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Old 21 Jun 17, 09:47 PM  
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scottishnellie
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Scottishnellies Sack The Kitchen Trip LIVE - Pre Travel Day. Train To Manchester & Heald Green


So today was the day!

I slept well after a bit of a weird evening the night before. I had finished work at 9pm in fine form, work all done, out-of-office on, and skipping out the door. Then I got home and could not seem to do anything right. My plan was to lay out the next days clothes and pack the bags for the overnight in Manchester, but for some reason I was a total waste of space. Kept changing my mind about clothes and could not organise myself. I had a chat on the dibb (where I was reassured that this was normal for us dibbers). Eventually I just poured a glass of wine and put a couple of episodes of the Great British Menu on the telly. I am obsessed with cooking programmes and series link them all! This did the trick of calming me down and I swanned off to bed leaving it all til morning.



Up at 8 and normal 'morning we go on holiday' stuff that we all have to do started. Showers, cleaning the house, changing the beds, emptying the fridge, sorting the cat with the neighbour, begging Pouty McPouty to dry her hair, pack her hand luggage and actually be ready to leave on time. No? That one just me then? Amongst all this I got the clothes and hand luggage sorted for Kieran and I with no problem at all. So I clearly just had a blip the night before. Kevin sorted his own.



We get free train travel within Kevins job so we were taking the train all the way to Manchester Airport as usual. We don't live far from our local station, so Kevin dropped Hannah and I off with all the cases then went back and dropped the car at home, walking back to the station with Kieran (desperate to get his steps up on his new Fitbit type thing). We were in Glasgow central station for 12:45 and picked the kids up a Burger King lunch before boarding the 13:09 direct to Manchester Airport.



The guard on the train was lovely and we got chatting about where we were going. He said he and his wife plan on taking their girls next year for the first time so I of course explained all about the dibb. So if you ever make it on here - Hi!



As we were sitting in first class, we got spoilt with endless cups of tea and hot chocolate and they kept giving us pastries, cookies, chocolate cake and wee snack boxes with cheese and crackers, pretzels and crisps. Kieran as usual stuffed his wee face with everything going, despite the BK meal he had already had.

One bizarre thing happened. As we were pulling out of Carlisle this 80's synth pop started playing on the train, getting louder and louder. I'm commenting to Kevin that I had never been on a train with piped music before and it was a slightly odd choice. Then it was Dire Straits, then back to synth pop again (but nothing recognisable). It was only when the guard came along the carriage and opened the doors to go into the next carriage I realised it was a passenger through there playing it very loudly through a big speaker, and not coming from the train at all. They asked him to turn it down which he did a bit, but then held the speaker to his forehead all the way to Preston. It was still loud enough to hear clearly in our carriage so I think the guy might have had special needs or something. We saw him get off at Preston and peace was restored.



Arrived on time in Manchester at 16:45, up in the lift to the airport. Note Pouty McPouty again. I read a previous TR with the parents desperate for some photos without their son dabbing. My challenge is clearly going to some photos of Hannah where she is not trying to look like a duck. Made our way along the corridors past the Radisson Blu (someday Kevin will let us spend the money to stay there!), on to terminal 2 and to a completely deserted bag drop.



Dropped the 3 suitcases and got our boarding passes. We hadn't reserved seats as we only paid £1300 total for the flights, and this is a budget trip due to whole new kitchen thing. Each time I had logged into my booking in the past few weeks as though I was going to pay for seats it looked like there were very few to select, and dotted all over the plane. So I resigned myself that this was the chance we had taken and we would just have to put up with that. Then when online checkin opened a week before our flight I was delighted to see we had actually been allocated 3 in a row and one across the aisle in row 12 - fab!.



So, cases gone and boarding passes in hand, we made our way back across the corridors past the Radisson Blu again (I wanna stay there!) to the train station, and onto a train back to Heald Green, which is only a 4min journey. We had booked the premier inn at Heald Green after reading about it on a couple of TRs here.



It was the same price as Runger Lane north & south (£85 at the time we booked) but saved us £12 in taxis either way as the train station is right on its doorstep. It is also right on the MAN airport flight path and with the window open the planes are loud. But with the window closed you cant really hear them. For us, who live directly under Glasgows flight path, we barely notice it anyway.



