Manchester: sans soleil

There's no sun in Manchester.We're supposed to be at the height of summer! It's starting to dawn on me that this is the height of summer anywhere north of London...

No matter. Grey skies can't dampen my mood. I arrived in Manchester yesterday and spent the day wandering around the centre (which is remarkably small! I always thought Manchester was HUGE!). A couple of highlights: 1. Manchester Art Gallery - FREE! - and currently hosting a temporary exhibition celebrating Miffy's 50th birthday (which was actually last year)! 2. Canal Street, centre of the queer district and where the Brtish Queer as Folk was largely filmed (so Ross tells me) 3. Ross(for those who know him)!!! I met Ross in the evening after he had finished work. It was really great to see him again. I was afraid we wouldn't recognise each other, as I hadn't seen him since he left Melb the first time! He still looks very much the same, but sounds quite different: he seems to have adopted a northern English accent! Osmosis? I think not. He tells me he worked hard on that accent!

There's been lots of queer action during my Brit travels so far. After London I went down to Brighton (lovely, lazy, laid-back beach town) and happened to be there during Pride. I caught the parade and the festivities later on, which were much fun, as one can imagine. It was a bit strange being at a festival alone though. Not really the kind of thing one usually does solo.

Whilst in Brighton I spent some time on the 'naturist beach' which I randomly happened to stumble upon. I was walking along the seafront and saw a sign on top of a massive pebble dune (Brighton beach is a pebble beach) indicating the nudist zone. I climbed over the dune and realised that I could just strip off completely and lie there in the sun and wind and no-one would arrest me. So I did.

After a few days in Brighton, I headed over to Bath. I stayed at a hostel which was actually housed in an old Mansion on Bathwick Hill (east of the centre). My fav part of Bath was the 20 minute downhill walk into town through the green green green National Trust meadows which overlooked the city. It was incredibly beautiful. That setting really made me feel like I was in 'England'!

Whilst in Bath, I also day-tripped (well, half a day really, at best) to Stonehenge. Once I arrived there I wondered why I bothered to go at all! There it is. We've all seen pictures. Handy hint: if you do ever visit Stonehenge don't bother paying the entrance fee, as you can see the stones just as well from behind the fence (as you will no doubt immediately realise if you ever do go). If you're really keen though, you can walk down the road a little and jump the fence from behind a very conveniently placed tree...

From Bath to Cambridge. Being a bit of a nerd, I was expecting to be very impressed by this university town and its famous colleges. But I wasn't. The pomp of the colleges was laughable. But then maybe I am, perhaps ironically in this case, a bit of a snob (if you see what I mean). The historical centre was pretty enough, as historical centres tend to be, but not as pretty as the pretty little pixies I met up with aka Julia and Erin. We all happened to be in Cambridge at the same time so we spent the evening together in the beer garden of an English pub. Julia was given the responsibility of ordering beer for everyone but there was a massive selection, all unfamiliar so she just ordered three random beers which did the rounds around the table. I liked the dark beer. Mmmm...burnt marshmallow (actually, I didn't really get the burnt marshmallow thing, guys...still yummy though!).

Now here I am in Manchester, eagerly awaiting Ross' return from work. I catch the train to Windermere in the Lake District tomorrow morning, where I intend to do some Serious Hiking. Yes indeedy.

Oh! A bit of a newsflash: I wont be returning to Melbourne by the end of the year after all. Charlie and I have decided to live in Edinburgh for a little while! I'll probably go there and look for a flat and an apartment sometime in mid Sept and then Charlie flies over at the beginning of October! What craziness! I'll be sans soleil for a while yet!