Merry Xmas Everyone!


We wish all our family and great friends a Merry Manchester Xmas! We hope you all have a great holidays!!! Ho Ho Ho !

Uncle Ken

My Uncle Ken passed away, so we all headed over to Blackpool for the funeral. It was sad time, but at Uncle Ken's wishes he wanted a celebration of his life - so we all did our best and celebrated. He was an awesome man and quite a character. It's been many years since I've seen that side of the family, so it was nice to catch up and give my Auntie and cousins some big hugs.

Need For Speed - UK Xmas #1

Our game is the Xmas number #1 here in the UK games charts. It's been number #1 for 2 weeks running now. Brilliant!

The Potteries

We headed south to Stoke-on-Trent to check out The Potteries.. Wedgwood, Spode. Portmerrion etc.. My brother Grandmaster G. joined us for the adventure.

First port of call was Wedgewood. After a quick coffee pick me up, we headed on the factory tour which was ace! We got to check out the production line which featured robots! It was quite spooky to watch the robots in action. Later in the tour we watched painters creating the most intricate designs. These artist's create new designs or special one offs e.g. trophies. Afterwards we checked out all the factory stores.

Manchester Docklands

You might be thinking .. I thought Manchester was inland? - well it is! Back in the Victorian times all goods destined for Manchester were unloaded in Liverpool. The dock workers there went on strike a few many times for Manchester's liking so they created a massive ship canal all the way from the sea into Manchester, and cut Liverpool out of the picture - The Manchester Ship Canal

Whilst at the docklands aka Salford Quays, we visited the Lowry Centre which has a permenant exhibition of my fave Manchester Artist - Lowry. he was famous for painting industrial landscapes during the height of the industrial revolution...

We also checked out the Imperial War Museum which was fascinating....

In the evening we headed down into Rusholme, the home of Manchester's famous CURRY MILE. There's a MILE of Indian resaurants!! mmmm. It's been a while since we ate ethnic food so really enjoyed this meal. LOL!

M-VITA

It's all Manchester Vibes In The Area tonight. We've been out and about about with friends in town. M-VITA was a comical calling by a Manchester MC, back in the day .. circa 1989. Anyways, it's nice to be walking around the old town catching up with our friends here.

Here's a secret because I know M. won't be looking, I just booked us a room in this fab this old hotel for Xmas - The Palace Hotel. She's going to love it, it's amazing. We stayed here years ago, but somehow they've managed to improve on it.

I'm on a lads night out tonight, and swung by this place and sorted it out. I managed to talk the geezer at the front desk down - it's a go. .

Actually, I lived next door to this place for several years... 1989-1992.

Run To The Hills



We awoke on Saturday morning early, brewed a super strong pot of coffee and I passed M our list of things we wanted to do in England, and told her to take her pick. Shall we go to Edale? Yes, let's go there!

So off we went out of the house and headed off to Derbyshire to check out the Peak District and the start of the famous Pennine Way hike (which actually crosses Hadrians Wall) We took the train and ooh'ed and arrgh'ed at the lovely hills. We got of the train and walked around the country roads headed for the village. The light was fantastic, mix of sun and cloud casting large shadows onto the hillsides. We passed many RAMBLERS (the English equivelent of hikers).

We headed up into the hills ourselves and took a bunch of photos, saw a lot of sheep. When it started to get cold we headed down into the village for to a 17th Century pub for lunch and tasty pint of beer by the warm fire. Nice!

The Peak District is around 40 miles East of Manchester and is part of the Penines. Very large hills spanning the back bone of England. Named by the Romans after their very own Appenine Mountains than span Italys backbone! It's very wilderness like and untouched.

Working Class Hero

So it´s 25 years ago since Lennon was shot. I remember coming home from school for lunch and watching the news. I told my Mum to come listen, and she was really upset. Lennon was her favourite Beatle.

From being very young I´ve always loved the Beatles, and remember hearing Sgt Peppers at an early age. After a lifetime of listening to the Beatles and as I get older I´m always amazed by Lennons work, his creativity and power to communicate.

Back To Manchester

Tommorow we head back to the cold and hopefully not rainy Manchester. We´ve head a great time exploring and relaxing here in Majorca.

I Brake For Sheep


Yesterday we headed out to the market town of Sineau. Now, we´ve been to a bunch of markets over the years but this one was fantastic!! The town was super charming, with markets stalls winding around the narrow streets and spilling out in numerous town squares. Lots of leather, lots of clothes, lots of jewelry and (my fave) lots of food! We bought some nice cheese, tasty olives, fresh bread, a couple of monster sized lemons and mmmm .. chocolate. The vendors were very nice letting us sample the cheese, olives and smiled at us as I tried to convert my Manchester bus drivers accent into something sounding like Spànish! LOL! LOL! LOL!


