got him an engraved picture frame, and made a photo montage to go in it. However, it was stored on our home server that we couldn’t access before leaving. Andrew came to the rescue and managed to email it to us on Sat morning, and we were able to print it at the store. We stayed at the same hotel as Gerald the next two nights, so we dropped our stuff there and then went shopping.
There is a big shopping centre in town and we spent a few hours there, with varying degrees of success. We also had a bite to eat and then wandered back to our hotel. We saw quite a few men in dresses and make-up while we were out that day. It wasn’t until we got down to Canal Street where all the gay bars are located that we figured out why. That weekend was the Sparkle Festival, the largest celebration of transgender people in the world, with over 15,000 participants. In addition, England was playing in the World Cup quarter-finals that day, so everywhere was packed. It didn’t hurt that the weather was glorious, around 26C with lots of sun. So everyone was feeling merry, and we did a mini-crawl checking out various bars and drinking cocktails. One place served an excellent espresso martini, made with a locally produced toffee flavoured vodka.
David had gone home to tend to Ellie, and rejoined us on Canal Street. We took a brief breather and went back to the hotel to freshen up. We had another drink and then decided some food was in order. We went to a local Thai place and had a large meal to soak up the booze. David went home after dinner, and Gerald, Will and I returned to the bars. It was around 11pm at this point, and most of the patrons were a bit worse for wear. We found a place doing karaoke, which is must for Gerald and I, but there weren’t taking any more requests. We did hang around for a bit enjoying the spectacle. Many of the singers were transgender and did some impressive renditions, including ZZ Top’s “Women Go Crazy Bout a Cross-Dressed Man”.
We also saw what can only be described as Manchester moment. A very drunk woman bumped into a couple and spilled some beer. They had words and the woman then grabbed the guy’s pint and tipped it out onto the floor. The couple left, then the man came back in with a half-finished drink and tipped it over the drunk woman’s head. She was so gone she just stood there and swayed until the bouncer came by and escorted her out, and she nearly vomited while he was doing so. As soon as the pint was spilled, two bar staff ran over with a sign and a mop, in a very practised manner. There was another guy with a gash in the back of his head, and he didn’t even seem to care or notice. We stopped off for one more drink and then crashed around 1am.
Sunday was Gerald’s actual birthday, so we stopped down and gave him his presents, which was the picture plus a tin of fois gras. We got the tram to a Heaton Park, a few miles outside the city. It’s a huge place, and they have a lot of events there including concerts. We met David there and then went to the Manchester Eats food fair. There were numerous places selling food and drink of all sorts, so it was difficult deciding what to eat. They had everything from burgers and bbq to vegan food including ice cream. There were also stands selling wine and locally distilled gins. We found a place doing proper cocktails so we started there and had mojitos. Then we had lunch which was bbq for the Americans and a chicken burger for Will. We had a jug of Pimms before heading back to the cocktail place for a few more rounds. It was 28C that day with lots of sun, and the cocktail joint had a tent and live music, so it was the logical place to be. We left around 3 and made our way back to the centre via the tram.
We headed down to Canal Street where David joined us for a few more drinks before he headed home. It was a bit more subdued that day, but still a decent crowd. We found a near-empty place that was doing karaoke, so Gerald and I got our fix. We each did a song apiece, and then a duet. It was getting late so decided to have pizza for dinner. We walked to a nearby Pizza Express, only to find our French curse had followed us, and it was shut. There was another one just up the road, so we weren’t denied after all, and then returned to the hotel for a smoke. Gerald joined us in our room and we listened to music before retiring around midnight. We checked-out in the morning and then headed back to the shopping centre. I has determined to find shorts and didn’t have any luck the previous day. I did find a pair this time, although they’re far from perfect, but I’ll make do. We had lunch at Wagamama, a treat for Will and I since we both used to frequent it regularly. We collected our bags from the hotel and then parted ways at the train station.
I’m going to sign off here and leave the rest of the trip for Will to share.