Sunday morning sans Sunday Service. Switched it off without bothering to see how it sounded. Up earlier than might be considered normal on the Sabbath but we have things to do and places to go.
Our journey across the Pennines takes in Sheffield where we change trains. I quite like the bit between Sheffield and the outskirts of Manchester. V pictureskew. The bit from Lincoln to Sheffield is boring and suburban Manchester itself quite unattractive.
Fortunately our hotel in Manchester Piccadilly is nobbut a short stroll from the station and a ten minute cab ride from the Coop Live Arena. As “commercial” hotels go, the Piccadilly Doubletree ain’t too bad. It has a handy enough bar and the breakfast is not as ordinary as some. I am fussy about hotel breakfasts. The Soho Hotel last week was top notch.
This will be my last time in a Hilton as a HHonors Diamond member. Another era come to a close. There have been a string of these era closures, my slide from gold to silver to bronze with BA being a notable one and the expiry of my US Global Entry status. Sokay. I have no plans to enter the USA again and have an emerging preference for ground transportation. I wouldn’t even think about a USA trip without Global Entry. It is a game changer.
Really could do with a few early nights following four big nights out on the trot. Snorrapnin today as we have tickets to see Macca and are unlikely to get back to the hotel before midnight. There’s always next Tuesday.
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Not v comfortable the seats on this trane. A big sign opposite the platform says KEEP OFF THE TRACK. There is a penalty of £1,000 if you don’t comply with their wishes which have, as you can see, been expressed in no uncertain terms. The seats don’t recline and there is no table for me to rest my laptop. The laptop is therefore sat on my red bag on my knees which in itself is not that comfy. Hey…
My phone has lots of Paul McCartney and Beatles songs downloaded to keep me entertained on the journey. Ready for when THG and I have exhausted our conversation. This may never occur. I can always listen to them another time. I am a big fan. THG is an all.
We are on the 11.14 originating at Lincoln Central bound for Huddersfield via Sheffield. The Liverpudlian across the aisle has cracked open a Carlsberg just peeled from a four pack. The other three cans have been replaced in a Coop carrier bag alongside his other supplies intended to make the journey more bearable. I saw a bit of cake in there. Crisps. Our provisions are some home made cheese and pickle sandwiches and a bottle of water. Simple folk really.
For clarification, the cheese isn’t home made. The pickle is and the sandwiches were assembled at home by THG herself. I’ve never made cheese although in the course of my life I have made bread, plum chutney (the pickle) and, when I was at infant school in Dolgellau, butter.
That was almost before time began, in the days when we lived near the centre of the village. Mam and I would nip to the shop and buy a packet of crisps and a plastic cup full of lemonade. At home I would stir the milky coffee on the stovetop until it just boiled. Can’t imagine a four year old being given coffee nowadays.
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Worra mare. The trains from Sheffield to Manchester. We were supposedly on the 12.41 but the one before that had been cancelled so there were two very busy trains worth of people trying to squeeze onto the one. Wasntapnin. Our ticket was valid for the next train so we retreated to the waiting room to catch the 13.11.
It was clear that the next train too was going to be rammed. Christmas shoppers, Manchester Derby and Paul McCartney gig boppers creating the perfect storm. Being a Liverpudlian THG has a certain attitude towards Manchester anyway and the train service certainly doesn’t help. Certainly not on this occasion.
Tref the experienced traveller instinct kicked in so I figured I’d buy a couple of first class tix for the journey to Manchester. Tref the inexperienced trainline app user accidentally bought two more full fare standard class tix and couldn’t work out how to change. Doh.
I figured I’d get the onboard manager to sort so when the train arrived we hopped on and dived into the first class section. That too was rammed and fully booked although not all the seats were taken. It might perhaps explain why I ended up with standard class tix. We just sat in two of them on the basis we would sort (negotiate 🙂) if the owners came along. They didn’t. What’s more neither did the guard so when leaving the station we just used our original tickets to get past the barriers and I got a refund for the unused full fare standard class. There is a god.
We are now settled into our nice enough large corner room on the fifth floor of the Doubletree sipping a cup of tea and recovering.
Our Joe is a couple of hours behind us coming up from Laandan so we are chillin in the room awaiting his arrival. We have his room key. We also have some free drinks vouchers which we must surely spend on beer before the afternoon turns into evening and we head to the Coop Live Arena.
The only other negative about our eventual arrival is that we have chosen to stay on the day they finally decided to fix the lift (elevator to readers across the pond) once and for all. No idea what the problem was. Intermittent I think. Fear not, we were shown to the service lift and used that. This included a backroom tour of the never normally seen bits of the hotel.