Michael's World Tour of England #1: Week 1
Michael arrived on January 12th, so these are his adventures from his first week here in England. It's not a long post, it's just ... detailed.
Arrival
My alarm went off at 6 this morning to the sound of rain chucking it down outside. Typical weather really, but not quite what I wanted to drive in. I quickly got dressed and fed and everything, and then had a fun Krypton Factor style game where I had to try and fit everything in the boot of my car. I had my usual case, holdall and backpack, plus a bag with food in, a picnic set in another bag and my PS2 in a box with my games and the Guitar Hero guitar controller. There was no way it was all going to fit in the boot! I got everything in without too much trouble and there was still plenty of room for Michael's bags too. I had coffee in a thermal mug, got my iRiver all connected up, my phone in the hands-free kit and then I was ready to go.
It was 7.05am when I set off so only 5 minutes later than I'd intended. It was pitch dark - obviously, as it would be at 7am in January - but at least it had stopped raining. I got onto the M6 but there was quite a bit of traffic which I'd not expected; I thought it would be a bit too early for there too be too much traffic. It slowed me right down three or four times but not to a standstill, so I was at least still moving, if only slowly. I got to Manchester Airport with no major problems and found a spot in the car park right at the front so Arrivals was just over the road. Brilliant. It was 8.25am when I got there and Michael's plane was due to land about 8.15 but I reckoned by the time he'd got off the plane, gone through Customs and Immigration, and got his luggage, it would possibly be closer to 9. I checked the Arrivals screen anyway and saw that Michael's plane was showing as landed rather than arrived. People were coming through but I had no idea if they were off Michael's flight or not so I just picked a good spot to stand and wait. Then my phone starting to ring and it came up as a private number. I had a bit of a sinking feeling, and sure enough, when I answered it, a lady said, "Hello, I'm called from Immigration at Manchester Airport." I was really nervous, I didn't want to say anything that would result in Michael getting turned around and put on the next plane back to Boston. All I could do was answer the questions and hoped they matched up with what Michael said. Then I had a really nervewracking wait with no idea how I would find out if he wasn't being allowed in. It was maybe about five minutes later, I happened to look up at the Arrivals door and saw Michael walking through it. Relieved does not do justice to how I felt at that moment. We got his stuff in my car and then I drove us off to the studio apartment that we had booked in Horwich.
I needed to ring them to confirm what time we could check in but I was told that the current occupant had left late so we couldn't check in till about 12 or 12.30. I'd parked in the Middlebrook Retail Park to make the call so we ended up having two hours to waste there. Thankfully there was an Asda so we could at least get a few groceries while we were waiting. When we left for the B&B, I got a bit stuck trying to get out of Bolton and it ended up taking us an hour to find it. We finally got there, got all checked in and then brought our stuff in from the car. So finally, after 6 months (at least) of planning, Michael had arrived in England. Yay!
We put the kettle on straight away, and then unpacked the groceries we'd got and all our stuff. Michael was tired but wanted to stay awake till a reasonable bedtime to help counteract any jet lag. We had some dinner about half two and discovered that the pans looked like they'd not been cleaned properly from the last time they were used. They had to be washed scrubbed really thoroughly before we could use them, along with the dishes and spoons and cups. It was really gross and not at all what you want to be doing. After that, we had a quiet relaxing time for the rest of the day. The apartment had lots of maps and tourist information in, so we had a look at those and added a couple of things to our list of places to see. There was also a collection of Reader's Digest books so I made a start on a book and Michael played on my DS. Hardly a thrilling start to his visit, but he was so tired that there wasn't much else we could do!
Horwich
Tuesday was spent having a wander round the local area of Horwich to see what it had to offer. It's not an area I know at all, so it was just as new to me as it was to Michael so that was nice, that we were both discovering this particular town for the first time. Annoyingly, despite the multitude of maps and other tourist information that was provided, there didn't seem to be an map of the local area. That lead to more fun in the morning when we were trying to find our way back to the Middlebook Retail Park to go to Asda and do a proper grocery shop. The Reebok Stadium that is at the Retail Park is quite distinctive and can be seen for some distance so my method of finding it ended up being a sort of "well, there's the stadium over there and this road seems to go in the right direction, so let's go that way and see if we get to it." I finally worked out the route to it and found that it's actually only about a 15 minute drive away. It turned out to be a route that we got to know very well, not just because of the Asda being right there but that's also where Horwich Parkway train station is so we went there quite often.
That afternoon, I happened to find an Official Guide to Horwich in the apartment. It was hidden on a windowsill and turned out to have a map in it. Oy. So we decided to have a walk round the town centre and see what there was. The town centre turned out to be a lot bigger than I expected and have quite a decent range of shops. There seem to be quite a lot of eating establishments, and at least half a dozen pubs. There was also a Co-op, Somerfield and Aldi so we could get groceries from there if we needed to, rather than going all the way out to Asda. There was also a library which I thought might come in handy. Quite a nice town really and rather quiet, although it did have a very strange traffic light layout on the main road. The only downside was that it was just a wee bit on the bloody hilly side. It was only a ten minute walk down to the main road from the apartment so that was great. But it was a ten minute walk down a very very steep hill. And then on the way back our ten minute stroll down turned into a 20 minute hike up! Never having been to Horwich before I didn't realise it was quite so rural and hilly! It was lovely and scenic though. As we walked through the town centre, we could see Rivington Pike plus its tower and Winter Hill quite distinctly because we were that high up and that close to them.
