I awake on Christmas morning around 9.00am, I have not a shred of stress in my whole body, I smile, I go downstairs and make tea for me, hubs and feckles, there are no spouts to peel, no turkeys to baste and it’s a light, wonderful feeling, yes all familial, maternal and obligatory responsibilities have been discharged, I am empowered, I am also a little nervous, I look over at hubs eating his bacon barm and wonder what he is thinking ( could be a) what on earth are we doing leaving our home and running away like fugitives to a city centre hotel? Or b) this bacon is nice – who can ever tell what a man is thinking?)
We open presents and are all pleased with what we have. In about 30 minutes we are packed and ready to go, after dropping off our youngest at her boyfriends where she will be spending Christmas Day and wishing our eldest “all the best” we are driving into Manchester city centre, which is deserted, you know like that film Vanilla Sky’s staring Tom Cruise, you know the one.
The reason for this unusual Christmas Day behaviour?, well a few things really, last year in a nutshell, well I don’t think it will fit, but hear goes - the week before Christmas, our car was written off, my father in law had a fall and was leaving this mortal coil in (No) Hope Hospital, Salford and strangely enough we carried on as normal as was possible, not sure how we got through it but we did, the world is full of people limping along in many ways then the final straw came, nothing much but final straws don’t have to be do they? a very upsetting couple of days in Late November
(Feckles decided she was ditching the A levels and wanted to get a full time job instead, etc, etc ) instead of leaving my office and getting on the met to Stretford, I walked straight into The Midland Hotel, Manchester and quoting a “special code”, got a fantastic deal (not much more than your average travel lodge prices) I phoned hubs after the event and told him this was what I needed to do, he seemed ok with it at the time, perhaps a little puzzled about my mental health but that’s just fine and dandy, what he didn’t know what that exactly three days later after another upset I went back in and booked the following night too! (After that I made sure I got took a detour away from the hotel, or I may just have tried to move in there permanently like Albert Tacklock*
The décor is like something from another era, and funnily enough I had the film “The Shining” in my mind as we walked along the deserted corridors, so did hubs as he said “if I see a child on a Trike coming towards us or a grown man dressed as a bunny”……………… god bless our long standing relationship (23 years and counting, its become almost telepathic!).
We Check in to our king sized suite, our room is huge, the toiletries reassuringly expensive (Peckniffs – in Happy and Alive – which is how I feel on this Christmas afternoon) there is a bottle of Champers on ice and a box of luxury chocolates with the monogram of the hotel.
We open a bottle of red and clink glasses (Yes from my extensive wine cellar, we lovingly call “the Cupboard) I had never realised just how big the hotel was, I have never actually stayed there before, but I did audition for supermarket sweep with my father in law (bless him, he would have done anything for anyone) around May 1995 (we didn’t get through, his general knowledge had a few gaps – the most memorable one being that Bryan Adams was Canadian not Australian – he got him mixed up with Jason Donavon), but you know forgive and forget is my moto……..
after Hubs has put all his things away (I never unpack, I just leave my stuff in the suitcase or bag) I have checked out every cupboard, draw, checked what time breakfast is (up until 10.30am on weekends) and laughed that anyone would be so lazy as to ring housekeeping to have their bed put down and a bath run for them). We get in our car and head up to Rusholme, park up and head straight for our trusty favourite Al Quila, where we enjoyed a selection of starters and main courses, his being King Prawn Karahi and mine being Chicken Tikka Makhani, we were sent on our way with a Christmas card from all the staff and a bottle of white wine. Back in our room as we got ready to enjoy an evening getting slowly leathered in the Hotel Bar (you can take the couple out of Stretford etc………) I couldn’t believe how wonderful my Christmas had turned out to be, the following day I looked round the Sales on my own (bliss) hubs went to see his beloved Manchester City, we met up later went for a meal and finished off the evening at the Printworks watching Sherlock Holmes........
God bless us one and all
*Albert Tacklock affectionately known as Uncle Albert, by Ken Barlow, the actor who played Uncle Albert famously lived at the midland hotel for 15 years, and I have to say after a Christmas weekend there, I don’t blame him!
