I was quite nervous about this trip to Manchester, with the three men from work. Two staff and three men with learning disabilities. I am so glad it was that ratio and not just me or Laura on our own – we would have refused, through practicalities and appropriateness.
It was a long two days, but it was good! We had first class seats on the train, which was really nice, even if we might have been a bit annoying for the business people!! Oh well! We got free food on the train, and were quite amused when Mr “I can eat a horse and still have room for pudding” said that a egg and cress roll had filled him up!! He turned down biscuits and crisps and wasn’t hungry for a while!!
We experienced a Manchester bus and tram (and lots of bored closed off people). We had a bit of a walk to the hotel – which they didn’t appreciate too much! The hotel was nice enough, it certainly fitted the “gay friendly” comment I’d read before I went. We went into negotiations over rooms: one chap wouldn’t sleep alone in a room (and almost didn’t go altogether), so had to persuade another to share with him – he wasn’t too keen, but with both of the staff being female and the other two not getting on so well, there wasn’t much choice!
After talking to the owner of the hotel he suggested going down to see if it was possible to get any concert tickets. We got a taxi down. We told our sad story to the box office, but they couldn’t help. We didn’t bought programmes and realised we didn’t have enough cash on us to buy 5 tickets anyway – one chap left his money behind! We could hear the music really well from outside, so we decided to go and have something to eat, and come back and listen from outside. We ended up at Harry Ramsdens, had a good nosh and drink, and made our way back in good spirits!
We ended up standing outside the cricket ground looking in through the side entrance! There was a small crowd of people there and various stewards/security about. We may not have been able to get in, but we managed to get a pretty good show, without being squashed, hot and sweaty… and they get a full refund plus 25%, so they’ve gained in effect! Even though I’m not really a Take That fan, I must say that they put on a good show. There was a huge inflatable with what looked like a projection onto it – a bit freaky, but pretty impressive! One chap was pleased at the end that there were fireworks!
We then pushed our way through the crowd back to our friendly minibus taxi driver. Back to the hotel, and off to bed!