Homeland at last

Storyline: 50 years later

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April 11 2018:

Made it through the first full day in my homeland in fifty years. Just. We arrived in London yesterday morning and, jet-lagged and half asleep, had a very filling brunch of much fried, greasy and delicious breakfast food. Spent two hours half-awake on the train to Manchester and, after checking into our small but comfy hotel room on the border of Chinatown and the Gay village, went on a search for a veggie-rich, grease-poor light dinner. 

We ordered a lovely-sounding fish platter at a nearby chain pub then waded despondently through a deep-fried and battered selection of fish and shellfish, and a pint each of what the house described as ale, but that more resembled amber water that had once been shown a good pint and told to think big. The batter tasted great. It could have been anything inside…

We trudged back to the hotel in the 4°C evening and regretted our decision to not bring gloves. An hour or so after passing out in bed, I awoke to an a-fib episode that reminded me not to repeat the menu of the day.

It was not a surprise that I was in a bit of a daze for most of today, despite the a-fib episode ending before we left (after a delicious light breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, tomato, mushroom and lots of stewed prunes – I suppose I’ll never learn) to explore Manchester.

We’re now just finishing a truly light shared dinner of one seared scallops appetizer one main order of salmon and vegetables and a nice glass of pinot noir (OK, we each had one) and I’m finally starting to feel human.

So…impressions of Manchester, my hometown (almost, as I lived in a village on the outskirts): it’s been like visiting any new foreign city with the exception of language (they speak an almost intelligible version of English, as did I 50 years ago) and the constant fear of being run over by a car or bus driving towards me on the wrong side of the street. And it’s cold. The meteorologists indicate that it’s about 6°C warmer here than it was in Toronto when we left, but it feels 20° colder. Must be the humidity. And of course, it’s grey. I’d forgotten that. Nice people though (I suppose I had to say that, but it’s true), and it’s more multicultural that it was 50 years ago although nothing like Toronto. Nice transportation system too, and we’ll try that out tomorrow.

More to come…