FRIDAY, 16 OCTOBER 2026

(Home, UK – Manchester Airport, UK)

I woke up and enjoyed the fact that I wasn’t working today. Andrew, unfortunately, still had a day to go. I poured the coffee, and did online check-in for our flights tomorrow, before making breakfast for us both. My being off meant that Andrew was treated to a bacon and egg muffin delivered to his ‘office’, to soften the blow of working.

The rest of the morning included some further packing, printing and laminating luggage tags, charging up various electrical devices, packing my hand luggage (multiple cameras to hopefully provide great shots for you over the coming days), emptying the fridge, cleaning the kitchen…I was busy! I did eventually have a couple of hours to rest and do some crochet, before showering and changing to go to the airport.

Andrew finished work at 6pm, so the taxi was booked for 7.15pm. We hadn’t used Eddie’s taxis before, but he is a neighbour of ours, so it seemed a good option. He confirmed the booking yesterday, and then again this morning, and then rang 45 minutes before just to check again, so there was never a worry that he wouldn’t turn up. He was very chatty on the smooth ride to the airport, dropping us off just after 8pm.

By 8.15pm, we were seated in the restaurant, having checked in and dropped our bags in the room. Over the next hour we enjoyed our dinner, before returning to the room to relax and unwind before hopefully getting a good night’s sleep. We have an early (by my standards) start tomorrow.