The I’ve had a bit more of a chance to get acquainted with this lovely city, having had a couple of friends up to visit. It’s such a perfect excuse to act like a tourist because you feel like you’re showing other people around even though it’s all entirely new things.

 We’ve also been lucky in another, very surprising, way: the weather. Whoever told us that Manchester would be cold, miserable and wet 99% of the time were completely wrong. We’ve had gorgeous sun pretty much every weekend.

Food

 Naturally one of the big things I’ve ‘discovered’ is nice places to eat out. Manchester has an overwhelming number of coffee shops, bars and restaurants, including the curry mile. We’ve been doing pretty well at eating at home, pre-planning meals etc. like old people, but again, having friends round gives us the perfect excuse to go out.

 El Gato Negro

 If…