The Booze Cruise

I spent a lot of time around canals yesterday. However, I have to note the distinct difference between where I started the day and where it ended...
My Canal day began with a 9.1 mile run alongside the Rochdale canal where Paula and I took the scenic route on a run out to Rochdale and back. Intending to run 10 miles, we wimped out on the steep climb back up to where we'd parked the cars as soon as we attempted it. The attempt resulted in a lot of 'ooh... ahh... ow... ooh' from both of us and we agreed that tow-path running had been hard, we must have burned more calories from the trail-like nature of the terrain, and we definitely needed to 'walk it out', so we treated ourselves to a gentle walk (with intermittent jogging on the down hill) back to the cars!



On the 'booze cruise'



Racing back home, I had just enough time to eat, walk the dog and doll myself up for my booze cruise. I have to say, booze cruises are definitely for winners, especially when they have copious amounts of free booze on them! The price we paid to hire the boat included several bottles of wine, which was being generously decantered into our glasses by one of my colleagues; and if that wasn't enough, our own 'Esteemed Leader' very kindly put some of her own, hard-earned cash behind the bar so we could all have 2 free(ish) drinks each - free(ish) because if drinking alcohol, the voucher required 'topping up' with your own money, but still... I'm defintiely not complaining! The barge took us on a 3 hour trip up and down the Bridgewater Canal from the centre of Manchester and by the end of it, we were all up and dancing... with one of my colleagues very impressively pulling off the splits in the middle of the floor!!

I then spent the next three hours supping cider (the girlie fruit sherbet tasting sort) at a canal-side bar and then true to the theme of the day we trotted off to Canal Street for the end of the night. For those of you not au fait with Manchester, this is our version of London's Soho, only tinier. Otherwise known as 'The Gay Village'. Hilariously, my previous visit had been with a large group of people out celebrating a friend's birthday, all of whom were allowed in, except me and my friend (I think because we very much look like the sort who'd cause trouble in a bar!); after much begging negotiating, they did eventually let us in but insisted we were to stay only in the room upstairs... which turned out to be a large empty function room with no music and the lights full on! Needless to say, we made the most of it!



Thankfully, this did not happen last night and we all trotted into the first bar we found which played the most perfect cheesy music all night. I kicked my shoes off and danced the night away around my handbag, and although tempted by the very shiny dancing poles positioned around the dance floor, you'll be pleased to know I managed to resist the temptation of heaving myself around one thus avoiding any potential embarassing pole dancing disasters with all my colleagues watching! As it was, it turned out to be a good job that I spent the remaining 3 hours of the night dancing as, in addition to the large moderate amount of alcohol I binge drank last night, I managed to accidentally stumble into a fish and chip shop on my way to find a taxi and whilst in there similarly manged to accidentally order a massive portion of chips which I fiendishly devoured with no thought to my diet what-so-ever!



Oooops!... Running Club tomorrow!





stupid alcohol making me eat stupid chips!