SPECIAL EDITION MANCHESTER WITH THE KIDS

T-65 and on Saturday morning, after a quick breakfast of Shreddies and a cup of tea, me Gareth and Tracey jumped into the car and headed north on the M1 towards Manchester. The journey was easy apart from the middle lane hoggers and we arrived at my other brother, Chris' house just before 11am. Another cup of tea followed, expertly made by my niece Abigail before we settled in to watch the Man United V Liverpool FA cup tie on TV. I didn’t break any glasses, honest it wasn’t me. It was the dog, or the kids. It wasn’t me that broke the glass!! United were the better team, but were beaten by Liverpool with a last minute goal. My other nephew, Michael also turned up with his other half – Lucy, so it was nice to meet her for the first time during the game.

I headed outside to forget the football off the TV and had a game of football myself with James, Peter and Jo on the muddy grass in the back garden. There was some fantastic football played in-between the ball flying into the hedge and over next doors fence and we played for ages until the grass had nearly gone and we were slipping all over the place in the mud.

Late in the afternoon Gareth headed back home with Tracy, dropping Michael and Lucy on the way, leaving me, Chris and the kids. We spent the evening spread out in the front room. Abigail lying on the floor and me sharing the sofa with Joe and Peter, watching 'An Idiot Abroad' on DVD, laughing at Karl Pilkington and his weird ways for at least the 3^rd time and we ended up having a great night in.

HANGING ABOUT

FOOTY

FOOTY

END OF FOOTY

OO?

EVENING

JAMES 'GAME;,,,,,DODGY

I went to bed later but came back down after midnight to find James, in the front room staring at a nearly naked bloke on the TV. I thought I may have discovered a new fetish of James', but it turns out he was just playing a wrestling game in the X box – still, it did look a bit weird!

T-64. After a good lie in it was a good breakfast of Bacon butties and a cup of hot sweet tea with the kids and Chris. Then, after the kids had finally got their boots, hats and gloves on we all piled into the car with Taz, the dog, in the boot and we drove out of Manchester towards 'Dream', a strange 20metre high white head, that overlooks the M62 motorway near to St Helens just outside Manchester. It is built in the site of an old mine/colliery and is a great place to take the kids and the dog for a Sunday afternoon walk. It is known to the kids in our family as ' The Big Giant Willy Head', as for some reason in their eyes, it resembles a big giant willy!?! (Strange kids!!)

So we arrived there safely, even though Chris' handbrake warning buzzer was sounding all the way – We just turned up the radio to hide the noise and the kids loved singing along with their own version of the words. The dog jumped out of the car and we headed off around the pathway that leads around the site and up the hill towards the Big Head. Taz, the dog, was dirty and wet within a minute as he headed into the first, second and third puddles he saw, with Peter and Joe following him into them. Abbie found some ice in the puddles too and that got thrown around as everyone ran around being mental – following the dog through the mud, across the grass and up the hill.

We practised a couple of jump shots on the way and when we reached the top of the hill, we had a quick look around the head, before finding a bench and doing some proper jump shots of our own. Abbie, Peter, Joe, Chris, me and even Taz the dog took turns to jump off the bench and try to get the best jump shot with the Big White Willy Head in the background.

It was time to get back to the car so we walked back down the hill loaded up and drove home, the long way around stopping on the way to get some soft drinks for the thirsty kids from a shop, finally getting home 45 minutes later after crossing the 12p toll bridge and driving back through Partington and having to stop as one pillock did a U-Turn in the middle of The Mile Road in front of us!

NOBHEADS

TAZ

PUDDLES

JUMP

FALL

Its been a lovely weekend, even though we lost the football. I have had a lot of fun messing about with the kids and playing football, wandering through the mud and playing with the dog. They go back home to their mum Julies tonight though and I wont see them again for a few weeks, but I stay in Manchester for a few days and cant wait to go to Old Trafford – the Theatre of Dreams, for the football on Tuesday night.

GREAT BIG WILLY HEAD