Fire!

What a fabulous day for a blipmeet!

I met with Terraldinho, Beewriter, KathyMay, Chrissie1Butter, Syetuttle and Green56 in Manchester for a pre booked tour of the old London Road Fire Station.

Top marks to T for suggesting this as it was a great tour; really informative and great to see the place before it's redeveloped into a hotel and restaurant.

We learned it wasn't just a fire station. In it's prime, it housed families and had a bank and a Coroner's Court. The court was really well preserved, even down to the old desks (complete with inkwells) with the names of various people scratched into the woodwork.

No blipmeet would be complete without cake, so once again T came up with the marvellous suggestion of the Richmond Tea rooms.
This quirky place has an Alice in Wonderland theme; the decor is amazing and the food also.
We were lucky to get in as it's a busy place, but it did mean we had to split up over two tables. This wasn't too big a hassle as we were far too busy eating to talk!

We needed to burn off a few calories after that, so we had a walk round the Northern Quarter to see the various artworks that have been done over the summer.
A suitable one was found for a group shot, but in order to get the mural, and all of us in shot required a bit of creativity with an abandoned shopping trolley. Who needs tripods when you have resourceful blippers?!

We've had such a good laugh and it was lovely to meet Simon & Clare. We must do it again soon!

Link to all photos here

Apologies to today's gang - I promised crack pie, which I had in my bag, all lovingly pre-portioned for you to take home and I forgot!!!
When I finally remembered (in the Next home store), it was a soggy, sticky mess in my bag thanks to the baking Manchester sunshine. Ooooops!