Sally daringly crossing the lock gate after Friday night drinks.

It's a lovely sunny but chilly day and Sal and I are stewarding for a local 10km beer run. 

[edit: apparently it's 'marshalling'. Stewarding is what happens at a beer comp. Close]

We're into week four in Manchester and we're loving it here. Sal's enjoying work with SAP and Co-op but I'm still unemployed. I've been keeping myself busy talking to a gazillion different recruitment agencies and web places as well as getting up to speed with the latest technologies and being a domestic god looking after all the cooking and cleaning around the house.

This week I've decided to learn how to make the perfect bagel. Pictured above are my first attempts. The trick is to start 24 hours ahead by making a sponge (it give it a complex slightly-sour taste) and using malt extract. Worlds apart from the rolls with holes you get from the supermarket. A batch of 8 including cream cheese and seed toppings is £1.50 in total. Bread's pretty fattening so Sal and I have one each for lunch and I take the remaining ones to folks sleeping rough on the streets. Win win.

A New Zealand care package arrived from Yif! 

Yesterday we went on a walking tour of Manchester. Should have done that when we first arrived but was still very informative. The city has a fascinating history as a key figure in the industrial revolution and has had to reinvent itself a couple of times since. 32% of the world's finished cotton products came out of here at one point (hence the 'Manchester' departments in traditional NZ and AU department stores).

The mix of working class, tycoons and immigrants has also made it a place of political revolution. The periods of economic collapse and reinvention have opened the way for a number of cultural shifts ahead of other, more stable cities.

When we got back we re-watched the film, 24 Hour Party People. Nice to see familiar places and to see the changes since that was made.

In the evening we ventured out in the rain to view the Christmas Lights Switch On in the main square near us. Great atmosphere. The streets and squares in the centre of the city are currently being filled with the Christmas market stalls which will run for a month or so in the lead up. We've been told they're not to be missed and they get incredibly busy.

Manchester is abuzz.

Sally and Cilla in Liverpool

Someone knocked Ringo's face off when he said something bad about Liverpool on TV.

Liverpudlians really know how to band together; 28 years ago The Sun newspaper ran an article about how the behaviour of Liverpool fans was what caused the Hillsborough disaster which -- understandably -- upset the entire city and the citizens ran a campaign called Total Eclipse of The Sun which banned them from selling anywhere in Liverpool or the reporters being allowed into any of the sports grounds. 28 years later the boycott is still in place. Good on them; The Sun is total trash.

This morning we're taking the train to Linlithgow in Scotland to catch up with Sally's cousin and family (Ally, John and co). Conveniently, the train station is only 150m from our house.

In other news, I had three days' work this week. Pretty painful Wordpress stuff doing an emergency fix on a project two other developers had abandoned but it was good to be doing something.

Jess

Linlithgow

The Kelpies

Let's go for a walk, he said. It'll be fun, he said.

Went to the Bury markets today. Got some black pudding, sausages and cheese. Also, Brussels sprouts in their original form! I feel like a total city slicker. Never seen them other than in bags.

I'm a fan of place names in England. Some of my favourite tram stop names in Manchester:

• Ashton-under-Lyne
• Besses o' th' Barn
• Chorlton
• Eccles
• Failsworth
• Oldham Mumps
• Shadowmoss
  

We caught a train to Edale and went for a ramble up Mam Tor. Here's Christmas Sally in a bit of snow.

On Sunday we popped down to Chester to catch up with Andy and Melissa. Lovely town and very tempted to try to find a reason to live there.

I've got a potential job lined up in Leeds starting in the New Year. It's a bit of a commute (about 2.5 hours out of my day) but the job sounds really interesting.

In other news we've booked flights and accommodation for Iceland from 27th December until the 1st January. Exciting! Perhaps we'll have better luck with the northern lights this time.

Sounds like it's scorching in NZ but it's getting pretty cold here. 0° right now. Yesterday we watched cars rolling into Manchester with snow on their roofs.

We've been going to a few Christmas parties lately. To make up for it this morning we're going to cycle to our nearest 5km Park Run. It's going to be brisk!

Tonight we're going to explore the Christmas markets and have dinner there. 

[Edit: it started snowing when we left for the Park Run! Very exciting cycling in the snow. The run was canceled but we enjoyed exploring nearby parks]

I've accepted a three month contract with a company in Manchester. There was another job paying 35% more in Leeds but it would have meant adding 2.5 hours travel time to my day and I was suspicious the place wouldn't be much fun. I start there on 2nd Jan. So, yay!

Also, we're going to take a P&O Ferry cruise from Hull to Bruges on Saturday, stay the night there on the Sunday and head back to Hull on the Monday night. Cheap as chips.

Bruges, Iceland, France and a walk in Wales all in the space of four weeks. Our weekends will be full! But that's what we're here for.

We spent the afternoon in Hull. Had a pie with gravy and mashed potato and then went to the aquarium. We like Hull!

Ok. So, Bruges. Last night we went out for Flemish stew and a few beers. This morning went on a walking tour which gave us a good perspective on the city and then a proper waffle followed by potatoes in camembert followed by frites followed by a walk up the Belfries followed by chocolate shopping and a beer tasting.

The last remaining brewery in the city has a pipeline out from the brewery to the bottling plant. Great beer.