Mex and I got up early to take Elle to the station..after about 6weeks together it was farewell for a little while! Had brunch with Luke and stu (mex's housemate who'd also been on top deck and an Aussie mate), met T, booked a bus and headed to Manchester! A long 4.5 hours later we arrived in chilly Manchester..headed back to their cute apartment in withington and T and I chilled while mex and Luke went to a birthday do..so nice to sleep in a bed that night!
Next couple of days we just chilled, caught up on sleep and washing and what not..bought some warm clothes at primark (getting super cold now!)..went for a hike in the hills district for some awesome panoramic views of the rolling hills and stone fences...followed by lunch in a cute pub in an even cuter town in the foothills..went to the trendy northern quarter of Manchester (very Melbourne like) to have tea with Luke's friend..then Luke flew back to Aust so 'twas just the three of us..and as mex is a major social butterfly we met lots of his friends ;) dinner party with a couple of his girl mates (one of which is a world champion GB cyclist, Becky James, who's dating the welsh rugby player George north..and has the cutest sausage dog, Lola :) and another that trains paraolympians) consisting of bruschetta (by me), chicken cooked in beer (by mex) and lemon tarts and carrot cake for dessert (by Becky)..yum!..went to the movies and saw maze runner..I cooked pumpkin soup and mex's neighbour came over for tea and helped recover some photos I'd lost due to a virus..had a bake sesh where we made brownies and cookies then mex and I went next door to the other neighbours for a chat..really nice people with a super cute dog, mex and Luke are lucky to have such great neighbours :) then we decided to head north the next day to Scotland Woohoo! Definitely a place I wasn't thinking I'd get to :) I'd changed my flights which meant longer in the UK and no Thailand but the company and the places I'd see would make the change worthwhile :) mex had his work car which he couldn't drive but he put me on the insurance so road trip time it was! And T planned to stay in Edinburgh to try find work..we just planned to head north and go with the flow :)