MOSI
On Wednesday, I suggested going to the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester. Michael was agreeable to that so we went to Horwich Parkway railway station to get the train in. The car park and overflow car park there were crammed full so I had to go up to the Retail Park to park instead, and then walk back down to the train station. We got a return ticket to Manchester for only £3.20. Bargain price! MOSI was free to get in which is just the right kind of price, especially when the museum is so big and had so much to see. It's a collection of five separate buildings, so we went to the main building first and started with the Textiles exhibit. Part of it was about the cotton industry which was the major export in Lancashire for a long time and so it had quite a lot of machines from the old cotton mills. It was something I'd learnt about in my History classes at school, so I already knew quite a lot about it but I think it was interesting for Michael to see some of the history of the area. From there we went to the Manchester Scientists section which was quite an eye-opener; I had no idea that so many scientists had connections with the Manchester area or that so many important discoveries were realised there. We'd not brought any butties* with us so we had to have dinner in their café. That wasn't a great idea because they didn't have a great deal of choice and what they did have was very pricey.
After we'd eaten, we went to have a look at some of the other buildings. As we were leaving the main building, we were quite taken by surprise to see a very familiar object near the exit. A tall blue box - an old style Police phone box, to be exact. Yep, a TARDIS. It was a little baffling until I remembered that MOSI had had a Doctor Who exhibit in 2007 and it must have come from there. Anyway, we moved onto the 1830 Warehouse which had an exhibit on electricity that was reached by a side entrance according to the sign there. Perhaps it was because it was a little side entrance that no one else found it, or maybe because no one else is interested in electricity, but the entire section was empty. All four floors of it. It was so incredibly weird to be in a museum where was not another soul around, not even staff and it was so so quiet. We found the main entrance after that and saw the People's History section - a temporary exhibit from the People's History Museum which is being redeveloped. That was quite interesting. We got to make a little card box with a lid and also made badges too! There was a free badge maker at the end and so we just had to have a go. It took me ages to think of something to put on mine, but Michael made the best one. His said: I came to Manchester and all I got was this lousy badge. Classic.
From there, we went to the Underground Manchester section. I'm not sure what I expected it to be about, possibly tunnels or hidden things that had been found under the city. But no. It was about sewers and toilets. It was really quite bizarre, especially when it started off with a mock up of a graveyard with a funeral taking place. Kind of creepy really, especially as the exhibit was underground. We didn't get to see all of it because when it got to 4.45, we got escorted out because they were closing! I was sure the museum didn't close till 5, but maybe they wanted to get the place shut of everyone before then. Kind of amusing really, I don't think we've been to any science museum where we've not been asked to leave because they've wanted to close. To my disappointment we didn't get to see the Air & Space Hall which had planes, trains and automobiles but Michael wasn't really interested in that anyway, the Station Building which had photography or the Connecting Manchester which featured communication including printing, sound recording and telephones. It really is a huge museum and we could have done with a lot longer there but I think after a while, it all gets a bit samey so it's probably best to break it up over a couple of visits.
The Library
On Tuesday night, I booted up Pigwidgeon to see about going online but that was when we found out that the claim on the website that 'the apartment includes wireless internet' neglected to mention that it had to be paid for. And quite extortionate prices too: £2 for 15 minutes, £5 for a hour, £10 for 24 hours and £30 for a week. We were both really annoyed by that because the reason we'd picked this B&B was because it included internet access and a washing machine. If we'd known we had to pay extra, we'd have gone somewhere else. Really not impressed at all. It then meant that we had to find things to do in the evenings with not having internet to entertain us. I was a little concerned about what I'd do for work, especially as at the moment, I'm working on getting the website up and running. I could still write code and do all the layouts offline if necessary, I'd just have to check my work e-mail at the library instead. We had a quiet day on Sunday because Michael had walked his little legs off round Manchester the day before so I did some work then. It was a bit tricky because it's hard to do a webpage without seeing how it's going to look when it's uploaded, but I just had to do what I could with the intention of tweaking it as necessary once I was back at home.
Michael was getting a bit desperate to get online because as well as checking his e-mail, he also wanted to let people know that he'd arrived here safely. The tourist information provided in the apartment included a leaflet giving the opening times of the Bolton area libraries and as there was one in the town centre, we went down on Thursday to see if they had internet access we could use. The woman on the desk didn't seem too sure at first because we weren't members but I said that I had a Lancashire library card and that seemed to sway her, so she said she'd log us on as visitors. We only got an hour of time which was barely enough time to do anything. We both just managed to have a quick look over our e-mail and post to LJ about the lack of internet. Still it was enough to get basic stuff done and as it's open late on Tuesdays and Thursdays we could always go there one night if necessary.
