A brief trip back to Blighty

  Manchester, England, United Kingdom Thursday, July 23, 2015

Although we had not planned to return to England at all during our trip, the timing of a few events meant that a return now was inevitable and so we found ourselves back in sunny England. We know it was sunny because we took the sun back there with us and you all thanked us for it...! We stayed with Jody's mum for a few days whilst we caught up with friends in the Wiltshire area and Bryan attended some business meetings. We spent a lovely day in Bath and another day in Bristol during which Bryan visited the PADI offices To his surprise the Project AWARE team welcomed him and presented him with a Certificate for supporting them during his swim around Koh Tao which was really nice and unexpected. Then it was time to head up the M5 & M6 to Manchester. We even managed to squeeze a long over-due catch up with Jody's cousin Steve whom she hasn't seen for 15 years. Gosh doesn't time fly. If you are wondering why Manchester, two reasons... 1) we have a house there which we rent out to students which would be empty now the academic year had finished 2) Bryan's daughter's graduation day. You may remember Beckie; it had been Bryan's birthday gift to her to take her to Sri Lanka with us for a month in the summer break from university last year. Her boyfriend Josh came out too. Because the house was empty, and since we needed somewhere to stay, it made perfect sense to head there and spend some time in our house and do some repairs, freshening up ready for the new students who will be living there for the next year from September. We spent the first week slogging away on the house. We completely re-papered one bedroom, repainted 3 others plus the lounge and the kitchen, repaired windows, hung curtains, scrubbed floors, replaced the boiler and the oven, cleared the rubbish left behind, tidied the garden and all in all gave it a thorough going over. We were knackered! Bryan even managed a couple of swims in the Albert Docks in Salford Quays to help him prepare for his big swim coming up in New York. Getting in the water for the first time was a bit of a shock to him too as the last time he swam out doors the water was 30 degrees - definitely a lot colder in Manchester. One evening we went to the university as they were recording a radio show for the BBC. It was written and presented by three graduates of the university who had named themselves "Gien's Family Gift-shop". Strange name but they were very funny. They are going on to do some shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival over the summer so we hope they do well. Shortly afterwards Bryan's parents and his son & family from Korea turned up to stay with us and there was no time to rest. Luckily the house was all ready and spotlessly clean for them which meant they could all stay with us and no-one had to pay for hotels whilst they were here either. The day after the graduation ceremony we headed back down the M6 to Swindon in time for Jody's mum's birthday. Her cousin Rhonda and Auntie Jan & Uncle Bill had also made the trek from Wales for the birthday party. There were one or two who couldn't make it which was a real shame but we managed to drink their share of the bubbly too :-) We hope it's not too long before we get to see them. We had a really lovely few days with them all. We went out for a meal with the Birthday Girl to celebrate but mostly we just stayed together and nattered. It's great when everyone gets together; it's always quite mad we just pick up where we all left off and we don't stop talking! Well our time here was brief but we crammed a lot in and managed to see most of our friends and family. Thank you to everyone who made the effort to come and see us and put us up and who all helped make it so memorable. Hopefully a few of you will be able to make it out to meet up with us somewhere in South America. And some of you just stay right where you are because ... WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU You know who you are...!   [gallery columns="4" ids="7628,7644,7677,7687,7697,7714,7724,7738,7743,7759,7770,7776,7783,7794,7797,7799,7803,7805,7806,7808,7809,7810,7812,7813,7815,7818,7820,7823,7826,7827,7828,7830,7832,7834,7836,7838,7840,7842,7844,7845,7846,7847"]