There is a reason why I haven't written anything since Wednesday, and that reason is my husband. On Thursday (yes, almost a week ago...), my husband arrived to Manchester. So I had to show him many things, share my collection of streets with him, etc. And then we did some discovering together!

We went to see the channels, the shops (there is a big Dr Martens shop where I intend to buy shoes very soon), Piccadilly Gardens, and things. We had cider in one bar (and it was not bad!). We had a burger (finally). We got a monthly bus ticket for him. And so on.

We were also victims of a full English breakfast. The girls made this incredible food for all four of us, and we braced ourselves and ate it. Well, eggs, bacon, sausages, more bacon, baked beans, more sausages, toasts, baked tomatoes, mushrooms, and some extra bacon. And an extra half of sausage! With HP sauce (basically tastes like something between ketchup and bbq sauce with extra vinegar). And, as an extra bonus, a tiny little bit of Marmite to boost the experience and make it unforgettably British. Wow!
The downside: we were only able to eat again at around 6 pm.
We also don't understand how they can eat it, and not have at least 0.5 l of beer with it.

During our city walk, we noticed something funny. All the restaurants announce that Christmas bookings now taken and things like that. Interesting! Means that a) people go for Christmas dinner to restaurants, b) they do so a lot, because booking in necessary already in October.

On the Manchester main square (the one with the city hall), there is something going on... there's a huge orange and red 'statue' of Santa Claus (or who...) on a huge construction, and there are announcements of Christmas markets and ice rink. Well, guys, it's the beginning of November now! Is it really needed to start Christmas prep now?

On a more funny (and more interesting) side, we've seen two people (probably a husband and a wife) riding a houseboat through the locks on the Rochdale channel! And it seemed like a pretty complex thing to do! The guy left the boat (with mug full of coffee), opened one half of the lower door, ran to the upper door, ran across the upper door, and opened the other half of the lower door. His (presumed) wife came in with the boat, the guy reversed the action and closed the lower door. Then he allowed the water to flow from above the upper door to the space between the doors, and then, when the boat came up, he opened the upper door (using the lower door as a bridge) and the boat went through. And then he closed the whole thing, jumped to the boat, explained to us that it was 31 October, i.e. Halloween, and that only a crazy person would stay with the boat in the city centre, and left for the next lock.

Yes, Halloween. We had a Halloween quiz in the office (lot of questions about Norman Bates, Freddy Kruger and folks like that, and some practical tests such as eating a hanging donut). My team did not win, and no wonder, I did not help them much... Also, some kids came knocking on our door on Saturday evening, but we pretended not to be here. (Because we were alone in the house, did not have any sweets, and did not know how to do it properly anyway.) After few minutes, they left elsewhere, probably to claim some Snickers from the neighbours.

I just hope that I will be able to find out how to celebrate the bonfire night - which is on Thursday - soon enough. (I will ask in the office, some English people might know something...)

Well, apart from these very funny things, not much is going on now. I still go to my office by bus. (Funny thing: there is a line in the bus, which says that no standing passengers are allowed behind this line until the bus stops. So I stayed in front of the line when I wanted to leave and waited for the bus to stop. The driver was confused, and did not know whether he needed to stop or not, because obviously there was no one getting ready to leave the bus. Yes, there was me, but I was not behind the line, getting close to the door etc.) I still occasionally walk along the traffic jam. (Just today I did so, selecting the bus I liked most.) My boss still corrects tiny English grammar errors in my work. (I accused him of being article obsessed the other day. He proudly agreed.) And so on.

And by the way: I think that maybe - just maybe - I am happy now.