I promise I had every intention of taking Randi on a whistlestop tour of the capital of the North when we originally planned our weekend in Manchester. But given that she had just run an eventful half-marathon in Edinburgh a week earlier, I think we can be forgiven for sharing a lazy weekend with Rob, Sarah and their dog Juniper in Stockport instead.
We were legitimately staying in Greater Manchester, at least, with honest-to-goodness tram stops and everything. And we very much enjoyed lunching at Altrincham Market and walking Juniper around the maze-like Walkden Gardens. What really took me back, though, was spending an afternoon trying out all of the crazy new weapons in Worms WMD. Robert was the person who first introduced me to Worms a million years ago at his house one day after school, and it was gleefully nostalgic to pick up the battle again in 2019. The only thing that’s changed is that one of us now owns a house…
Talking of homeowners, back in London we also hung out with nearby Matt and Laura in their wonderful flat which – based on their stories of dodgy electrics and chipboard walls – has clearly been a long, slow labour of love over the past few years. But now they’ve pulled so far ahead in the homeliness stakes (the British definition, not the American one) that they can whip out homemade raspberry ripple ice cream after dinner with homegrown raspberries from the garden. Very impressive!
Why wasn’t there a photo of the dog named Juniper?
And tell me more about the British definition of your homely friends who sound liked they have mad culinary skills.
Apologies! But she wasn’t a million miles away from Beans if that helps to picture her…
And I was always told that ‘homely’ in American English meant run-down and low-quality. As opposed to, y’know, warm and cosy. Or ‘homey’!