Out to lunch.

Yesterday I went to meet my friend Heidy for lunch in Manchester. Heidy is an elusive person. I always know where she is but she is something of a workaholic and is usually busy when I am around in Manchester while I have often disappeared to Galicia when she is available for lunch. Yesterday, however, I caught her on half term from one of the colleges where she works, where we used to work together, and on a lunch break from marking at the other college where she works but which doesn’t seem to take a half term break. 

So we set off for lunch at The Mark Addy, geographically in Salford although it feels like Manchester. There is a point where the two cities merge and it’s hard to tell exactly where you are; quite probably you have a foot in both cities at the same time. We found a bridge over the River Irwell which appears to be a recent addition to the area as it doesn’t figure in this photo. 

Across the bridge we went and in through the front entrance and down the stairs into the pub. In other years we might have sat outside at the end of May but not this year; winter clothes and umbrellas were the order of the day. The food is fine in the Mark Addy. £5.15 for a substantial sandwich seems quite reasonable as it comes with chips and salad – rather more than I usually eat at lunchtime but there you go. 

The prices seem more reasonable than at our local hostelry which recently charged us almost £12 for a couple of pints of beer, a half of lager and an orange juice along with a packet of crisps. I think it was the orange juice that pushed the price up. It seems to me that they catch you at both ends pricewise: city centre prices are elevated for being in the city centre and then places in the outskirts, like our local hostelry, charge you for being out of the city. You can’t win either way. 

Anyway, Heidy and I had a very nice lunch for a sensible price just outside of the city centre. All good. We caught up on all the gossip of my former place of work: who is being promoted, what we think of the promotion, who is feeling stressed, what’s going on with the organisation as a whole. 

Do I miss the hurly burly? Not at all. I quite enjoy being permanently out to lunch.