Our little break started (as all good breaks do) at the Cheshire Oaks retail outlet. The TAG shop didn't really have anything new to offer, and I was slightly disheartened to see that the orange stitched Grand Carrera I'd been thinking about was priced at £4200 not somewhere mid £3000. Hmm...
We visited quite a few shops here, Lulu Guinness, Thorntons, Reebok, Oakley and of course The Works. We also visited the newly opened 'Hotel Chocolat' shop which offered some discounts over the high street shops, but not a great deal.
Rose found some shoes she sort of liked in Kurt Geiger, although they seemed a bargain at £29 (down from £80) when she turned them over there was a sticker on them pricing them at £19. The cheek!
We lunched at 'Cafe Rouge', where we had a fairly mediocre chicken and chips (with a pot of stone cold Thyme gravy - which we both ignored). Upon ordering the waitress asked if we wanted to order any vegetables with our meal, but Rose pointed out that we were on holiday and so, no... frankly.
We also visited Radley, were Rose pondered a dog shaped handbag but decided it was too impractical, even though it looked very cool. For some reason two of the designs weren't as reduced as the others, which was slightly annoying. But in the end Rose decided against it anyway.
We eventually adjourned to the Premier Inn opposite the Trafford Centre (again) and spent a couple of hours there chilling before going to see Tarja at the Academy 2 (review HERE).
The next day we crossed the road to the Trafford Centre where we idled away a few hours. I tried on a couple of TAG Heuers, including a brand new Carrera with a brown strap and beige lume.
Later in Kurt Geiger we saw some cool shoes that Rose tried on. They were kind of mesh with some small gold highlights and a sensible heel, but Rose wasn't entirely convinced for £120 - but if they appear at the outlet for £40 then they might get a second chance.
I also briefly saw Angela Rippon, who was filming an episode of Rip-Off Britain at the centre, which isn't something you see everyday!
From the Trafford Centre we set sail for Lancaster and in particular the White Cross where we had planned to have dinner. Truth be told it didn't look quite as impressive as it did in the pictures, but it was okay. We had another fairly average meal there (a burger, served with some foul smelling concoction in a small pot, which we both ignored) and left without troubling the pudding menu.
A short walk away we found Lancaster Cathedral, which was unmanned and free to enter. Probably just as well really as it only took about ten minuted to look around... we left a donation anyway and headed off to the Premier Inn (via the one way system and J Sainsbury where we had a thirty minute free parking window to grab what we wanted... not helped by a student needing to buy two carrier bags and paying by credit card - 10p I shit you not!).
We checked in and headed up to our room, which we soon decided was going to be too noisy as it was right by the stairs and lift (the stairs and floorboards were quite creaky). Thankfully we got a different room without any fuss and had to repack and move right to the end of a long corridor, perfect.
As the Premier Inn was attached to a Brewers Fayre we nipped across for a drink before getting ready to go out. This night we saw Cyferdyne, Leth and Cincinnati Box at the Yorkshire House pub (separate review HERE).
After the gig we tried to visit Sainsbury's again, but it was closed and then on the way back to the hotel we stopped at a garage but the numpty in there wouldn't let us in to buy wine and crisps so we gave up and went back to the Premier Inn.
In the morning we packed up our stuff and booked out, saying goodbye to the comedy Yorkshireman on reception who reminded me a little of Bobby Ball. He asked where we were off to and we told him we were planning to go to Morecambe. He looked at us as if we were mental and said 'Well that will take you half an hour' what are you doing the rest of the day...
He wasn't entirely wrong, we actually stayed for forty five minutes, but that was enough really. We saw the statue of Eric Morcombe which was less than completely scintillating, but was probably the best thing on offer, perhaps save the Reebok factory shop which we couldn't actually find.. not that we tried very hard.
We had planned to visit the 'George and Dragon' in Holmes Chapel (junction 18 of the M6) but decided instead we'd rather get home. It's a pity really as it looks very nice, but after two indifferent meals out in a row we were less than enthused about chancing another one, besides it won't be long until we're heading up that way again.
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