Monday, March 24 - Trip to England Day 3

This was an adventurous day. We headed out with the kids in the rental car following Verity & Stuart to go to the Manchster Art Gallery. Although I had visited Japan & Australia earlier in my life, this was actually my first time driving in a country with a road system where you drive on the left side of the road. Accompanied by the width of the lanes also being much thinner than in the States, I unfortunately misjudged the distance between the edge of the car the side of the road and hit a curb, punching a hole in the front passenger tire. Verity & Stuart noticed we had pulled over, quickly stopped and came back to help.

One would think that you'd have exactly what you'd need to change a flat with a brand new rental car, but we found that it was missing both the jack and the locking wrench. So after calling the rental company, we ended up calling the AA (sort of like the US's AAA, but they have their own large fleet of tow/service vehicles). Verity and Sarah took the kids in the other car and headed on down to Manchester's city center while Stuart and I stayed to wait for AA.

The AA arrived within a minute of the time they had estimated in a text message they sent to Stuart's phone. The technician was a very kind and very eccentric old fellow who magically got the flat off and the spare on without the aid of the special locking nut (one of the nuts on each of the tires has a special shape to prevent tire theft).

I drove the car with Stuart's excellent tutoring to the school he and Verity work at then took a double decker bus into the city center (my first time on one of those), and we met up with the women & kids at the art gallery. We were only there for about an hour spending most of the time in the children's interactive exhibit (pictures).

We walked to Lincoln square where there is a statue of Abraham Lincoln, giving him tribute for a letter he wrote to the city of Manchester thanking them for the economic burden caused by their embargoing cotton trade with the Confederacy. After taking some pictures we then ate at a favorite oriental noodle restaurant of Verity & Stuart, which of course was excellent.

We took a cab back to our cars, then Stuart & I took Dejaquan & Norah with us back to Stockport while Verity & Sarah did some shopping. On the way back, I got to further practice driving with Stuart in the car and we stopped at a Matlin to buy a UK2US power converter. There was one on sale for £10, so I figured I actually saved money, with the cheapest one I could find at Radio Shack before coming over was $30.

Right when I pulled up to the curb at their home in Stockport, I realized it would be a good time to return the car for one with a working spare (and jack and proper tools). So I got more practice driving with Stuart in the car to & from the airport. I got to give Stuart credit for getting a good reimbursement on the cost of the rental car. I couldn't convince the desk clerk to compensate for the inconvenience caused by the lack of the jack and locking wheel. When I got back from shopping around the car rental companies for the best price on a 4-door automatic, he had managed to convince the clerk to give us a £20/day rebate, plus waive the fee for not filling up the tank.

That evening, Stuart & I went on a 4 mile run together (he's training for the London Marathon) while the kids ate dinner. After a shower, the adults ate while the kids watched The Monsters.