Manchester

And what do you do for holidays? We played tag-along kids with JB this time, he had to make a tutorial for other geeks in Manchester, so we went too, it being summer hols for kids, and it being held so close to home... and the timing so close to release of the new Twilight installment... Going to see Eclipse on Sunday ! Woo-hoo! as my special Birthday treat, slightly postponed... good things are worth waiting for, aren't they?! :)


So as for Manchester. You'd hear it's grey and mucky and wet... Not if you have a week of bright sunshine, and England is still (not for long but still) in with a chance for a world cup... No, in that case the sky is blue, people - smily, and to tell the truth, I was pleasantly surprised with people... very very friendly, very polite, happy and observant, ready to help, absolutely opposite of Londoners indeed. Scary looking and covered with tatoos youths, saying thank you and have a good day to a bus driver, pierced alll over and bubblegum pink-haired teens giving way to the elderly, and offering help to people with prams... I am in awe!


So thanks to these two factors: wonderful weather, and lovely people, the grey didn't look grey but sand coloured, or sun-kissed, and the life was beautiful and easy.


Manchester is really not boasting with green, trees are hard to come by and far apart, and parks are a bit scantily clad with grass...
This is the biggest green patch we found, called Piccadilly Gardens. And you can see the extent of its beauty... So for the second best we went to all the musea that were within our walking range, or walked among industrial landscape, and had generally a very good time.
Nice to have easily amused kids, here is the oldest enjoying a cord or two on the piano that we found by the ladies' bathroom at Frankie and Benny's one lunch time.

Our gecko's sad tale

This is a sad "tail" indeed, as our new-ish pets Edward and Bella had a surprise for us this morning. Edward's tail was missing. Not the whole tail luckily, just a segment of almost half its original length. The kids were upset, we were upset, and we were trying to figure out what was going on. If Edward and Bella were fighting, then we have to separate them immediately, if they weren't... "who dun it?" so to say.

this is our beautiful leopard gecko Edward, the last picture with the tail still there, taken yesterday, after a day at the pool...

This is the tiny lizard the kids caught at the pool. We figured it being so small and diurnal she'd be no trouble for our leos... with hind sight I wish we left her there and then.

I am glad we didn't get this dude, come to think of it... This one is locally known as a Ramarro, or a grass lizard



We came home, fed the geckos, and Edward wasn't hungry, or already intimidated by his in-mate...??? aka our beautiful Bella.
She is licking her chops, if she is the one, and the tail of her mate gone and eaten, brrr... I am shuddering to think it... But then they were co-habiting quite happily for two months or so... I don't want to believe it but neither do I want to find our sweet little Edward chewed up tomorrow. We have thrown out the little intruder, brought by the kids, and we hope that Edward will recover very very soon!
But for now it is a sad poor Edward... My poor dear Edward...