Tourist Mode.

Debbie visited Bristol last Friday to Sunday, so I took the opportunity to be a tourist in my home town. We did the usual Park street shopping, Rocotillos milkshake (the best milkshakes in Bristol) and the Bristol suspension bridge.

Given the current summer we were really lucky with the weather and it was quite warm and sunny all day.

One end of the suspension bridge.

I took three days off work from Monday to Wednesday as it was going to be my birthday on Tuesday and I didn't really want to be working on that day. I went up to Manchester with Debbie on Sunday night and planned to spend Monday with Dave out mountain biking and playing games, and Tuesday with Debbie.

I managed to forget my cycling shoes, but managed to remember everything else, so couldn't go cycling on Monday morning. Fortunately Dave wasn't in a mood to go cycling either as he had just recovered from some virus. Unfortunately I managed to catch some sort of virus or cold from either Debbie or Dave! I'm currently coughing like the old man that I am.

On Tuesday I was out with Debbie in Manchester. We caught the train into town as it's only a twenty minute ride away from where she lives.

Here's the famous pub at Staleybridge station called The Buffet Bar. It's a fully licensed pub actually on the station platform. Apparently people come to the station just to drink at the bar.

Debbie gave me a tour of Manchester cathedral. It was a very impressive structure from the inside with lots of history and ornate designs.

Here are some of the really intricate designs in the centre of the cathedral. There was also a carving of an elephant, which was made from a description of one without ever having seen one. It did look a little odd!

Debbie treated me to lunch at Yo-Sushi in Selfridges. We managed to eat quite a bit of sushi and ran up a bill of £35! It's one of the things that I really miss about Sydney, more so because in Sydney it's so much cheaper than it is over here. I'm sure I could have eaten just as much sushi and it would only have cost fifteen pounds.

After the filling meal we did a bit of shopping around Manchester and then finished off the day with a few drinks in a bar in the city centre. From where we were sat in the bar in Manchester Debbie could see one side of the cathedral with a few bushes. We were very surprised to see four different people take a leak beside the bushes from five to nine pm! One of the blokes wasn't even trying to hide himself behind a bush and we could see everything... eeew! Debbie tried tapping on the window but he didn't take any notice. I was very surprised at none of the blokes used the toilets in the pub or shopping centre instead.

Bar the pee tree, all in all I couldn't think of a better day to spend my 38th birthday! :-)