Hello, at last!

Sorry for the delay in posting but went to Manchester, straight from there went in to my medical study and straight after that back to work so its been manic, so where do i start.

So 2 weeks ago went on the 3rd part of the Oceanic tour, this time to sunny Manchester. Well thats not exactly true. As we set off on the Friday it was a lovely sunny midday with clear blue sky, we decided to take the route that Eddie Izzard took when he ran the welsh leg of his amazing marathon run so we didn't hit any motorway until we got to Chester and as soon as we hit the M53 i turned to Helen and said "You can tell we're in England, the skies went grey and the landscape is as flat as an ironing board".

We got to our hotel friday evening and it was great, when i say great the bar was good but the hotel wasn't as good as the last few Inn Keepers lodges we've stayed at, the stairway up to the first floor smelt like it had been damp since the dawn of man, the room looked like it was a converted from a broom cupboard, to help us sleep we had loud hmm of the kitchens extractor fans and to top it all off i don't think the cleaner knew how to use a Vaccum cleaner but on a plus point the free biscuits in the room taste sooooo good! No time to chill out as we we're changed out to the 40th birthday party of our very very good friend Steve of Steve and Joanne and what a great night it was met up with some good friends Sam & Caz, Jeanette & Nigel, Emma & Karl and Shirley and Andy. Steve at his house had said he had set me up to sing so i took it as a joke, nope, no joke he had but to calm my nerves Helen sang first and i have to say it was 100% better than her car singing LOL. I sang The Darkness "I believe in a thing called love" and The Killers "Mr. Brightside", i apologies to any fans of those bands who were at the party. The time flew and before we knew it the party was over, BUGGER! Time for bed said Zebadee!
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Saturday, Day 2 and it was off to Bolton City Centre and the Trafford Centre for some retail therapy, good job for my credit card Helen had a hang over. Bolton City Centre i really liked especially the indoor market, the fish stalls amazed me and have now made me start eating more fish also i saw a live crab who was in shock but mouth was still moving, a bit like me when i have to buy a round of drinks. For me the Trafford Centre was nothing special, a shopping centre is a shopping centre only this one was more expensive. The best thing about it though and i mean it was amazing was its food hall that is like the Titanic, no i don't mean sunk and full of fish i mean it was set up like a cruise liner with a pool, WOW amazing! The highlight of the whole day was they had my favourite shop there "Krispy Kreme Doughnuts" mmmmmmmmmmm, sugaralicious! (Can you see a them that runs through my posts, FOOD!) At the Centre we met Jane & Elise for a coffee and Helen had a good old natter while i'll popped off to be an easter bunny and get Elise an easter egg, what a big softy i am. Lovely to meet them both but time was getting on and we had to go shopping for some snacks and get ready for the evening. In the evening met up with Joanne & Steve, Caz & Sam and Jeanette & Nigel for few drinks, had a fun night even though a few people were nursing bad heads, i wonder why? Again before we knew it time had caught up with us and we were the last people left in the bar, it was great to see them all for 2 nights had a really good laugh.
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Sunday, Day 3 and its off to Bury and Bolton. First to Bury, only the shopping centre was open market was closed as it was Sunday, didn't pick up any black pudding, that was it for Bury, not much going on there, Sorry. So we then traveled to Bolton to the Reebok Centre where we met Diane & Mary, twin sisters and good friends of Helens and what good friends they are, lovely ladies with a Peter Kay accent. Decided to take a look at where Bolton play and have to say its a great stadium and it was nice to be there when it was empty, stadiums have a really good spiritual feeling when empty, difficult to explain but its a strange and nice feeling. Time for food so we popped to see Jane & Elise again along with Janes husband Andrew, now i'm not in to road bikes but Andrew has a bike that blew me away, it was the best looking bike (other than an Orange County Chopper or Harley Davidson) i had ever seen and if i had it i wouldn't take it out of the garage. After a quick cuppa with them we went on to an Italian restaurant called "La Roma" in Stoneclough where the food and decor was MAGNIFICO! Back to the hotel to collapse with a full belly and to chill out after our busy weekend. When Bagpuss goes to sleep, so does Kevlar.
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Monday, Day 4 and time to go home, it was a briliant weekend, we visited great places, had great weather but most of all met people who are genuinely good honest people who are friendly and funny. On the way home we visited Bethlehem, now you thought it was in Nazareth but in fact its in Wales, so Jesus was born in Wales, thats why Wales is known as "GODS COUNTRY" and after driving through Wales without using a single motorway i can see why its called that, Beautiful and proud to be Welsh.

I have to sum up my weekend now as this post is going on and on, so as Tony the Tiger would say "It was GGGRRRREAT!".

Next post will be the "Oceanic Awards" sorry about the delay once again.