One thing I was glad about is that I can access the internet on my phone, and thanks to being on 3, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than it would have been if I was still with O2. I've got an add-on which gives me 10MB of access a month for £2.50. The good thing is that some things are free, like the weather which has really come in handy. Certainly round here, the weather can determine what you do that day!
National Football Museum
I suggested going to the National Football Museum on Friday because it was a match-free day - as it's based at Preston North End's stadium, it closes early if there's a match on - plus I didn't think it would be too busy on a weekday as opposed to a weekend. We set off a bit later than I wanted because Michael had to do my shot (always such fun) and I had to refill the screen wash in my car, except that I had no screen wash because the damn bottle had leaked and it was completely empty. I had to just use plain water instead. At least Preston isn't that far away from Horwich, it's about half an hour away and a pretty straight run. It was amusing that as soon as we'd got out of the town centre, there was a big sign on the side of the road saying 'Welcome to Lancashire!' I told Michael that the amount of counties he'd visited in England had now risen to two. Such a jet-setter he is.
We got to the football grounds and took some photos of the nice statue of Tom Finney outside first, and then went inside. It's another free museum so we were doing really well on that front. It was also a lot busier than I expected for a Friday morning but it wasn't too bad. We took our time going round because there's quite a bit too see, and there's lots of videos and audio clips as well. There was a nice touch at one part of the museum where you go up these stairs and into a little sort of booth which seems to jut out over one corner of the actual pitch so you can see right into the stadium. They were getting ready for a match, I think there was one the next day, so one of the groundsmen was out mowing the grass which I don't imagine is something you'd normally get to see. At one point when we were looking round, a man came over to us and I couldn't help but notice the microphone he was carrying or the camera operator attached to it. I was a bit baffled, but then when he asked if he could get our opinions on the fact that Manchester City was going to be signing up some player called Kaka, I was not enlightened any further. We just had to say that we knew nothing about it and he went away. I know so little about it that I just had to Google for the team involved, although I did remember the name of the player for some strange reason. Can't think why.
It's quite a nice museum but I was certainly glad it was free because I don't think either of us are big enough football fans to pay £5+ to get in. One of the things I did like about it is that although it's at Preston North End, it's not at all biased to that team and doesn't really present any of the clubs as being better than the rest. I found that it got a bit boring towards the end though, I think there's really only so many pictures of football matches or pairs of boots that you can look at before your eyes start to glaze over. Or maybe that's just me because I'm not so mad keen on football as all that. Michael had wanted to see a match but the tickets were just too expensive; even at £25 each, it's a lot of money. It was a shame really because it's like coming here and eating fish and chips, it has to be done, but not at that price.
Manchester
It was a really nice sunny day on Saturday, so we thought we should make the most of it being such decent weather and do something outside. We decided that we'd just go into Manchester and have a look around. It might not have been a great idea what with it being Saturday, but pretty much anything would be busy on a Saturday with nice weather. We got the train in again, although this time the station car park was empty and I was able to park there! Quite surprising really, I was expecting it still to be quite full.
When we got into Manchester, we started off walking down Oxford Road and went past the BBC Manchester building. I happened to glance up at the entrance for some reason and saw through the glass the unmistakable shape of a blue Police phone box! I remembered that the BBC there had auctioned off a TARDIS for aid of Children In Need back in November and that it had been sat in the foyer until the person who won it moved it. I hadn't expected it still to be there, but it was! I asked Michael if he wanted to go in and see if we could take photos of it. We asked the man on Reception if it was okay, but he was a bit unsure and had to check with Security - there was a hatch behind him through which I could see at least 4 or 5 security people all hanging out doing not very much to be honest! One of the security blokes said that it was okay, so we both took photos of the TARDIS on its own and with the other posing in front of it. As we finished, the security bloke came over with something in his hand and said to me, "There you go, have a BBC lanyard each." I was most surprised! They have little clips on the end where an ID card would attach and it's fixed to the lanyard with one of those pully extension things (technical term). Very nifty. The Reception bloke also told us of the BBC tour which would show us the studios and also a Dalek for some reason. He gave us the phone number and we thanked him most profusely. I was really pleased we'd gone in, they were all so nice and friendly, and didn't think we were weird at all, and to get a BBC lanyard was quite unexpected!
Well, the rest of the day would have to work hard to top that. We wandered into the Village from there which was pretty dead and so just a collection of buildings and a canal really, but at least Michael could say he'd been there. We made our way up to Piccadilly Gardens and the Arndale Centre. I don't like the Arndale much, it's just too big for me and it's always really busy but it has its own little place in history so I felt like Michael should see it. We went onto the Printworks as well which is a collection of eateries really. There's also the big Odeon cinema in there and we had a look at that to see if there was anything of interest on. We actually found out that there was a showing of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas on Tuesday morning for only £3 so we earmarked that to do next week.
