Davenport Park Hotel Stockport

... we have had since we arrived. Lots of laughs and reduced to tears in the end. I think the 2 kids may have also enjoyed it.
The Villain from Coronation Street and the star, Aladdin, from Hollyoaks. A pleasure for the ladies in the audience.

Great night.

... are manageable from that respect. Form 1 (very enthusiastic students and they are an absolute scream; I really enjoy teaching them) Form 5, studying the development of the symphony and recording in the recording studio (amazing set up with full desk and pro tools), Lower 6th (perhaps my favourite group) and Upper 6th (a different challenge). A change in the dynamics of the classes is apparent when you have senior classes that are streamed in ...

... by 9.30 but about 9.50 I realised that I was stalling: the huge reality of the situation was causing me to shy away and dither rather than taking action - it was probably behind my stomach cramps too. :-)

This was not really a surprise - the North Staffs (and South Cheshire) region has been my primary area of residence for 10 of the last 12 years, and is the only place I have lived where ...

How could anything be worse than the Ball Breaker? How? And yet it was. Damn the kilometres of bog, damn the no bacon butty truck on the highway, damn the twisty part where you go around curve after curve after curve and don’t see anything ahead of you but CURVE. Then damn the “ ...

... back for me while I got something out of my pack, he didn’t, and the sheep almost got me.

See that Campsite?

After almost finishing the part of the Pennine that I call “The Ball Breaker” Ryan points down the mountain to a little campsite in the distance. It was far away but hope sprang back into my heart until he said, “See that campsite? Our campsite is only 2km from there.” YEARGH!!!

Today, for the first time, I saw what it will all look like on the road - and now you can too. The pictures attached show everything that is to be taken (excluding what is kept on my person) in a loaded state.

As you can see I have eventually opted for panniers to drop the weight and it improves handling dramatically ...

Well, my little adventure begins here, in Stoke-on-Trent!

I found out about going to Denmark in September, and since then I've been planning how to get there. At first I look at getting the plane straight to Copenhagen, but that's a far too mediocre start. Instead, I'm travelling (with my Mum and Brother) via train on the following route -

1st Class train from Stoke-on-Trent to London
1 Night in a London Hostel
Eurostar to Cologne via Brussels
1 Night ...

We packed our bags this morning as we are on the move again and booked on a 10 pm flight to Dublin. We then went for a visit at Robert's Uncle Barry's and Aunty Mary's house where we had a lovely lunch with them both and Robert's cousin Pam, husband Ian and 12 y.o. son Lawrence. It was great to spend time with them all but it was all to short as we had to head back to pick up Tony and go to the ...

... We were given instructions to be back home for dinner at 3 pm and had a delicious christmas dinner of home baked turkey, ham, potatoes and other yummy vegis and pudding accompanied by many glasses of wine and beer. After dinner we had a good laugh playing a charades and telling stories. A lovely Christmas day.

... I did what I hoped I wouldn't have to do, and wake up Helen to get a ride to the bus stop. She was less than pleased, but a trooper nonetheless, and got me to the bus station just in time to watch the bus for which I held a non-amenable, non-refundable ticket pull away. Fortunately, the bus 40 minutes later didn't charge me extra (or fully) and I still had enough time to make my transfer in London. I got to the MegaBus station where I was told less than politely by ...