Watercolours

Our friend Karen came south of the border for a visit this week and as Bob had some annual leave due it enabled Kate and I to spend some time with her. We started off with a visit to the Trafford Centre which was extremely quiet (well almost deserted) which was great for a serious shopping session punctuated by a couple of coffee stops and a pleasant lunch break.

Then it was home for a quick wash and change of clothes and out to Velvet in the evening - we were surprised to find that the bar was quiet so we enjoyed a pre-dinner drink and popped downstairs to the restaurant which was busy for a Tuesday evening - but we had a lovely table and a very nice meal. We then popped back upstairs to the bar for a drink or two - during which we had a lovely long chat and found out alot about Karen's life . It was great to have some one on one time as previously we had been out in a larger group and Karen had been fairly quiet (probably because she couldn't get a word in edgeways!).

We then met up in Manchester the next day and headed to the Art Gallery which was a very enjoyable experience and something that fulfilled Karen's dreams (literally) as she revealed it was something she had dreamt about doing a long time ago. Appropriately enough the top I had chosen to wear that day (my new silk one) was listed on the receipt as "watercolours".

We then headed up to the shops and strangely despite Manchester being on our doorstep we realised that we hadn't ventured to the shopping area for over 10 years and hardly recognised the place so Karen ended up being our guide!