Birthday Boy!

A small still of a small still lol!!!
Sorry couldnt resist that.......

Today is hubs birthday....a planned trip into Manchester, to the Manchester Gin Distillery, for a tour followed by lunch. We had a voucher for Christmas for a tour, so today seemed like the perfect time to use it.

We set off thinking it was going to be a bright sunny day...didnt last long, we got soaked going for the bus........then found out that the route into the city had changed due to road closures, so we had to get off and walk to where we planned to grab a coffee.....which we did and guess what, we got there and the shop had closed down :-(

We headed for Cafe Nero, had a nice coffee there before walking across town to the Gin Distillery...where things improved no end :-)

We had a fab tour with Jay, just us, so we had him all to ourselves for over an hour. After our complimentary G&T we went on to taste their six different gins, neat, which was a bit of a revelation to be honest, who knew they were so nice, without tonic?!!

My blip is hub when we first arrived in the tasting room, after our tour, before the tasting.......you can see our glasses laid out, and all the kiln jars of the many botanicals you can smell, and taste, in their gins. In addition to the tour we did you can pay for a gin making session, which includes designing and flavouring your own bottle of gin. Both are good value cor money imho.

Afterwards we treated ourselves to lunch in their restaurant, "Three little words". Hub had bellypork and I had duck leg....both really nice.
We did plan on having a cocktail, but opted for a coffee instead......lightweights ;-) not really, I had to drive later in the day ;-) A pity really, as their cocktail menu is really extensive...and very interesting too!!

Hub chose which gin he liked best, obviously we bought a bottle.....a disocunt on the day post a tour, so of course you have to, don't you :-) Can really recommend this place, especially if you like your gin :-)

We took ourselves off afterwards for a bit of a walk around before going in search of e relocated bus stop for our return journey. I've added an extra of Central Library looking rather good in the sunshine.

Just a light chicken salad for tea this evenig before heading off to camera club, whilst hub caught up on his various scifi programmes with me out of the way ;-)