Packable Jackets, Stiff Bananas and Crossings to Africa! (Jan/Feb 2019) - Pre Travel Day

[MinnieMrsA]

Packable Jackets, Stiff Bananas and Crossings to Africa! (Jan/Feb 2019) - Pre Travel Day

Wednesday 23rd January 2019

We got up with our usual 6am alarm (even though it wasn’t a work day!), and as Dave so rightly put it that morning, I wanted the clothes off his back! I hate leaving washing etc. to come home to, so I wanted to get the final bits of laundry sorted before we went. Along with the laundry, I painted my nails, Fudge was collected, and we ate the last bits of food knocking round the cupboards and fridge. It was so cold today - we put the fire on just to warm up a bit!

I also attempted online check in, but of course Dave had again been selected for extra security so that was a no go.

We packed up the car and left home at 1pm (after doing all the usual checks, HelenJNT style), making a pit stop at my parent’s house around the corner to drop off a few bits of food that we didn’t eat to them. Waste not, want not eh? We set off to Manchester at 1.15pm.

We like to take the scenic route (avoiding the roadworks/accidents/variable speed limits on the M6) and as such our journey looked like this…

Interspersed with a very bizarre accident on the A41, which was probably a result of the weather conditions.

We arrived at our usual haunt of the Premier Inn Runger Lane North at 3pm, and checked into Room 217 once a nice man who worked there had checked us in using the machine (which didn’t like me jabbing at it!) and conned us out of another £10 to park for the night.
We headed upstairs with the luggage, and I returned straight back to the lobby for two hot chocolates and some sweet treats from Costa. They didn’t have our usual favourite cakes (Tiffin/Bakewell Tart/Nutella cup croissant - if you are interested!) so I chose a Caramel Crisp and a Brownie. The barista serving me was also running the bar, and more than once when he was making my drinks, someone came over from the bar area and demanded to be served immediately. Rude much.

As I headed back upstairs, I followed a couple who could not work the door to the corridor that our room was on. They faffed a bit, then a bit more. Unfortunately, with full hands, I was in no position to help, nor did I want to get in the middle of them bickering about how to use the card in the reader attached to the door handle. You’ll be pleased to know that they eventually worked it out (by luck or judgement – who knows or cares?!) and I plodded along the corridor behind them to find out that they would be our neighbours for the night (if they could get into their own room of course!). I didn’t hang around to find out, but let’s assume they managed it as they were gone when we headed down to tea at about 5.45pm after watching Friends and The Chase. #qualityprogramming

Tea was as usual, very good here. They were out of a few options as they were in the process of a menu change, but we didn’t let this bother us much as it was all spicy and probably not the best choices for before the night before a long-haul flight! We had a chicken wing sharer to start, I had a gammon steak for my main course, and Dave had a chicken and cheddar melt. And herein lies the start of a running theme of the holiday – I forgot to take a picture of the food. Never mind – I’m sure you can all imagine what those dishes looked like! I had a large glass of Pinot Grigio and Dave had a Coors Light, and the bill was a very reasonable £41.47.

We were back in the room again by 7pm having a cup of tea with fluffy socks on (can't say the room was very warm either!), and I replied to a few lovely messages wishing us a happy holiday. We watched Police Interceptors and Live at the Apollo, before dozing off at about 10pm.

Tomorrow – icy wings, ignoring instructions and voicemail mysteries…

STEPS: 3739

[mick]

Good start

Joan

[DISNEYLIZ]

Great start to your report

[Palm trees]

Nice pre travel day, it does look freezing in your travel photos!

[Goldia]

Great pre travel day, I can't wait to see what you got up to on your trip.

[Cinderella]

Looking forward to your report 👍

[ChoppyGirl]

Great start - thanks for sharing x

[Custancia]

Great start to your holiday. I love the disney touches in your home!

[margyloveswdw]

Looking forward to reading about this trip - we went out a few days after you and stayed at POFQ for 5 days!

[Excitedx4]

Love pre travel day, a nice relaxed way to start the holidays 😁