Michael wanted to get postcards and I thought that the Tourist Information Centre would have some good ones. Our train tickets enabled us to use the Metrolink for free so we got that down to St Peter's Square where the TIC was. Michael picked half a dozen postcards while I amused myself looking at other souvenirs and showing him ones I thought he should get. By now we'd seen pretty much everything we wanted to see, so we got the Metro back to Deansgate train station to get the train back to Horwich. When the train stopped at the platform, I was standing at the door so I could see the huge crush of people on the platform ready to get on the train. A bunch of young lads were stood right at the front and as soon as the doors opened, they were pushing their way on without letting anyone off first. It was chucking it down with rain so I thought it was just that they wanted to get in out of the wet. There was only me and Michael in that carriage who were getting off at this stop so I just had to go for it and try to push my way through the crush to get off. When I got on the platform, there were so many people all pushing their way onto the train as well that I couldn't stop moving or I'd have been swept back onto the train. I had to push my way through them too before I could turn back to check on Michael. He'd been able to follow in my wake thankfully, so we made our way to the exit which seemed to have disappeared and there was just a fence. I was a bit baffled but then a man asked, "Are you wanting to get out?" and when we said yes, he opened the gate in the fence for us to leave.
That was when we noticed the police. I'm not sure how we missed them really, there were so many all in their flourescent fluresant luminous yellow jackets. Some were on horses and others had dogs which just made me wonder what the hell we'd arrived into. When I noticed the crowd of people and looked up to see the Reebok stadium right in front of us, I realised that it was probably the aftermath of a football match and the police were making sure there wasn't any trouble. The only problem was that they'd rather blocked the road and I had to ask one of them if I'd be able to drive out. I managed to get out okay but due to the stupid one way system there, I couldn't drive straight out of the station onto the main road, I had to turn left and join the queue of traffic waiting to leave. Thankfully it didn't take as long to get through as I'd expected and we were back at the apartment by 6. Quite an eventful end to our day and I made a mental note to check for any future matches taking place at the Reebok so we didn't get caught up in it again!
Entertainments
Seeing as we couldn't spend our evenings online as we'd hoped, we had to find other ways to pass the long cold winter nights. There was a TV provided but it was one of those little television/video player combos and the screen was piddly small*. It did have Freeview which was better than being restricted to terrestrial but there was very little on even so. BBC 3 was repeating the last series of Doctor Who so we watched that on some nights. It was a good job that I had taken my PS2 because as well as being able to play games on it, we could watch DVDs too. I'd picked up a couple of videos and DVDs to watch in case of emergencies and it was handy that I did. I'd introduced Michael to the wonders of Red Dwarf on my visit at the end of 2007 so I'd picked up the second series to show him this visit. I'd also picked up the first series boxset of Jonathan Creek so we ended up watching that this week instead.
I happened to find that the top shelf of the wardrobe had a couple of old board games on it, so they came in quite handy. There was a rather posh version of Scrabble with a turny board so we played that on Thursday night. One of the good things about Scrabble is that it can be a long game, so it certainly took care of that night's entertainment. There was a tricky moment, when I wanted to play the word 'geiger' but Michael insisted it was a proper noun and therefore not allowed. We didn't have a dictionary to check and Wikipedia was not deigning itself to be accessed on my phone so I had to post to Twitter instead: 'I think that geiger is a valid word in Scrabble but Michael disagrees. Verification please!' Disappointingly I didn't get any responses - tsk to that - so I had to remove the word and play something else instead. It didn't matter anyway, because I still won. It was close though, the final score was 219-214. Still think it was a valid word though.
There was also an old Game of Knowledge as well, which is a game that I happen to have up in the attic somewhere from when I was younger. I've not played it for years, because it's aimed at younger peoples, but I suggested playing it for a laugh which was what it turned out to be. I think that was mostly down to some of the answers I was giving to the questions though. My response to 'What is the name for a female donkey?' was, "Mrs Donkey! Oh, no, that's only if she's married. A mare?" When Michael pointed out that was the name for a female horse, I said, "Oh right... A dare!" And to 'How many holes are played in a round of golf?' I replied, "All of them". I still say I was right on the last one though. You can't fault my logic!
So that was Michael's first week in England! There's still lots of places that I want to take him, there's really so much to do up here and we seem to be quite handily placed to access a good portion of the North West. The only downside so far has been the grossness of the contents of the kitchen, plus the complete lack of internet. It's certainly a good job I brought my PS2 and some DVDs with me. I'm hoping to introduce him to lots of local delicacies, but so far it's been Tetley tea, Heinz soups, Ginster pasties, Müller rice puddings and English Coke. I don't think he noticed any real difference between that and the US stuff though. The weather so far hasn't been too bad, it's only rained once and that was on the way home. It's just been cold and overcast mostly. Well, cold for the UK anyway, Michael seems to think it feels like spring in Boston, the jammy git. Anyway, stay tuned for week two of our adventures.
Lancashire to English dictionary:
* butties = sandwiches, or a packed lunch.
