Getting ready for Christmas in Manchester

It was lovely having time to get ready for Christmas without work getting in the way though the weather did make getting around something of a challenge. We had a lovely couple of weeks in Manchester and it was nice to be home for a bit and enjoy our warm and cosy apartment. John got round to putting the pictures up so everything that came back from Abu Dhabi now has a permanent home in Manchester and I was able to put up the blue Christmas tree which spent last Christmas in its box. My polar bear which came with us back from France had pride of place on the table and I opened my Barclaycard advent calendar every day, kindly donated by Rachel, though John banned me from reading out the Barclaycard facts in each window!
I managed a good run each morning though it was sometimes challenging trying not to fall over and at the weekend dodging groups of young chaps who had clearly been celebrating all night. The ice on the canal never really got melted in the thaw before the cold weather descended again and I bought a new black hat in order to look less comical whilst keeping my head warm – only £1 from the shop on Piccadilly which is quite amazing.
As well as shopping, wrapping, card writing and generally getting involved in the festive season, we also spent a lot of time preparing for our big trip. Finding hotels, planning excursions and reading Trip Advisor, until we had the whole thing planned with military precision. The 2 berth camper van for New Zealand wasn’t available but I did have my heart set on this way of seeing the two islands so we opted for the 4 berth so we’ve a spare bed if anyone fancies joining us! We’ve been reading Lonely Planet and planning the best routes to maximum penguin spotting, whale watching and glacier trips. It’s the only leg of the trip where we haven’t got each night booked and sorted as we fancy the idea of keeping an element of footloose and unplanned travelling. Everything else is pretty much organised and we managed to rearrange our flights to include Argentinean wine country at Mendoza. We’ve found a boutique hotel in Santiago in Chile run by a British and Australian and I’m in email conversation with Will and Pablo to organise day trips to the wine growing valleys there too. All we have to work out now is how little luggage we can get away with (rather harder for me than for John owing to the shoe requirement); well we are combining beaches, cities and outdoor pursuits so it’s quite a challenge! We had our injections without any major difficulties and the Australians issued visas overnight so we must be OK to come in. In Waterstones the guy behind the counter was very jealous of our trip and wanted to know which extreme sports we were planning for NZ. Not sure that he counted food, wine or walking. However, even Debbie, our Trailfinders consultant and her colleagues seem pretty impressed with the imaginative nature of the trip.
Without work we didn’t find ourselves at endless social events and drinks parties but we did enjoy a convivial lunch with John and Pat Garside which also allowed John a taste of Christmas dinner and pudding ahead of the big day. I had chance to have a drink and catch up with Charlotte from Riley and Alan from Manchester which was really nice.
Having made the trip to Leysdown through some fairly tricky traffic we have to make the trip back to Manchester, dropping Isobel at John’s brother’s and then on to Skipton. Hopefully the weather will not be causing Heathrow the current problems on January 6th when we set off on the first leg of our 3 month adventure.
I hope everyone reading has a wonderful Christmas without too many plans disrupted by the weather and all the very best for the new year.