I'd also read that the beefeater attached to it acts as its restaurant and that the food was quite nice. We checked in, adding the £24.99 per adult meal deal for both Kevin and I. This gets us each a 2 course dinner, breakfast in the morning, and free breakfast for both kids. So we only need to add the kids dinners tonight and we are sorted. By 17:30 we were in our room.

The kids of course immediately were on the wi-if which was a strong and quick connection. Room has a double and 2 single beds in it which Hannah was delighted about as she was determined not to share with her brother now, which is fair enough as they are now 13 and 9. We had to turn the temp down in the room as its very warm down here (even I was warm, which almost never happens). Room is standard PI but nice and clean so we are quite happy.

Heading over to the Beefeater for dinner now so will update the rest later...



Having bought the meal deal we ordered 4 mains and 2 deserts so only had to pay for the 2 mains for the kids. I had a glass of red, the kids had diet cokes and Kevin had a pint. I forgot to take a pic of the receipt (must try harder) but the bill was £30.xx. So all in all £80 for dinner and breakfast for the four of us which I am happy with.

I took some pics of the menu for those staying here soon - scroll on if you aren't interested!





















I had oven baked sea bass with sliced potatoes and Greek salad, The Sea Bass was lovely - very juicy.



Kevin had a mixed grill



Hannah had fish n chips



And Kieran had a chicken burger



Then both kids had a chocolate brownie sundae but I forgot the photos DOH!

While sitting here I got a private message from dibber Di5ney who had been working at Central station and spotted us getting on the train in Glasgow. How cool is that? We had a nice chat back n forth. Small world!

We sat out in the beer garden for a few more drinks as it's quite hot and sticky tonight. That was nice, and with the planes coming in over our heads felt quite like home to us!

Then back to the room where we are all settled in watching Transformers The Dark Side of The Moon.

Oh and totally off subject - Pouty McPouty wants you all to see her nails as it's the first time she has had acrylics so here you go - don't say I'm not good to you!



Night all x


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Old 21 Jun 17, 09:57 PM  
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OB1LukeLucas
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Woo hoo it's all started. Hope you have a fantastic time. I can't wait to read all about your trip. Excellent you got seats together, have a safe flight
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Old 21 Jun 17, 09:58 PM  
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app
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New Photo Added by scottishnellie - 21 Jun 17 9:58 PM.
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Old 21 Jun 17, 10:03 PM  
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Gryff
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Looks like a great start
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Old 21 Jun 17, 10:14 PM  
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Fab start! Have the best holiday
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Old 21 Jun 17, 10:14 PM  
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Jaspercat10
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Great start, safe journey x
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Old 21 Jun 17, 10:14 PM  
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Camsmummy
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Great start to your holiday.We are staying at Heald green in a few weeks so thank you for the menus😀Can I just ask where you bought your train tickets from the airport to the premier inn?
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Old 21 Jun 17, 10:16 PM  
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Megandllsmum
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Great start Helen , pouty Mcpouty lol... you'll be lucky to get anything other than that face... megs 18 now and still does it 😂... Lilly's copying her big sister now too so occasional rocks a duckface of her own 😂😂.
Can't fault premier inn and we've always found the food decent enough pub grub ... hope you all get some sleep tonight ... easier said than done with a combination of excitement and heat... enjoy your flight , our first trip to Florida was on Dreamliner and loved it and have a great holiday
Can't wait to read more
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Old 21 Jun 17, 10:21 PM  
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Leia77
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Really looking forward to this! Sounds like a stress free day! Have a lovely holiday
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Old 21 Jun 17, 10:21 PM  
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scottishnellie
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Originally Posted by Camsmummy View Post
Great start to your holiday.We are staying at Heald green in a few weeks so thank you for the menus😀Can I just ask where you bought your train tickets from the airport to the premier inn?
we all have staff passes which we complete to give us 48hrs free travel anywhere in the U.K. So we don't need to buy separate tickets for each journey. But I did see a ticket booth at the top of the escalator where the train station becomes the airport so I'm sure you would just get them there.
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