Living in London

Today we drove up to Warrington so that Heather could turn in her laptop and say goodbye to the folks she has been working with for the past nine months. It was a rainy, overcast day so, except for the road spray from all the trucks, not a bad day for a long drive.

We had two delightful surprises en route. One was that our driving route took us along the north side of the Peaks District National Park. Wow, what a fantastic looking place, with lots of old stone fences and hedgerows stretching across beautiful rolling hills. We want to come back and take some rambles there.

The second surprise was the best fish and chips we have had since we arrived here 20 months ago. We have been to every “highly rated” fish and chips restaurant we could find and have been consistently disappointed by mushy fish and bad chips. Today we went to “Ye Old Mottram Chippie” on the way to Warrington — the proud owners of the Love Chips website. Its a little hole in the wall that closes at 2:00PM and reopens at 4:30. We arrived at 1:55, just in time to order lunch but only to discover that they have no tables. Naturally, we had take out wrapped in paper – I had cod and Heather had haddock – that we carried back to the car in the cold and rain, and then ate with little plastic forks.

What a delight! Crisp, not greasy, sweet firm fish ... Finally, some fish and chips that can make England proud! The owner of this shop is named Lez Brierley, and of course he has a secret-recipe batter.