We caught a bus then train to Manchester to meet our friends Grant and Jennie, who we last saw five years before in the UK - Loftus, Whitby then Bolton - and we were anticipating (rightly) that this would be a lengthy alcoholic session. We were right, but before we even started, I was bitten on the thigh whilst we waited for the bus in Delph. It was probably a horsefly or a hornet, and it was worse than a green ant bite, which is excruciating. The nice lady at the train station gave me some antiseptic wipes and wished me well, and it wasn't until we were onto our second or third drink in Manchester that it went away.
The afternoon turned into evening, and many bars were visited and much food and liquor was consumed, as has been the tradition over the last twenty years or so that we have known each other. It is probably fortunate for our health that we now live in different hemispheres! It certainly doesn't seem that long ago since Jennie and I first met as new teachers at Mount Maunganui College in New Zealand.
At the end of the evening we waited for a bus at Oldham Mumps to go back to Delph, but it didn't arrive so we got a cab. The driver got lost in the myriad of village roads but we eventually made it back, me with a headache and sore leg, but it was well worth it. Hopefully it isn't another five years before we catch up again, or we mightn't be able to keep up the pace!
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