| Day 2 - Friday. Manchester for Amy’s 5th birthday
2022-10-14 - Newton-Le-Willows
As previously mentioned, I was just about up to say goodbye to
Alma and Leon at 8:30. Showered, had breakfast, Richard took me
for a ride in his absolutely brand new Kia EV6, which was very
nice. The layout reminded me of an Austin Maxi: wheels far out
at the corners, big back seat and boot.
Train to Warrington. 10:09 from Tonbridge to London Bridge,
Northern Line to Euston, Avanti west coast to WBQ. Except that
my Avanti train had been removed from the timetable. Instead of
an 11:30 first stop WBQ, there was an 11:10 with additional stop
at Crewe, but arriving WBQ same time. 🙄. I had just enough
leeway to make that train. I ran through Euston and had enough
time to jog mid-way up the train.
Eventually found a seat at a table with, what I surmised was a
Glaswegian (saw a message thread on her phone to the Glasgow
Girls Group, didn’t see any messages I’m not a monster)
named Fiona (engraved on her AirPods case), and a couple of guys
who were hungover, had recently come into a lot of money (one
had just paid off his mortgage), and liked fancy cars (talk of
Porsche Taycans) and road bikes (talk of Hard-Knock pass, and
Colnago C68s with Titanium lugs, Super Record and Bora wheels
on order). I stayed quiet for some reason. (The bike convo only
came up on approach to WBQ.)
Dad collected me from the station, met mum at home, ate a large
lunch because I hadn’t eaten on the train. Baxter’s scotch
broth soup, oven par baked ciabatta, blue cheese, coffee.
Was lovely being home just the 3 of us. Felt normal, comfortable.
Walked with Mum to collect Amy from school on her birthday. We
dropped off gifts at Kat’s, briefly said hi. I had heard that
Amy was excited about time collecting her, but she was quiet
and shy. I think she was a little bit under-the-weather.
Went back to 93 w/ Amy. Quiet afternoon, Amy made things with
pipe cleaners. Then went back to Kat’s for Amy’s birthday
part 1, which involved a chippy tea, and opening family presents.
Elliot liked Amy’s dressing gown
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