We had a wonderful week in Marple, where Jason grew up and where his aunt and uncle and other relatives on both sides live.

Marple is a small town within the borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England (thanks, Wikipedia!) Jason grew up there, emigrating to Australia at the age of ten.

Marple is situated at the junction of several canal systems and as such, brightly coloured canal boats and equally colourful ducks are a-plenty, making it a veritable feast for the eyes and for children! Rykersaurus loved running alongside the canals, chasing ducks and watching the lock masters open the locks to let the water and then the canal boats through.

We saw where Jason went to school and where he used to live, which really was a wonderful thing for Ryker to see. One of the things that struck Jason was the height of the  walls surrounding the school – he recalls them being colossal! Now they are merely at his hip height – must be all that Aussie sunshine.

Jason’s aunt and uncle organised a family gathering for us on the Sunday, which was really fantastic – people and food included. Rykersaurus was the youngest of the kiddies but talked the most and at the end was sitting on a stool in the middle of the room, firing questions at everyone (adults and children alike) and coming up with wild and crazy scenarios to make people laugh. All this while his parents stood quietly in the corner of the room (as we do, being more introverted than our son). We had to draw the line when Rykersaurus asked everyone what would happen if a “poopie had legs and walked down the street”…

We spent a couple of days exploring the town and seeing relatives, another day in Stockport, the main shopping precinct (by double decker bus, which the Rykersaurus loved) and another in Manchester itself. Manchester is a very lively city, with plenty going on and loads of shops and museums (including the new Football one, which looks impressive from the outside). Seems to be more ‘English’ than London, which has more of a multicultural feel.

During one of the walks along the canals, we stumbled across Hyde Bank Farm, which had tearooms, so we stopped to sample their wares.  One of the barns had been converted into a kind of playroom with kid’s tractors and other vehicles so Ryker had a ball! The adjoining barn not only had goats but pedal go karts, which were awesome! Mummy had to have a go too (see previous pics).

Definitely noticed the difference in temperature between Dubai and UK! Not wanting to pack too many warm clothes due to lack of luggage space, we layered and scarved up and braved the cold. Rykersaurus was complaining of cold hands so we managed to find a travel shop, which had some kid’s gloves (not kid gloves) out the back – it being nearly summer there, all the winter gear had been long packed up! Rykersaurus was much happier after that. That said, the weather for the first few days was glorious, especially on Monday, which was a bank holiday. Every man and his dog was out and about – on foot, on bike or canal boat!  It was on those few days that we would frequent the real estate boards, looking at house prices – it is such a lovely town. We did spot a lovely place called ‘Bottoms Hall’ and even happened to bump into the place on a long walk and spent some time wondering how we could attain it (as well as how we could ever keep a straight face when telling people where we lived).

Had a lovely meal at the Ring O’ Bells pub on our last evening in Marple with Jason’s Aunt Carole and Uncle Mike. Delicious food – much better than the usual ‘pub grub’, which is pretty good in the UK anyway- and loads of it. We rolled down the hill afterwards to Oakfield Lodge, our Bed n Breakfast, our recently expanded stomachs leading the way…(Great place to stay, by the way – nice and cosy, friendly owners and very indulgent English breakfast each morning which fuelled our lengthy walks each day).

With heavy hearts (and luggage), we said goodbye to Marple and caught a local train to Manchester Piccadilly Station, in readiness for the much anticipated intercity trip from Manchester to London, where his two first cousins lay in wait…