Oh we had such a lovely time in Manchester. Turning up before our friends were home from work, we let ourselves in and it was just like arriving home. These guys are our ‘chosen family’ – the people we choose to be related to – and leaving them has been just as hard as leaving real blood relatives. Although the children and I have been home each summer, and been to Manchester, Husband hasn’t been home since Christmas 2005. (Our chosen family came to visit us in Thailand during Christmas 2006 – which was wonderful – but all eight of us getting together in England was long overdue.)
As well as spending time with our chosen family, we spent time with these boys:
As well as spending time with our chosen family, we spent time with these boys:
On Sunday we split up: HPoP took all the children swimming, The Archivist, Husband and I went to Manchester’s Whitworth Art Gallery to see Anne Desmet’s exhibition, Urban Evolution, which included print images based on the decline and regeneration of Manchester’s Victoria Baths which was the winner of the BBC’s Restoration series in 2003. We also saw ‘Neverland: Rediscovering Child Art?’ which showed child art alongside famous artists trying to capture the spontaneity, naïveté and vibrancy of children’s art. (I’m not sure that they did.) Both of these were brilliant, but I particularly loved Anne Desmet’s work, and really wanted to buy one of the prints, but made do with two postcards.
Resistant to admitting that our weekend was over, on Monday, we went for lunch to the most gorgeous café, Cup, which the Archivist, was encouraging me to go to two months ago when I was in Manchester; coo, I wish I had. Lots of tea sets and cups to ogle, not to mention t-shirts and funky posters (oh how I wish I’d bought a ‘Make Us A Brew’ poster…) I bought this rather wonderful tin of tea which I’ll use as a caddy when I get back home to Bangkok.
And I scored this present from HPoP even though it wasn’t my birthday or Christmas or anything... but just because she's lovely.
3 comments:
Love the orange mug (that's your favorite color, right?) and cute tea tin.
Chosen families are so wonderful. Glad you were able to spend time with them and that you're enjoying yourself.
Glad your having such a fab time!! Looking forward to catching up with you when your back :-)
C x
It is Angie - I'm so easily pleased. Thank you, yes, it was gorgeous to see them all.
C&C, Thanks hon - looking forward to getting back too.
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