Liesel and Rosie went over to Levenshulme to visit an antique shop. If they bought anything here, it remains a secret and maybe a surprise for me… I stayed at home and caught up on some of the interminable to-do list. Just don’t ask me exactly what I achieved. Oh, and I don’t feel deprived on learning that they’d also made a pilgrimage to Ikea.
On TV, we started watching iZombie, which is quite funny but there are moments when you’re in danger of being like, totally grossed out, man.
After breakfast, Liesel drove us all to Salford, specifically to The Lowry. Rosie is a big fan of LS Lowry, and we all enjoyed the exhibition of his works.
One of his most famous paintings depicts men, and it is mostly men, on their way to a Saturday afternoon football game. The Lowry Art Gallery is very proud that Going to the Match is back in its natural habitat.
You can even watch video of the auction, which may or may not be as exciting as the football game itself was that day all those decades ago.
We wandered over towards Media City, via the Blue Peter Garden. Some people’s Blue Peter badges are embedded in the footpath, which made me wonder why my Blue Peter badge isn’t represented here. And, more to the point, where is it, exactly?
After sightseeing, we drove home towards an angry looking sky.
Somehow, the car took us to Costco, the one near the Trafford Centre. We bought a few items, and had a jolly nice walk up and down most of the aisles.
Despite the foreboding sky, there was no apocalyptic thunderstorm or anything, just fascinating coclours. Somebody up there was playing with a full palette.
Because Rosie had to go back to work, Liesel drove her back to the railway station really early on Monday morning, well before I woke up. I worked on the radio show and may have gone out for a walk.
It’s half-term this week, and we picked up Martha and William for a day out. Chester Zoo was very busy, because, as I said, it’s half-term. For the first time ever, we arrived before its 10.00 opening time. We had a lot of fun with the children, but we didn’t see many animals. I did go through the bat cave with William, but Liesel and Martha aren’t big fans of the ammoniacal aroma.
We were all extremely excited to see this digger. They’re not in danger of extinction or anything, but we’re looking forward to visiting the new savannah area in a couple of years time.
Although both William and Martha picked up a Science Journal to complete as we walked around, I don’t think we visited most of the sites listed. But that didn’t stop us from picking up stickers from the shop as we left. Yes, very cunning, telling us to pick up stickers from the shop, especially as we’d all agreed before leaving home that we wouldn’t be going the the shop today!
After our 11.00 lunch, they requested ice creams.
Well, both children were defeated and couldn’t finish their Mr Whippys. I’m sure their digestive systems were grateful.
I think they found the fish in the aquariums as interesting as the big animals, the rhinos, elephants and monkeys. And we didn’t go anywhere near the Sumatran tigers, so we didn’t see the newly born twin cubs.
Liesel had an appointment at 2pm, which curtailed our visit, but after dropping her off, I took the children to the playground in Wythenshawe Park. I thought they would have run out of energy by now, but no, they ran around and climbed and slided and shared roundabouts and swings with other little ones, fairly non-stop for over an hour. As a guardian it was a challenge to keep up, especially when they chose to run in opposite directions.
An unexpected bonus was that it was now quite warm, warm enough for us to take our coats off.
I took the tired children home, and I’m sure they devoured a huge pile of pancakes later on, hopefully the correct way, with lemon and sugar.
I joined a training session at Wythenshawe Radio while Liesel joined the now regular, longer, Thursday morning well-being walk. Once I’ve got to grips with the software, I hope to be able to broadcast my show live from home. If you were tuned in at 2am, early Friday, you would have heard me interrupting the non-stop overnight music.
Every six months or so, the car needs a jolly good scrub, so that’s what I took care of, after the Friday morning walk around Wythenshawe. No, I didn’t go out with a bucket of water and a sponge. I engaged a gang of young men at a local car wash emporium. It took over an hour from joining the queue to being able to drive out. Not because it was that dirty, although it was, but because the guys were doing a really thorough job of cleaning the inside of everyone’s vehicle.
Mick and Liesel's Antics 