A lazy, lazy Saturday (Dec 6)

Saturday was my first day in perhaps two weeks to sleep in without the stress and anxiety of the move hanging over me.  My body still woke me up at 8:30 AM, but I stubbornly continued to lie in bed until 9:30 AM, just because I could.  It was wonderful to have a slow, relaxing morning.  By the time I had showered and dressed, it was 11:30 AM, and I had missed the hotel's breakfast offering downstairs.  The weather looked pleasant, so I decided it would be a good day to try to walk between Town Centre and my new house.

Here's what the weather was like on Saturday.  It was fairly sunny and clear, but cold and windy, too.  This is the view to the east from my 8th floor hotel room.  The white on the tops of the buildings is frost.  The gray building with the curved roof just to the right of center is the ice skating rink.  The development where my house is located is just beyond that.

This is view more to the north-east.  The triangular roofline on the left hand side of the photo is the historic Market House, originally built in the 1880s.

Since I had slept and lazed through breakfast, I needed a stop at Costa Coffee along the way.  Costa is kind of like Starbucks, but better.  You don't see many Starbucks around the north of England.  They seem to be few and far between.  I don't know if it's because Costa has competed better in the marketplace or not, but I suspect it might have more to do with Starbucks having been absolutely vilified in the British press for what they call 'tax dodging', which is all perfectly legal tax planning, but which nonetheless is viewed as evil by all the screaming socialists obsessed with getting their 'fair share' of other people's money.  I can say vilified with confidence, because aside from reading the bashing in the press, I've actually heard people bad-mouthing Starbucks while they're standing in line in Costa, "Well, I'd never get my coffee from Starbucks!"

I mention that mostly because there was a very interesting interview last week with George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, after his Autumn Statement, in which he talked about wanting to encourage business growth and manufacturing out of one side of his mouth whilst he talked about cracking down on tax avoidance out of the other.  Here's the rub, for those who haven't already figured it out - in a global economy, the two are mutually exclusive.

Anyways, I've already fallen in love with Costa, mostly because they have a Christmas special that is a STICKY TOFFEE LATTE.  Starbucks' peppermint mocha or gingerbread latte can kiss my a$$.  Sticky Toffee Latte wins every time.

The Costa is located on George Street, which is the pedestrian street at the heart of the Town Centre.  From there, I walked across the railroad tracks over to the side of town my house is on.  Along the way, I stopped to admire the new public transportation hub which just opened up on Sunday.  The new Altrincham Interchange looks magnificent.

At a leisurely pace with a coffee in my hand, the walk takes about 15-20 minutes.  I hung out with Mona Kitty for a bit, and I chatted with the contractor who was there working on some of the repairs and maintenance to the house.  Although I was dissatisfied with the condition of the place when I arrived, I'm satisfied that the Property Manager has been working diligently to make things right.

After my visit with Mona, I walked back to the Town Centre and up to the Market to see what it looked like on Saturday during the day.  It was just as packed as Friday night, but it was a more normal weekly market with fresh produce, fish, beef and common household goods for sale.  I still enjoyed seeing everyone out and about doing their shopping, but this was just the usual weekly shopping, not so much for Christmas presents.  I peeked inside the Market House, and seeing that it wasn't quite as busy as the previous night, I scored a seat and tried one of the BlackJack Brewery beers (very good).  

Then I noticed that the Reserve wine shop was giving free sherry tastings, so of course, I had to try that, too.  It was a bodega I'd never tried before, so that was fun, and I bought a bottle of their oloroso for later.

After a pint and some sherry, I was ready for an afternoon nap.  On the way back to the hotel, I cut through a little alley and spotted a specialty beer bottle shop.  I didn't make any purchases here, but I made note of it for later.

Finally, I paused briefly on the pedestrian bridge just to admire the bustle of everyday life on George Street.  :-)

I went ahead and took my nap, and I was having a difficult time convincing myself to get up, when the hotel's fire alarm went off.  That got me up in a hurry.  It turned out to be a false alarm, but we all had to evacuate anyways.  Standing outside in the winter air for 15 minutes will definitely wake you right up.  After we were allowed back inside, I had a cup of hot tea and did some personal work (bills, organizing, updating accounts, etc.).

I finally ventured back out for a late dinner at a burger bar I had seen earlier.  Burger bars seem to be a trendy thing in the Manchester area, and this place was obviously looking to cash in on the trend.  I had high hopes for a place called the "Urban Burger Bar"; however, I should know by now that I am always going to be underwhelmed by British beef.  The burger was OK, not great, and the service was wretched, so I won't be going back there anytime soon.  But that was the only tiny blemish in an otherwise perfect, perfectly lazy Saturday.