katekarnage

This evening, me, E and V went to the "Levy Night Market". Levy market used to be a regular weekly thing in the car park by Levenshulme Train Station, but the council upped the rent on the organisers so it shut down. I don't know what arrangement the new organisers have in place, but it seemed very much like the old one - a mixture of craft and food stalls, lots of seating, and some entertainment (something for the kids, and a DJ playing music).

E and V picked up some artwork while I chatted to the guy behind Brid's Cross Brewing. We took home some cans of their German Porter and 80 Shilling Export, both of which were very tasty! We also grabbed food there and ate out in the sunshine. E and V had burritos, and I had a "bit of everything" box from a South African street food stall, which was very tasty and almost too spicy for me (I should have asked for the mild variant!).

After food, I picked up a "Scotch Egg bhaji" to take home, which seems like my kind of fusion cooking, along with some samosas. E and I had very tasty ice cream, one of which had miso to cut into the sweetness of the ice cream. We weren't out for long but it was great to spend some time together outside in the sun!

Last weekend, the stars aligned a little bit - trans gym was cancelled because our trainer was doing the Great Manchester Run with their kid, and I realised it was the last weekend before school half term takes us into June, both of which make going anywhere more expenses. So I did some shopping around and found a place to stay in Chester on Vrbo for me, E and V. We'd been talking about going away just the three of us since Gary died, but this is the first time we actually managed it between other commitments, lack of spoons etc.

The place was just a terraced house in Hoole, outside the city centre. It clearly once housed chronic smokers, because all the modern renovations hadn't quite rid it of the stale smoke smell. It wasn't a problem for us at least. We settled down with Korean burgers takeout and had a fairly early night.

On Saturday we went into Chester for lunch. Chester has two car parks which are only for Blue Badge holders, one of them right behind the Cathedral, so I parked up there. The weather was glorious. V was in their powerchair, and we pottered around a bit, finding some cute tchotchkes at an indoor market and exploring the multi-layered city centre. Outside the town hall, we found Ed Alleyne-Johnson of New Model Army busking. It was great to hear him play! We found a nice restaurant, Cosy Club, with outside seating. The food was great, our waiter was a lovely ebullient twink, and we saw many good dogs. Afterwards we had a proper explore of Chester Cathedral, investigating the artwork and the exhibitions and the architecture. On Saturday night we watched the last episode of The Residence, a White House comedy murder mystery which we've been enjoying together, with Greek takeout.

Sadly on Sunday morning V wasn't feeling well enough for Chester Zoo, so instead we headed home slowly via the back roads, stopping near Lymm to admire a canal. We went to a Cheadle garden centre for a nice lunch and several plants for the garden.

Still, it was a lovely weekend. Very tiring but so nice to get away.