At the end of November my mum and I went shopping in Manchester. We had planned to do that last year but of course everything then went into lockdown and we weren't able to. So we decided to go this year. I wanted to go to Afflecks Palace and to show my mum around the Northern Quarter a little bit. So we set off and got to Manchester just before 11am. I dropped my water bottle on the way out and smashed it completely to bits, which I was really annoyed about. We parked anyway and went into Afflecks.
We spent about an hour going round all the little shops inside. I bought some presents but not many, but it was really nice to look. I'll have to go back with Lee at some point. We went in the photo booth and took some photos, which I love! Then we were both hungry at 12, so decided to go to Turtle Bay for something to eat.
I like it there because I know they have decent vegetarian choices, and my mum has been before and liked it. She's not been too well so needed something not too spicy, so she went for Mo' Bay Chicken which was a bit spicy in a nice cream sauce. I had sweetcorn fritters, mac n cheese bites, and a chickpea curry on roti. They were all so nice! I liked it. I also had an elderflower and cucumber cooler.
The service was a bit rubbish but we left eventually and walked round to an RSPCA shop. I wanted some vintage teacups for friends but they didn't have any which surprised me. Then the parking was running out so we got in the car. We were planning to drive to near Albert Square to go to the Christmas markets. However, there's loads of roadworks going on in Manchester and we had to keep going the wrong way. It took half an hour but we managed to park, then tried to see where to walk.
We asked someone, and it turned out the markets weren't where they usually were, because of building work on the town hall?? This was really annoying because I'd been on the website about four times and it didn't say that - it wasn't obvious at all. We had lost about twenty minutes faffing round here, by which time it was nearly 3pm and I'd bought like two presents and so had my mum. We needed SHOPS.
We decided to go to Chorlton. I had been recently with my friend and knew there were charity shops and maybe a shopping centre, so we headed there. I found some Secret Santa stuff and the teacups in the charity shops, and some chocolates I needed elsewhere. We got hot drinks from The Cocoa Tree (which is lovely, and which I recommend) and then my mum googled and saw that Stretford Mall wasn't too far away. So we headed there.
I managed to knock off quite a few presents there thanks to Boots and Peacocks and a couple of other places. It was getting on towards 5pm and traffic had been awful all day so we decided to not set off home straight away. We went in a couple more shops and then into Costa for a drink. It was about 6pm when we set off home, and we got back to my mum's about 7.15. It was a long and exhausting day and I'm sad we didn't get to see the Christmas markets, but it wasn't anyone's fault and we did still have a nice day.
When I got home we were unpacking the bedroom stuff. We had a broken leaky radiator which was replaced while I was out, so we had had to move loads of things out of the way for the fitter. The carpet was really damp too, and while the radiator wasn't working the whole room was damp and cold constantly, so we hadn't changed the bedding either. I bought some new bedding recently at Skopos Mill in Batley, which has cactusses on! I also bought a new fitted sheet and under pillowcases, all for £35! So we changed the bed and it is lovely.
The next day I managed to get most of the rest of the shopping done online - not ideal but needs must!
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