Last month we were fortunate enough to have a Bank Holiday Monday meaning a day off work – hooray!
I love my job, but with no holidays left now until 2014 as a result of the wedding and honeymoon, I was excited to make the most of an extra day to spend with Joe.
We decided to take a trip to Manchester. I say trip, when really I mean drive 5 minutes up the road. Not long ago the Museum of Science and Industry was under threat of closure due to budget cuts, which seriously got under my skin. I signed all the petitions and spread the news to my Mancunian friends that this couldn’t be allowed to happen and Joe and I decided that if it were to remain open we’d go and visit on our next free day. So that’s what we did.
I know this is slightly different to my normal home progress-related posts, but as I see things, home isn’t just your bricks and mortar house; It’s your area, your neighbourhood, your community. Manchester’s always been mine and I can’t see myself being loyal to any other city. (Maybe Vegas…)
Anyway, along we went with the bonus of free entry (we still made a donation though). It’s changed a lot since I last visited. What I didn’t know to expect was just how much local history we’d be able to discover. We found out why our town is called what it is. We saw royalty visit the industrial area little over a mile from our house. And found out what part in history the town we’ve moved to played in the industrial revolution. It was an awesome day.
I’m a big believer in supporting local business where I can, and as science in general is something I really care about, it’s also a place I hope to one day take our future kids, just as I was taken when I was young. We decided to buy something from the gift shop as a means of supporting the museum, and naturally it was destined to be a house item.
We bought coasters.
Before you completely dismiss this as a yawn-worthy purchase, they are completely recycled from old motherboards so appealed to Joe’s complete addiction to computers and screamed out to the green lady in me just dying to get out.
(Okay coasters are pretty dull, but I just liked them!)
We have so many unmatched kitchen bits and bobs so I decided coasters were a small, but fun way to start collecting matching items for our soon-to-be kitchen. I paid £2.50 for each and whilst this isn’t the cheapest ever, it wasn’t going to break the bank either and at least it goes towards something good rather than to a large chain.
There were actually loads of home items I wanted, one of which is shown below (I can just see Joe filling these with his massive soy sauce collection) but I didn’t want to go mad.
In fact, we saved the last of our cash and went to Revolution de Cuba for what was the best salad I’ve had in my life, followed by my favourite rum cocktail – the same as we had on our honeymoon making it a really gorgeous day date.
I love our house and all the work we’re doing to it, but sometimes it’s nice to venture outside to see just what you can find on your doorstep to bring inside.