Manchester – Page 6 – Mick and Liesel's Antics

Northenden – day 0

We were looking forward to spending the first night in our lovely new home, but that will have to wait! Due to circumstances that may have once been in our control, we are spending the night elsewhere.

In fact, we are staying with Jenny and Liam tonight, in their lovely new home of a mere 18 days. At least they have furniture. And a bed.

It was, as expected, quite stressful watching and listening to two strange but strong, young men carrying all our worldly goods out of the house. Every crash, every ‘oof’ and we thought something was broken.

One heavy duffel bag, full of bed linen, caused one of the men to utter, “the mother-in-law’s in this one”!

The van was half full but the house didn’t seem to be any more empty: we were sure they’d have to get a second van. But no: two hours later and everything was in, even the bikes and other bits and pieces from the garage.

We set off for Manchester well before the 12 noon deadline. We hoped that completion would take place, as planned, but for a while there on the motorway, we were homeless and penniless!

Confirmation of completion of our sale soon came from our solicitor. And of our purchase a couple of hours later. Phew!

We picked up the keys to the flat and the wonderful estate agents gave as a goody bag of several umbrellas, which we won’t need much in Manchester, obvs, a few keyrings and a couple of hessian shopping bags. Will we be proudly using these props to advertise an estate agent one of whose staff told lies and was rude to us? Very unlikely.

The big disappointment was arriving at the flat to find that there was no furniture at all. We were expecting a bed, at least, plus some storage items, all detailed on the fixtures and fittings form. I think by this time, we were both so tired emotionally and physically that this felt like the worst possible anti-climax.

But in the bigger picture, we didn’t really want their old tat, we can get our own new tat. And at least, the whole selling and buying saga is now over for us. For now.

We came over to Jenny’s and spent some time with Martha and William, our lovely grandchildren. Martha seems to have settled into her new home very well. Tonight, she is very happily sleeping in her own brand new bed.

Oh and welcome to all new subscribers, you’re both very welcome! It’ll be more fun when we’re writing about our travels, it’s been a bit functional writing about the house-moving antics.

Boxes and Cows

Boxes, boxes, we’ve never seen so many boxes. The good news is, Jenny and family moved house today, after a long, long wait. Originally, they wanted to move before Martha was born. Martha celebrated her second birthday in April. But now, they are officially SK8ers.

One of the bedrooms was inaccessible in the end, it was so full of boxes. There was the danger of running out of cardboard cartons, so Liesel and I went to the removal firm to pick up 20 more, and most of them were filled in the end.

And then, Alan, Liam’s Dad, and I helped unload another twenty or thirty cartons from the attic, not forgetting several plastic crates. What a big loft: much bigger than ours.

It was a pleasure to be able to help out, and for Liesel and me, it was confirmation that we’d been right to get rid of so much ‘stuff’ over the last couple of years.

And that’s good because, as far as our move is concerned, all of a sudden, our buyer’s solicitor wants to exchange and complete on the same day. Our solicitor advised against that: we can’t be in a position where, on the day of a potential move, our buyer changes her mind.

But if they’re that keen to get a move-on at last, we’re not complaining. We’re still trying to find out when our vendors will be able to move to their new build house in Glossop. It looks like mid-June is now out of the question, sadly. But if we’d moved this week, we might not have been able to help our family with their move, so it’s all worked out quite well.

We took Martha to Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry again one day and it is always a joy to spend time with her. She’s too young to understand the science of course but she loves running around and pressing the buttons, turning wheels, pushing plungers to make bubbles in three liquids of differing viscosities.

We travelled by train and then bus: the free Metroshuttle service is fantastic. And if we’d got off at the correct stop, we wouldn’t have had to walk so far back to the museum! Martha was nicely worn out by the time we’d had lunch, so she missed out of most of the return journey.

We spent some time looking after 6-month old William too. He’s a great little character. Usually, Mick walks up and down with him and he goes to sleep. Usually, when he sits with Liesel, he regurgitates some of his food onto her. Well, this time, Mick bore the brunt of his expulsions. On the other hand, Liesel experienced a rare leaking nappy! All of which he will be reminded of when he turns 18.

For these busy few days, we stayed at another excellent Airbnb b&b: thanks to Iris and Dave for their hospitality, the breakfasts and the local recommendations which will come in handy when we finally move to the area. They are also keen cyclists and it was good to see the bikes stored inside the house, something we’ll have to think about when we no longer have a garage.

One day, I’ll have the camera ready to take a picture of the cows walking across a bridge over the M60. We’ve seen them a few times now, an arc en ciel, a monochrome rainbow, a long line of black and white cows walking in single file, presumably to be milked.

It’s always lovely to spend time with Jenny and Liam, of course, and with the grandchildren, but this week was quite hard work, and the drive home could not end soon enough. We were doing fine on the road until we joined the slow-moving traffic just before Hampton Court. But eventually: home, sweet home.

Liesel went out, with our friend Helen, to what might be her final WI meeting in Chessington. It was a wine tasting evening and when I collected them later in the evening, neither of them were too intoxicated.

What a good night’s sleep we both had, though. My dream was weird, I can’t remember all the details, but it involved a wall (not Pink Floyd’s), Bond girls, a sports car and a TV game show.

Another Museum and a Zoo

Liesel and Mick spent a lovely long weekend in the company of granddaughter Martha as she celebrated her second birthday. She, her Mummy, Daddy and baby brother William are also in the throes of moving house. No date for moving yet, but such is the uncertainty, we weren’t sure that Martha would be having her birthday at the proper time (but don’t tell her).

We grandparents took Martha to Chester Zoo one day which was good fun. No, we didn’t tick many animals off the mental list because most of them seemed to be taking shelter from the cold weather. It’s April, and it should be warming up a bit but the cold spell is going on a bit.

Puddle jumping

Penguin

The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester is probably too old for Martha, really, but there is an area where she can play with things: move magnets, turn whees, press buttons, interact with the exhibits. She can also hide in the lockers which may have been a highlight.

Back home, Martha was having fun chalking on her blackboard.

Oma, Liesel, drew this:

Oma fish

“What’s that, Martha?”

“A fishy!”

Rounds of applause.

Grandad, Mick, drew this:

Grandad fish

“What’s that, Martha?”

“Horsey!”

Howls of laughter, and a whip-round so Mick can go back to art school.