21 September - New old friends

Last year, one my sits through TrustedHousesitters was in the village of Mickle Trafford, a small village outside Chester. We had arranged to arrive the afternoon before the people we were sitting for were to leave on holiday. Christine and Nicholas picked us up at the train station, brought us to the local grocery store to get our supplies for the week and drove us around to help us get the lay of the land, After showing us around the house and letting us get settled in, we enjoyed a meal and an evening together. By the end of the evening, Christine and I had bonded. It's funny how sometimes you meet someone with whom you instantly feel a connection. We’ve stayed in touch via WhatsApp. It's a year later and Manchester is commuting distance from Mickle Trafford, so Christine drove over for a visit. What can I say about Christine?

She is one of the most open, honest, brilliant, funny women I've met in recent years. Since I last saw her, she has had her first children’s book published. It’s a sweet, sensitive story about an unlikely friendship between a kitten and a peahen that teaches children valuable lessons about kindness and inclusion in the setting of the British countryside. The book is called “The Adventures at Hog Farm – A Kitten’s Tale”. If you have children or grandchildren, I highly recommend it!

We drove out of Manchester into the countryside with perfect, sunny skies all around, and ended up in Sheffield in the Peaks District.

Like much of England, the fields are filled with grazing sheep in fields divided by lovely stone walls.

Feeling a bit peckish, we found a lovely little country pub called Ye Old Mustard Pot. After a wonderful fish and chips lunch, we settled in for a catch up and a bit of philosophising. Christine is one of those extraordinary people who can have you spilling your deepest darkest secrets while feeling completely secure, because she inspires complete trust. (If you see all my deepest darkest secrets exposed in her next book, I take it all back. LOL)

The afternoon flew by, accompanied by lots of laughter and though we had planned to head back into Manchester before rush hour, we missed our target. We started back while Google Maps did its very best to misdirect us but between her phone, my phone and the car’s SatNav, we managed to make it back to my digs. We pledged to stay in touch and maybe even travel together. Would the world survive the two of us together?

An evening at home with British telly followed, then off to bed. All in all, a lovely day.