Weekend not in Manchester

Me and Reggie, March 2022

I'm going to assume that all the details are going to be needed for this post, seeing as I spent the weekend with Lola II and Mr M and they are sticklers for this sort of thing. And they took all the photos, and even gave me some notes to remind me. But I shall not yield to their pressure; some details are still too uninteresting to mention. Like the Cambozola cheese that Lola II bought in my honour. Cambozola is certainly my favourite cheese and I was very glad for it to have been bought, but this fact really has no inherent interest for any reader. 

The weekend was planned to be one of our classic weekends to mark Lola II's birthday, and we had decided to go to Manchester before we decided not to after all, and stayed in London. The first thing to admit is that I was late. There were several reasons, including badminton the night before making it more difficult to get out of bed early, the time it took to load up the car, the fact that someone had again obstructed my garage so I nearly couldn't get the car out, the local roadworks adding 10 minutes to every journey south, and the need to fill up with fuel. Considering all of this, an hour late wasn't too bad.

What it did mean was that I spent less time with Reggie in the park. Reggie is the dog that Lola II borrows, and is a bundle of energy who scavenges anything that he can get in his mouth - old Doritos, plum stones, face masks... He had a run around the park before I arrived but never sat still for a moment when he came back with us. Nevertheless, he's very cute.

After taking Reggie home we set off to our first assignment of the weekend, which was Pillars restaurant. This is a teaching location where the public can book for table service by college students studying catering, so there can be interesting situations, like the one Lola II and Mr M described where all the cutlery on the table was taken away after the starter, only to be brought back in time for the main course. The only unusual feature of our meals was when we were offered bread between the main course and the dessert, and Mr M even took some.

The starters were really outstanding (mine was watercress and mint soup) and I was optimistic for the rest of the meal, which unfortunately fell well below that standard. The vegetarian main course was spiced Quorn on herbed bulghar wheat with something else sauce (I forget what) and, although tasty, it had the appearance and consistency of school dinner slop. My pudding of rhubarb trifle was surprisingly flavourless. But thanks to Lola II and her allium intolerance we had a good time educating the students - teacher came over to help for that one. And the wine was very cheap.

We relaxed for the rest of that day before work began in earnest the next day. Two of the scheduled duties for the weekend were to tidy up Lola II's home office, and to sell or give away more accumulated possessions. The office was first, and I stood guard as Lola II sweated over paperwork and filing and deciding what to take back to the office at work. At one point I allowed her out into the exercise yard, but she made a break for it and tried to get Mr M to hide her. She claimed it was a conjugal visit but I hauled her back to the isolation wing pretty quickly.

Sister D came for lunch and stayed for the afternoon, when she helped enormously with the listing of my old possessions on Facebook marketplace while Lola II grappled with eBay. Unlike last time, I haven't had much interest in my goods, but Lola II has fared a great deal better with her childhood collection of erasers. Who knew a load of old rubbers would fetch more than £25?

Lola II cooked a delicious lunch in the kitchen wing of the prison, but we treated ourselves to a Thai delivery in the evening where I overdid the ordering of fried goods, given that I don't allow myself any at home. Next day started by me being put to work on replacing light bulbs, as Lola II isn't great with ladders and Mr M has struggled with the fittings in the past. I performed my God-like powers (Let There Be Light) despite one of the fittings showering me with small shards of black plastic.

Lola II managed to finish the tidy up of her office revealing the carpet below, which may be replaced some time soon. There were carpet samples to consider, and she and Mr M managed to reach agreement but may need more support and encouragement from the prison guards to see this through to completion.

We went out to the local pub at the end of the weekend, and were served by the most clueless barmaid I've met for a long time. Coming home, we somehow managed to be talking about different types of Irish cream, and Mr M revealed that he had three types in the cupboard - original Baileys as well as supermarket versions from Sainsburys and Aldi. So, of course, we had to perform a taste test. I guessed all three correctly, and preferred the Baileys, then Sainsburys, then Aldi. Which brought the weekend to a lovely fuzzy alcoholic end.