The morning after...

It was a late finish, last night, late enough to have been this morning by the time we went to bed. Those of us who were staying in Manchester had arranged to meet for breakfast at half-ten at Yard and Coop but it turns out that they don't open until midday, so we ended up meeting at Common: me, the Minx, Mark, Bibi and Katie.

I don't think anyone - with the possible exception of the Minx - was particularly hungover but I liked the resulting mood: relaxed, comfortable, with easy, slow paced conversation. I chatted to Mark a bit about photography - he's a great photographer - and I took this photo trying to experiment with depth of field on my little Samsung Galaxy camera, and then we managed to find a great detail of entertainment from a parking space just over the road from where we were sat in the window. We watched people parking - some very precisely, one spectacularly badly - and then a couple of traffic wardens spend *ages* issuing a parking ticket to one of the surprisingly numerous cars that occupied 'our' spot.

Mark was the first to go and the rest of us moved on to Yard and Coop, which was open by now and where one of my daughters is working, this summer. At this point Bibi and I moved off the tea and coffee, and on to more suitable afternoon drinks, sampling Y&C's wines which are classified relatively: 'great', 'better', and 'best'. (We settled on better.) Plus, we tried some of their food, which was rather interesting and very good.

The relaxed mood continued, with Katie heading off for her train at about half-two and one of Bibi's friends, 'Tim', joining us for an hour or so. (Lovely chap, not actually called Tim.) After that, the Minx, Bibi and I headed over to Deaf to collect all the stuff - including cake! - from last night. However, when we got there, it was closed, so instead we headed over to Fallowfield to a bar where another of my daughters works, which didn't help with the fact that Deaf was closed, but did result in us getting some more food and drinks. Hooray!

All in all, it was the most relaxing day I've had in a long time. Thanks to Mark, Bibi, Katie, Tim, and, of course, the Minx for their perfect Sunday company, and also to the Minx for driving us around.