* piddly small = very very oh-so-incredibly small
Arrival
My alarm went off at 6 this morning to the sound of rain chucking it down outside. Typical weather really, but not quite what I wanted to drive in. I quickly got dressed and fed and everything, and then had a fun Krypton Factor style game where I had to try and fit everything in the boot of my car. I had my usual case, holdall and backpack, plus a bag with food in, a picnic set in another bag and my PS2 in a box with my games and the Guitar Hero guitar controller. There was no way it was all going to fit in the boot! I got everything in without too much trouble and there was still plenty of room for Michael's bags too. I had coffee in a thermal mug, got my iRiver all connected up, my phone in the hands-free kit and then I was ready to go.
It was 7.05am when I set off so only 5 minutes later than I'd intended. It was pitch dark - obviously, as it would be at 7am in January - but at least it had stopped raining. I got onto the M6 but there was quite a bit of traffic which I'd not expected; I thought it would be a bit too early for there too be too much traffic. It slowed me right down three or four times but not to a standstill, so I was at least still moving, if only slowly. I got to Manchester Airport with no major problems and found a spot in the car park right at the front so Arrivals was just over the road. Brilliant. It was 8.25am when I got there and Michael's plane was due to land about 8.15 but I reckoned by the time he'd got off the plane, gone through Customs and Immigration, and got his luggage, it would possibly be closer to 9. I checked the Arrivals screen anyway and saw that Michael's plane was showing as landed rather than arrived. People were coming through but I had no idea if they were off Michael's flight or not so I just picked a good spot to stand and wait. Then my phone starting to ring and it came up as a private number. I had a bit of a sinking feeling, and sure enough, when I answered it, a lady said, "Hello, I'm called from Immigration at Manchester Airport." I was really nervous, I didn't want to say anything that would result in Michael getting turned around and put on the next plane back to Boston. All I could do was answer the questions and hoped they matched up with what Michael said. Then I had a really nervewracking wait with no idea how I would find out if he wasn't being allowed in. It was maybe about five minutes later, I happened to look up at the Arrivals door and saw Michael walking through it. Relieved does not do justice to how I felt at that moment. We got his stuff in my car and then I drove us off to the studio apartment that we had booked in Horwich.
I needed to ring them to confirm what time we could check in but I was told that the current occupant had left late so we couldn't check in till about 12 or 12.30. I'd parked in the Middlebrook Retail Park to make the call so we ended up having two hours to waste there. Thankfully there was an Asda so we could at least get a few groceries while we were waiting. When we left for the B&B, I got a bit stuck trying to get out of Bolton and it ended up taking us an hour to find it. We finally got there, got all checked in and then brought our stuff in from the car. So finally, after 6 months (at least) of planning, Michael had arrived in England. Yay!
We put the kettle on straight away, and then unpacked the groceries we'd got and all our stuff. Michael was tired but wanted to stay awake till a reasonable bedtime to help counteract any jet lag. We had some dinner about half two and discovered that the pans looked like they'd not been cleaned properly from the last time they were used. They had to be washed scrubbed really thoroughly before we could use them, along with the dishes and spoons and cups. It was really gross and not at all what you want to be doing. After that, we had a quiet relaxing time for the rest of the day. The apartment had lots of maps and tourist information in, so we had a look at those and added a couple of things to our list of places to see. There was also a collection of Reader's Digest books so I made a start on a book and Michael played on my DS. Hardly a thrilling start to his visit, but he was so tired that there wasn't much else we could do!
Horwich
Tuesday was spent having a wander round the local area of Horwich to see what it had to offer. It's not an area I know at all, so it was just as new to me as it was to Michael so that was nice, that we were both discovering this particular town for the first time. Annoyingly, despite the multitude of maps and other tourist information that was provided, there didn't seem to be an map of the local area. That lead to more fun in the morning when we were trying to find our way back to the Middlebook Retail Park to go to Asda and do a proper grocery shop. The Reebok Stadium that is at the Retail Park is quite distinctive and can be seen for some distance so my method of finding it ended up being a sort of "well, there's the stadium over there and this road seems to go in the right direction, so let's go that way and see if we get to it." I finally worked out the route to it and found that it's actually only about a 15 minute drive away. It turned out to be a route that we got to know very well, not just because of the Asda being right there but that's also where Horwich Parkway train station is so we went there quite often.
That afternoon, I happened to find an Official Guide to Horwich in the apartment. It was hidden on a windowsill and turned out to have a map in it. Oy. So we decided to have a walk round the town centre and see what there was. The town centre turned out to be a lot bigger than I expected and have quite a decent range of shops. There seem to be quite a lot of eating establishments, and at least half a dozen pubs. There was also a Co-op, Somerfield and Aldi so we could get groceries from there if we needed to, rather than going all the way out to Asda. There was also a library which I thought might come in handy. Quite a nice town really and rather quiet, although it did have a very strange traffic light layout on the main road. The only downside was that it was just a wee bit on the bloody hilly side. It was only a ten minute walk down to the main road from the apartment so that was great. But it was a ten minute walk down a very very steep hill. And then on the way back our ten minute stroll down turned into a 20 minute hike up! Never having been to Horwich before I didn't realise it was quite so rural and hilly! It was lovely and scenic though. As we walked through the town centre, we could see Rivington Pike plus its tower and Winter Hill quite distinctly because we were that high up and that close to them.
