Christmas in Manchester

Warmer but wetter.
Tram into town to see glitz
and have Christmas lunch :-)

Mr KCNQ2Haiku had to go into the Manchester office today, I got the boys off to school, spoke to my Dad, did a bit of cleaning and then got the tram into town to meet him for lunch.  I used to be in and out of Manchester all the time but it's been ages since I've been in.  I did pop in with Ben in the summer but travel with Ben is not always a laid back experience...  So anyway, we had thought we were being very clever... we'd booked a table online last night at Leaf on Portland street because we really like their sharing platters, all full of falafel, hummus, salads etc. Yum.  So we had a walk around St Peter's square (see tree and library photo), Albert Square, St Ann's square and up King Street, soaking in the festive vibes and arrived just in time for our slot at Leaf...  Except, it had shut down!!  How strange! So we looked back at what we'd ACTUALLY booked and it was a table at Leaf in West Kirby.  Oh dear, that's not in Manchester!!  Shame.  But we had a wander and found a table at Society, near the Bridgewater hall and it was really lovely, we had something from the Indian Street Food stall and were very happy.  We can't do evenings out because of lack of appropriate child care so these sorts of lunches are really precious.  
I made it back on the tram and fetched Ben from school, he has been good.  They went trampolining today and he was happy.  He's been a bit mithered as they've told him they're changing his timetable around at school (which we knew but weren't majoring on telling him) and they've told him that he'll be able to take the new timetable home before Christmas. So obviously he is now desperate to have all the details and he's also convinced himself that I already know the timetable and am hiding it from him :-/ I am not. Sigh. He's put his remaining World Cup stickers in his book though and is playing Minecraft fairly peacefully, so I think all has turned out well.  And Mr KCNQ2Haiku is out with colleagues so I'm on bath and bed duty. In fact, I'd better go. 
Oh and the teacher presents arrived! So I'm now all sorted for the end of term and feeling smug, they're cute little Christmas tree sweets in packets that say "Thank you for helping me grow, love from Ben". Yes, it's twee but it's teacher gifts.. it's hard to get a macho vibe!
Right, bath time :-D