May 1st brought a temporary change of transport for us as we swapped narrowboats for trains and headed into Manchester for a lovely day out exploring the city. Our first stop was the magnificent Manchester Cathedral, which dates back over 600 years and has stood through everything from medieval times to wartime bombing during World War II. Despite the hustle and bustle of the city outside, it still feels wonderfully peaceful inside and was fascinating to wander around.
From there we visited Chetham’s Library, founded in 1653 and proudly holding the title of the oldest free public library in the English-speaking world. The building itself is incredible, full of dark wood, ancient books and centuries of history. Fun fact — both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels studied there whilst developing many of their political ideas.
Next on the list was the Science and Industry Museum, which was packed with fascinating exhibits celebrating Manchester’s huge role in industry, science and innovation. We rounded the day off with lunch at The Wharf overlooking narrowboats — naturally! Some habits are hard to break.
After a few quieter days, we slowly cruised our way back to Poynton, where we are eagerly awaiting Helen and Jane’s arrival later in May.
May 7th saw me turn 61! After a lovely walk, the original birthday plan was to enjoy a Chinese takeaway — one of my absolute favourites and something we have not had since returning to the UK. Unfortunately, that did not quite go to plan, so instead we ended up at The Boars Head where we enjoyed a lovely meal and joined in with the pub quiz. Let’s just say we will not be appearing on any quiz shows anytime soon, but we did meet some wonderful locals along the way!
We somehow found ourselves back at the pub on Friday evening for live music from Northern Lights Acoustic Duo, a very talented duo playing all the classics. We also happened to meet Becky Holt — known as Britain’s most tattooed woman — who turns out to be a local!
Over the weekend, in honour of American Mother’s Day, the children asked Chris to take me to a local garden centre to choose some plants for the roof of the boat. We planted up three tubs: two filled with colourful flowers including poppies, pinks, sedum and gaillardia, and one dedicated to herbs. I am very much looking forward to having a little burst of colour and greenery on the roof throughout the summer.
The last couple of days have been much quieter thanks to some rather relentless rain, so I have decided to learn how to knit! Quite what I am actually creating remains to be seen, but it is certainly keeping me occupied and mostly out of mischief.
So now we hunker down and await Helen and Jane’s arrival — currently in torrential rain — and keep our fingers crossed that the weather improves for their visit!
And as always, don’t forget to check out the latest vlog to follow the journey — plenty more views, mishaps, and adventures to come!
https://www.youtube.com/@nbandaway
And the merch store!
And Away... 
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