MOSI
On Wednesday, I suggested going to the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester. Michael was agreeable to that so we went to Horwich Parkway railway station to get the train in. The car park and overflow car park there were crammed full so I had to go up to the Retail Park to park instead, and then walk back down to the train station. We got a return ticket to Manchester for only £3.20. Bargain price! MOSI was free to get in which is just the right kind of price, especially when the museum is so big and had so much to see. It's a collection of five separate buildings, so we went to the main building first and started with the Textiles exhibit. Part of it was about the cotton industry which was the major export in Lancashire for a long time and so it had quite a lot of machines from the old cotton mills. It was something I'd learnt about in my History classes at school, so I already knew quite a lot about it but I think it was interesting for Michael to see some of the history of the area. From there we went to the Manchester Scientists section which was quite an eye-opener; I had no idea that so many scientists had connections with the Manchester area or that so many important discoveries were realised there. We'd not brought any butties* with us so we had to have dinner in their café. That wasn't a great idea because they didn't have a great deal of choice and what they did have was very pricey.
After we'd eaten, we went to have a look at some of the other buildings. As we were leaving the main building, we were quite taken by surprise to see a very familiar object near the exit. A tall blue box - an old style Police phone box, to be exact. Yep, a TARDIS. It was a little baffling until I remembered that MOSI had had a Doctor Who exhibit in 2007 and it must have come from there. Anyway, we moved onto the 1830 Warehouse which had an exhibit on electricity that was reached by a side entrance according to the sign there. Perhaps it was because it was a little side entrance that no one else found it, or maybe because no one else is interested in electricity, but the entire section was empty. All four floors of it. It was so incredibly weird to be in a museum where was not another soul around, not even staff and it was so so quiet. We found the main entrance after that and saw the People's History section - a temporary exhibit from the People's History Museum which is being redeveloped. That was quite interesting. We got to make a little card box with a lid and also made badges too! There was a free badge maker at the end and so we just had to have a go. It took me ages to think of something to put on mine, but Michael made the best one. His said: I came to Manchester and all I got was this lousy badge. Classic.
From there, we went to the Underground Manchester section. I'm not sure what I expected it to be about, possibly tunnels or hidden things that had been found under the city. But no. It was about sewers and toilets. It was really quite bizarre, especially when it started off with a mock up of a graveyard with a funeral taking place. Kind of creepy really, especially as the exhibit was underground. We didn't get to see all of it because when it got to 4.45, we got escorted out because they were closing! I was sure the museum didn't close till 5, but maybe they wanted to get the place shut of everyone before then. Kind of amusing really, I don't think we've been to any science museum where we've not been asked to leave because they've wanted to close. To my disappointment we didn't get to see the Air & Space Hall which had planes, trains and automobiles but Michael wasn't really interested in that anyway, the Station Building which had photography or the Connecting Manchester which featured communication including printing, sound recording and telephones. It really is a huge museum and we could have done with a lot longer there but I think after a while, it all gets a bit samey so it's probably best to break it up over a couple of visits.
The Library
On Tuesday night, I booted up Pigwidgeon to see about going online but that was when we found out that the claim on the website that 'the apartment includes wireless internet' neglected to mention that it had to be paid for. And quite extortionate prices too: £2 for 15 minutes, £5 for a hour, £10 for 24 hours and £30 for a week. We were both really annoyed by that because the reason we'd picked this B&B was because it included internet access and a washing machine. If we'd known we had to pay extra, we'd have gone somewhere else. Really not impressed at all. It then meant that we had to find things to do in the evenings with not having internet to entertain us. I was a little concerned about what I'd do for work, especially as at the moment, I'm working on getting the website up and running. I could still write code and do all the layouts offline if necessary, I'd just have to check my work e-mail at the library instead. We had a quiet day on Sunday because Michael had walked his little legs off round Manchester the day before so I did some work then. It was a bit tricky because it's hard to do a webpage without seeing how it's going to look when it's uploaded, but I just had to do what I could with the intention of tweaking it as necessary once I was back at home.
Michael was getting a bit desperate to get online because as well as checking his e-mail, he also wanted to let people know that he'd arrived here safely. The tourist information provided in the apartment included a leaflet giving the opening times of the Bolton area libraries and as there was one in the town centre, we went down on Thursday to see if they had internet access we could use. The woman on the desk didn't seem too sure at first because we weren't members but I said that I had a Lancashire library card and that seemed to sway her, so she said she'd log us on as visitors. We only got an hour of time which was barely enough time to do anything. We both just managed to have a quick look over our e-mail and post to LJ about the lack of internet. Still it was enough to get basic stuff done and as it's open late on Tuesdays and Thursdays we could always go there one night if necessary.
