Well the sad day has finally arrived after a wonderful week with our beautiful daughter and her newly adopted home.
The day started with a final coffee with our hostess Isabel. We’ve done so well to find such a great place to stay and with a wonderful hostess as well. Staying out way from Manchester central was no burden at all and we’d happily do it again. In fact, Isabel has invited us back again when we visit next year. Generously, she loaded our us and our two backpacks into her car and gave a lift to the Brooklands tram stop. We said our final goodbyes and wished each other well (Isabel has an operation on Monday) and jumped on the tram to Trafford Bar and then to Chorlton. At Emily’s I hung a picture in her room with some picture hanging hardware I bought the other day while Kerry fixed a loose button on Emily’s coat.
Out train back to London was booked for 3:15pm from Manchester Piccadilly which was still a couple of hours away but I was getting nervous as I’d not booked any seats (‘cos I couldn’t) and Kerry wanted to get a couple more Manchester souvenirs before we left. We arrived at St. Peter’s Square with Manchester putting on her finest display…. of rain! The 15 minute hike to the Manchester Shop seemed to take an eternity in the rain but the girls were quick in the store and we arrived at Manchester Piccadilly with an hour to kill. What was I worried about! We killed the time by getting reserved seats the girl insisted I didn’t need and then a coffee. Emily escorted us to our carriage and after plenty of big, big hugs and kisses and a few tears we jumped on the train and it pulled away. It was so good to see her in her new world and to see that she was happy with her job, her house-mates, her growing list of friends and her new town. That’ll help us cope with being so far away for such a long time. Roll on 2025!
Our train arrived at London Euston on time and, like locals, we took the secret back way to North Gower St again. We ended up in exactly same room as last time. What are the chances! For dinner we walked 20m to the Crown and Anchor on the corner of North Gower St and Drummond St for a Guinness and a steak pie with mash. Along Drummond St at a convenience store we bought some travelling supplies for tomorrow and enjoyed an ice cream while we strolled down Euston Rd. We did the final re-arrangement of our cases and back-packs and hit the sack.
So sad to say goodbye for now to Emily, but comforting for you both to have been able to spend time with her. Thank goodness for Face Time and WhatsApp!
ReplyDeleteThe time will fly and you’ll see Em again soon.
ReplyDeleteI hope that picture you put up for her is of the Blue Boys!!😁