50th in Manchester

Saturday morning Tom had football training in Ingleton, he then had a shower, packed his back and we took him over to Settle, where he was staying with Grannie and Grandpa for the night.  Why?  Well, Adam was having his 50th birthday party (yes - it has started to happen, our friends are turning 50!).  It was being held in a pub and was strictly adults only (even though he has two young daughters!)  Oh well, great excuse for us to have a weekend away.

Tom was having lunch with Grannie and Grandpa, so we dropped him off and then headed down towards Manchester in the rain - yes it was grey and gloomy and rainy again!  We stopped off at the Moor Cock Inn in Blacko which we have been meaning to go to for a long time.  Very good it was too, certainly better food than at Booths in Barrowford which is where we would normally stop on that route.  Lots of very interesting menu items - both as lite bites and main courses.

We then headed into the gloom and to Manchester.  We had booked a Premier Inn in Salford, not far from the pub where the party was being held, it was surprisingly quiet despite being right in the centre of town which was good.  We headed out into the city to do some shopping, didn't do very well, and were astounded by the number of homeless people around, I ended up giving a gift voucher I had to one of them as it was so cold, I couldn't imagine sleeping rough in that weather.  I just hope the shop would allow him in to spend it.

The MYT Xmas party

As usually happens, Matt and I got quickly bored shopping so decided to go to a pub instead.  An app suggested somewhere nearby so we went along and were pleasantly surprised to find a fantastic pub in what looked like a very dodgy street.  We got ourselves some craft beer and a table and spent a very pleasant hour drinking.  We then looked at the menu and decided to stay for tea.  We were going to go to Bundobust, but the food here looked amazing and we have been to Bundobust before.  We both opted for spit roast suckling pig.  I had it with salad and Matt had it with chips and gravy.  It was amazing, perfect beer food too.  Think we will be back.  This doubled up as Matt's Christmas works party as we didn't get round to doing anything before Christmas.  It was a good choice.  We returned to the hotel quite merry and with very happy tummies.

We quickly got dressed and headed out to the pub.  It was an interesting pub...with interesting clientele.  We could see immediately why it was no children.  Whilst ordering our first drinks, the staff were dealing with someone who had crashed to the floor in an inebriated pile and was bleeding from his head.  I think we have become quite snobby when it comes to pubs as both of us struggled to find anything we liked to drink.  I went for G and T to start with - was given a half pint glass with some Gordon's and tonic in it - filled to the top, warm with no lemon.  I guess the craft gin revolution hasn't made it to inner Salford!  It was horrible.  I then tried the warm white wine which made my hair stand on end.  In the end I settled on bottled lager - but that was pretty terrible too - in fact both of us sobered up during the party as the drink was so bad.

However, the party was OK, we didn't know many people, but got to make some acquaintances and heard lots of good stories about Adam.  We got back to the hotel around 12.30 and had a good night's sleep.  We were at the end of a corridor and didn't hear anyone, in fact it was so quiet that we didn't wake up until 9.40am - a record for us.

We decided to head out to Spinningfield for breakfast and found a great looking bagel shop, Beastro.  Matt had an eggy bread cheese and bacon toastie which he said was amazing, whilst I had a bagel with pesto, rocket, avocado, chilli and poached eggs which was indescribably yummy (in fact I have made it to eat myself at home at least 4 times now it was soooooo good!).  We then went for a quick look around the People's History Museum which was really good - would like to go back there by myself one day to have a proper look round as I love social history and would love to know more, especially with a Northern bent as I am a 'surrogate' Northerner now.

We then headed back to the car and to Settle to pick up Tom who was not delighted to see us - he was having fun at G and Gs watching the snooker and was not pleased to be disturbed.  Ho hum, it is good that he likes being away from us, but would be nice to get a welcome too.

We had a quiet rest of the day and most likely a cupboard tea.