One thing I was glad about is that I can access the internet on my phone, and thanks to being on 3, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than it would have been if I was still with O2. I've got an add-on which gives me 10MB of access a month for £2.50. The good thing is that some things are free, like the weather which has really come in handy. Certainly round here, the weather can determine what you do that day!
National Football Museum
I suggested going to the National Football Museum on Friday because it was a match-free day - as it's based at Preston North End's stadium, it closes early if there's a match on - plus I didn't think it would be too busy on a weekday as opposed to a weekend. We set off a bit later than I wanted because Michael had to do my shot (always such fun) and I had to refill the screen wash in my car, except that I had no screen wash because the damn bottle had leaked and it was completely empty. I had to just use plain water instead. At least Preston isn't that far away from Horwich, it's about half an hour away and a pretty straight run. It was amusing that as soon as we'd got out of the town centre, there was a big sign on the side of the road saying 'Welcome to Lancashire!' I told Michael that the amount of counties he'd visited in England had now risen to two. Such a jet-setter he is.
We got to the football grounds and took some photos of the nice statue of Tom Finney outside first, and then went inside. It's another free museum so we were doing really well on that front. It was also a lot busier than I expected for a Friday morning but it wasn't too bad. We took our time going round because there's quite a bit too see, and there's lots of videos and audio clips as well. There was a nice touch at one part of the museum where you go up these stairs and into a little sort of booth which seems to jut out over one corner of the actual pitch so you can see right into the stadium. They were getting ready for a match, I think there was one the next day, so one of the groundsmen was out mowing the grass which I don't imagine is something you'd normally get to see. At one point when we were looking round, a man came over to us and I couldn't help but notice the microphone he was carrying or the camera operator attached to it. I was a bit baffled, but then when he asked if he could get our opinions on the fact that Manchester City was going to be signing up some player called Kaka, I was not enlightened any further. We just had to say that we knew nothing about it and he went away. I know so little about it that I just had to Google for the team involved, although I did remember the name of the player for some strange reason. Can't think why.
It's quite a nice museum but I was certainly glad it was free because I don't think either of us are big enough football fans to pay £5+ to get in. One of the things I did like about it is that although it's at Preston North End, it's not at all biased to that team and doesn't really present any of the clubs as being better than the rest. I found that it got a bit boring towards the end though, I think there's really only so many pictures of football matches or pairs of boots that you can look at before your eyes start to glaze over. Or maybe that's just me because I'm not so mad keen on football as all that. Michael had wanted to see a match but the tickets were just too expensive; even at £25 each, it's a lot of money. It was a shame really because it's like coming here and eating fish and chips, it has to be done, but not at that price.
Manchester
It was a really nice sunny day on Saturday, so we thought we should make the most of it being such decent weather and do something outside. We decided that we'd just go into Manchester and have a look around. It might not have been a great idea what with it being Saturday, but pretty much anything would be busy on a Saturday with nice weather. We got the train in again, although this time the station car park was empty and I was able to park there! Quite surprising really, I was expecting it still to be quite full.
When we got into Manchester, we started off walking down Oxford Road and went past the BBC Manchester building. I happened to glance up at the entrance for some reason and saw through the glass the unmistakable shape of a blue Police phone box! I remembered that the BBC there had auctioned off a TARDIS for aid of Children In Need back in November and that it had been sat in the foyer until the person who won it moved it. I hadn't expected it still to be there, but it was! I asked Michael if he wanted to go in and see if we could take photos of it. We asked the man on Reception if it was okay, but he was a bit unsure and had to check with Security - there was a hatch behind him through which I could see at least 4 or 5 security people all hanging out doing not very much to be honest! One of the security blokes said that it was okay, so we both took photos of the TARDIS on its own and with the other posing in front of it. As we finished, the security bloke came over with something in his hand and said to me, "There you go, have a BBC lanyard each." I was most surprised! They have little clips on the end where an ID card would attach and it's fixed to the lanyard with one of those pully extension things (technical term). Very nifty. The Reception bloke also told us of the BBC tour which would show us the studios and also a Dalek for some reason. He gave us the phone number and we thanked him most profusely. I was really pleased we'd gone in, they were all so nice and friendly, and didn't think we were weird at all, and to get a BBC lanyard was quite unexpected!
Well, the rest of the day would have to work hard to top that. We wandered into the Village from there which was pretty dead and so just a collection of buildings and a canal really, but at least Michael could say he'd been there. We made our way up to Piccadilly Gardens and the Arndale Centre. I don't like the Arndale much, it's just too big for me and it's always really busy but it has its own little place in history so I felt like Michael should see it. We went onto the Printworks as well which is a collection of eateries really. There's also the big Odeon cinema in there and we had a look at that to see if there was anything of interest on. We actually found out that there was a showing of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas on Tuesday morning for only £3 so we earmarked that to do next week.