Most unusually you could be live chickens, turkeys ... even Donkeys! LOL. All the local kids flocked around the famer-marketer chickens excitedly and giggled. It was funny.



After enjoying a delicious Nutella crepe we headed through the countryside to the beach to eat our lunch. Turning a bend we almost ran into a bunch of sheep. Rather than licking my lips and thinking mint sauce would be the perfect condiment... I hit the brakes, pipped my horn and yelled a bit... they all scampered back into the field.

In the afternoon we ate our lunch on the beach, damn tasty!

Porto-Christo


Today we headed south to Porto Chriso. We had a great day relaxing on the beach. The town was lovely. It´s situated around a natural habour formed by small cliffs. Today is a Spanish holiday celebrating the forming of the constitution. Later in the afternoon we had a little drive around the countryside checking out the lemon groves and little towns. Lovely.

My Dad

This picture was taken in Gibralter 1945, whilst serving in the 15th Scottish Lowland Division. He was stationed there with Cameronians (Scottish Regiment) to guard the Straights Of Gibralter. His regiment was there for around 14 months. He was about 20 years old. My mum says ¨..Now I why I fell for him - a handsome young lad in his kilt¨:) If you look closely you can see a couple of medal ribbons ... 1939-1945 star, France-Germany medal. Later he was awarded a couple more medals ... Defence Medal, Victory Medal.

Daytrip To Palma



We crossed over the island to Palma today. It took just over an hour. It was a gloriously sunny day in the 70´s. We arrived easily, and parked in the lot near the cathedral. We headed into the old town, meandering the narrow streets. We stopped and enjoyed a cappacino in one of the town squares, watched a xmas parade coming through. Lots of wacky Spaniards dressed up as xmas decorations and trees - very fun. We continued to mooch around the streets checking out all the fab architecture, stores, people walking around. Around lunch we found a place we like, in fact we ate there a few years ago!. We enjoyed a nice tapas lunch - Majorcan Olives, Brushetta with Cheese & Arugala and Pattas Bravas! (my fave!) and a glass of Estrella. After refreshment we enjoyed the old town some more, checked out the boutiques, basked in the sun and savoured the sights we head back. The sun was going down on the drive home, so we got to see a kool sunset.

Tonight, the hotel caberet is ELVIS. Not the young ELVIS, but big and fat ELVIS. This impersonator looks the part, let´s hope he sounds as authentic as he looks :).

Cala Figuera RoadTrip

Yesterday we looked through a catalogue of reviews written by guests of the hotel. One couple was raving about a town they described as the ¨Venice Of Majorca¨. Oooh! That sounds nice, so we checked out a few pictures in guides available at the stores. We were sold, so we headed down there today. Heading South, through the countryside marvelling at the lovely houses, gardens, lemons! and flora.

Cala Figure is lovely. It´s a fising village set on an inlet. The houses are built right upto the waters edge - Venician Style. We walked along a boardwalk taking in the sites, watched fishermen repair their nets. On the way back we stopped by a castle and munched on some nice lunch M. prepared. There was this old dude going bonkers at the drivers speeding through the streets - quite comical. Coming back we stopped at various towns and checked out some very nice shops selling awesome glass, tiles, furniture. All too tempting and no way to get them back! LOL.

RoadTripping Espaniol

Today we hired a car for several days. The car is a manual stick-shift, and it´s been around 15 years since I´ve driven one. After a few stalls, I was OK - just like riding a bike. For our 1st day we headed into the hills and checked out a few lovely little villages. One town .. Arte had a grand church with terratorial views of the valleys below. We passed gardens full of flowers! lemons & oranges. Last time I checked it was winter?? In the afternoon we took a drive down the coast to a massive park. It was full of pine, grasses and bushes which looked fab contrasting with lava rock and turquoise sea. Tommorow we´re heading out to Palma to check out the old town. We´ve been taking tons of pictures, which I´ll post when we get back to England. In the meantime I´ll have to link up images of find on the web.

We´re having a good time relaxing here in Majorca. It´s in the mid-60´s and there is a nice breeze coming from the ocean. The hotel is great, and we´ve been enjoying the nightly caberet. Next is flamenco dancing, half price bear night followed by some British 60´s disco. LOL! Sounds like a good night.

We´ve found a nice cafe beside the sea where we like to eat our lunches. There´s a couple of cats that come-by trying to get some free snacks. One is really funny which we´ve named Senoir Socks.