Day 10 Manchester

21 months 18days

We woke at what is, for Katie, a reasonable time. What for our host was antisocial. But she was beautifully hospitable and I think enjoyed the Katie time. It gave us time for playing "hunt the fish" in the now darkened fish tank, "chat on the phone" (adorable, cute video will try to load!) and being rather lovely and Katie-like, as my friend put it. We had breakfast and I told her our next destination. That was it, she was leaving. We were off to see Uncle Fantastic, and she was going there Right Now.

We had a really good journey to Manchester, she slept the whole way, and was definitely pleased to see him, as soon as we arrived. She played his double bass, ate his food, and tried to reorganise his housemate's desktop computer/tv harddrive thingy. We went out promptly!

We headed to the Manchester Museum. First off we looked at their living allotment - quite an impressive sight, given its all grown in tubs. aubergines, purple beans, courgettes, strawberries. I had to stop her from picking and eating them.

We went inside and she thought it was a great space to run round. She was quite interested in some of the stuffed animals, and did let us look at a few bits that we stumbled on that we were interested in. Their Ancient Egypt exhibition is quite impressive. We went up to their vivariums and aquariums, which is where she saw this cheeky chappy. We had a mid-explore snack in the children's area (although that was a touch disappointing) before a last look round.

Katie then experienced her first "greasy spoon". Straight out of 70s, in terms of decor, but really lovely quality food. She had a very tasty, freshly and well made pizza, and enjoyed it. Simon and I got a whole crossword done. Katie dropped a whole glass of milk. It was a fun time!

We drove to Chadderton, and she had a play in the park there, before we went for a drink, where she did some colouring on Uncle Simon's knee. Of course, we had to fit an ice cream in, so stopped at the garage to get one (and buy some of the comparatively cheap petrol!) before we dropped Uncle Simon off and set off home. I told her that we were going to our house. She asked immediately about the Wiggles. I said yes, she'd see them. That was it, despite it being almost bedtime, she stayed awake the whole journey home and was bouncing in her seat as we came to the roundabout that leads to our village.

It was supposed to be our last day of holiday, but due to circumstances, we were to have one more day out, so home was only a very brief but much enjoyed pitstop overnight!