Michael wanted to get postcards and I thought that the Tourist Information Centre would have some good ones. Our train tickets enabled us to use the Metrolink for free so we got that down to St Peter's Square where the TIC was. Michael picked half a dozen postcards while I amused myself looking at other souvenirs and showing him ones I thought he should get. By now we'd seen pretty much everything we wanted to see, so we got the Metro back to Deansgate train station to get the train back to Horwich. When the train stopped at the platform, I was standing at the door so I could see the huge crush of people on the platform ready to get on the train. A bunch of young lads were stood right at the front and as soon as the doors opened, they were pushing their way on without letting anyone off first. It was chucking it down with rain so I thought it was just that they wanted to get in out of the wet. There was only me and Michael in that carriage who were getting off at this stop so I just had to go for it and try to push my way through the crush to get off. When I got on the platform, there were so many people all pushing their way onto the train as well that I couldn't stop moving or I'd have been swept back onto the train. I had to push my way through them too before I could turn back to check on Michael. He'd been able to follow in my wake thankfully, so we made our way to the exit which seemed to have disappeared and there was just a fence. I was a bit baffled but then a man asked, "Are you wanting to get out?" and when we said yes, he opened the gate in the fence for us to leave.
That was when we noticed the police. I'm not sure how we missed them really, there were so many all in their flourescent fluresant luminous yellow jackets. Some were on horses and others had dogs which just made me wonder what the hell we'd arrived into. When I noticed the crowd of people and looked up to see the Reebok stadium right in front of us, I realised that it was probably the aftermath of a football match and the police were making sure there wasn't any trouble. The only problem was that they'd rather blocked the road and I had to ask one of them if I'd be able to drive out. I managed to get out okay but due to the stupid one way system there, I couldn't drive straight out of the station onto the main road, I had to turn left and join the queue of traffic waiting to leave. Thankfully it didn't take as long to get through as I'd expected and we were back at the apartment by 6. Quite an eventful end to our day and I made a mental note to check for any future matches taking place at the Reebok so we didn't get caught up in it again!
Entertainments
Seeing as we couldn't spend our evenings online as we'd hoped, we had to find other ways to pass the long cold winter nights. There was a TV provided but it was one of those little television/video player combos and the screen was piddly small*. It did have Freeview which was better than being restricted to terrestrial but there was very little on even so. BBC 3 was repeating the last series of Doctor Who so we watched that on some nights. It was a good job that I had taken my PS2 because as well as being able to play games on it, we could watch DVDs too. I'd picked up a couple of videos and DVDs to watch in case of emergencies and it was handy that I did. I'd introduced Michael to the wonders of Red Dwarf on my visit at the end of 2007 so I'd picked up the second series to show him this visit. I'd also picked up the first series boxset of Jonathan Creek so we ended up watching that this week instead.
I happened to find that the top shelf of the wardrobe had a couple of old board games on it, so they came in quite handy. There was a rather posh version of Scrabble with a turny board so we played that on Thursday night. One of the good things about Scrabble is that it can be a long game, so it certainly took care of that night's entertainment. There was a tricky moment, when I wanted to play the word 'geiger' but Michael insisted it was a proper noun and therefore not allowed. We didn't have a dictionary to check and Wikipedia was not deigning itself to be accessed on my phone so I had to post to Twitter instead: 'I think that geiger is a valid word in Scrabble but Michael disagrees. Verification please!' Disappointingly I didn't get any responses - tsk to that - so I had to remove the word and play something else instead. It didn't matter anyway, because I still won. It was close though, the final score was 219-214. Still think it was a valid word though.
There was also an old Game of Knowledge as well, which is a game that I happen to have up in the attic somewhere from when I was younger. I've not played it for years, because it's aimed at younger peoples, but I suggested playing it for a laugh which was what it turned out to be. I think that was mostly down to some of the answers I was giving to the questions though. My response to 'What is the name for a female donkey?' was, "Mrs Donkey! Oh, no, that's only if she's married. A mare?" When Michael pointed out that was the name for a female horse, I said, "Oh right... A dare!" And to 'How many holes are played in a round of golf?' I replied, "All of them". I still say I was right on the last one though. You can't fault my logic!
So that was Michael's first week in England! There's still lots of places that I want to take him, there's really so much to do up here and we seem to be quite handily placed to access a good portion of the North West. The only downside so far has been the grossness of the contents of the kitchen, plus the complete lack of internet. It's certainly a good job I brought my PS2 and some DVDs with me. I'm hoping to introduce him to lots of local delicacies, but so far it's been Tetley tea, Heinz soups, Ginster pasties, Müller rice puddings and English Coke. I don't think he noticed any real difference between that and the US stuff though. The weather so far hasn't been too bad, it's only rained once and that was on the way home. It's just been cold and overcast mostly. Well, cold for the UK anyway, Michael seems to think it feels like spring in Boston, the jammy git. Anyway, stay tuned for week two of our adventures.
Lancashire to English dictionary:
* butties = sandwiches, or a packed lunch.
* piddly small = very very oh-so-incredibly small