Our time in Manchester has been spent scrubbing again, and painting and renovating. Years ago, when our son was a student, we bought a house in Manchester for him to live in while studying. Dental training is rather long and our son had already spent 3 years at university in London getting a degree in Biology before moving to Manchester to study Dentistry. Houses were ridiculously cheap in Manchester at the time - I see they are heading back that way again! He kept the house, and it is still let to students.
This year, it hasn't so far been let, probably because the last lot of students were living in such a disgusting state when it was shown to prospective new tenants in the spring; students look for next year's house very early so as to have it all sorted before their exams, so existing tenants can ruin your chances of finding a new tenant. The house was so dirty and smelly that, after the current tenants moved out at the end of June, my son said he found it quite shocking. They didn't seem to have noticed there was a vacuum cleaner or a dishwasher, and solved the problem of dirty washing up by just removing it all when they left - there was not one plate, cup, fork or saucepan left in the place, and the oven and microwave were so damaged they will have to be thrown away. Even after the first cleaning company had been in, the amount of scrubbing still needed just outfaced me on the first day, and we had to engage a second cleaning company to come in and scrub all the woodwork so it could be re-painted. Skirting boards and door panels were all outlined in thick sticky black dust, and the kitchen walls had to be scrubbed with Cif cleaner and wire wool to remove the layers of grease. Then everything had to be re-painted once it was clean. Once again, I found myself scrubbing the grout between the tiles in somebody else's bathroom! This time, I used bleach which was reasonably successful, but the most successful thing was re-grouting; the bathroom now looks as if it has been re-tiled, especially since Paul has replaced the cracked tiles of the bath surround, and my son has replaced all the mouldy caulking.
The students burned a hole in the filthy sitting room carpet with an iron, so the carpet has now been replaced with a wood floor, which we hope will be easier to clean. All my summer trousers are now marked with stains from muddy water (it's hard to scrub filth without splashing yourself) and covered in paint. Mind you, I haven't put in the amount of work that Paul has, as I haven't been there every day. Some days, I have been at the dentists!
On our first Friday in Manchester, I went to my son's surgery have my 17 year old veneers removed as they were by then quite stained and needed to be replaced. I broke bits off my front teeth in a car accident in 1996, so I've had veneers on them ever since. The veneers had to be drilled off, then a colour match had to be chosen similar to my other teeth, and I had to have temporary plastic caps while the lab was making me new veneers. The drilling off took ages - apparently, my previous dentist 17 years ago had made a very good job of sticking them on. My son found the colour matching with my existing teeth quite difficult so we ended up driving all the way to the lab after he had finished for the day so they could advise on a good match. The technician there spent ages studying and photographing my existing teeth, before eventually deciding on the colour my son had tentatively picked in the first place!
I found the plastic front teeth very difficult to cope with, because you can't bite anything, not even a piece of bread. I had to get used to cutting up all my food, such as my morning toast, into small pieces. At first I found it difficult to remember and partly dislodged the plastic teeth by biting things the following day, and I quite often hit them with my fork, further dislodging them, so I was quite delighted the following Friday to go back to the surgery to have them removed. Imagine our dismay to find the colour of the new veneers wasn't right! After trying every existing colour of glue to adjust the shade, my son concluded that the only possibility was to take more photographs and return the veneers to the lab so they could try again. So I was back to spending a second week with plastic front teeth!
For the second week I was a bit better with the plastic teeth, having had them for long enough to remember not to bite, though there were still some difficulties. On the day we went to Ikea to buy my grandson a new bed to replace his cot, we made the mistake of having ice creams. It's extremely difficult to bite an ice cream cone with your back teeth, so ice cream and strawberry sauce stains joined the muddy water and paint stains on my summer trousers.
It was a great relief to see that the amended veneers matched my existing teeth at the end of the second week I had to spend with the plastic front teeth. My son was able to fit the new veneers and I now have proper front teeth and can bite again. So I don't have to cut my toast into tiny bits tomorrow or rip up my croissant into small pieces, and no more trying to bite an ice cream cone with my back teeth!
Our daughter-in-law and grandson were in France visiting her family for part of our time in Manchester, but after they returned, we also had a day out at the Trafford Centre. We had to go there to buy some coffee pods for their coffee machine, but while there, we discovered some summer holiday attractions. My grandson quite enjoyed the beach, where lots of very sandy children were building a a major castle development. What he really wanted to do was have a go on the aqua boats, though it wasn't entirely successful.
The boat having been made for bigger children, the little soul had a bit of difficulty working out how to steer it - his arms were too far away from the wheel for him to reach it easily. He had a ride on the carousel too, thought with hindsight I think he might have enjoyed riding in the one with the teacups instead. And he was completely fascinated with the huge singing bears, which I quite forgot to photograph.
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