The weather forecast for today was supposed to be wet till 10am then dry. They lied, it rained on and off all day. Fortunately we had not planned to do much so we had a bit of a lie in then walked into Macclesfield to peer in through the windows of the closed museums and have a nice lunch. Most daytime restaurants are still closed but Pizza Express are open and pleased to see us. I have never been in a Pizza Express before and was keen to see how their pizzas compare with my own, I was quite pleased to find they are very similar and as they are supposed to be the experts made me feel a little more confident that my own burnt offerings are not too bad.
Macclesfield has a nice town centre with a pleasant square, the fancy viewpoint next to the church gives you a panorama of the station and bypass (picture above), not the finest view in Cheshire.
In a dry moment we moved 3 miles along the canal to Bollington, a nice little town with a couple of small pubs and two big mills. It seems a waste not to move each day, after lockdown it is good to have different surroundings every day.
I have had a couple of “I don’t believe it” moments this week. I have a pay as you go mobile, it probably costs me £50 a year so a considerable saving on any calling plan I am always being pressurised to sign up to. As I discovered this week it also helps you spot swindles. I had £3 credit, plenty to call a taxi. I needed to call the Canal and River Trust to book a slot in the Harecastle tunnel, called the number, listened to the “your call is important to us” announcements for a few minutes and was then connected to a human. By the time I had given him my name and number the call dropped out – the Bastards use a premium rate number for bookings. Somehow because it is a “Trust” you imagine kind hearted spinsters running a volunteer organisation not swines who are after every hard earned penny.
So then I had to top up my phone, a call to EE but somehow my credit card transaction got mangled so I selected the “speak to a real person” option to sort it out. I then was given an announcement that it costs 25p to call them and as I only have 9p credit they won’t talk to me, the customer, who wants to give them some money. “I DON’T BELIEVE IT” was uttered very loudly.