Day 15 - Happy birthday Jessica.

Well, any concerns we may have had about our accommodation's proximity to what seemed to be a main road leading from Preston to Blackpool were very soon quelled - hardly heard a thing all night, and I don't think that was entirely due to the double glazing. Beds O.K., but the pillows lack a certain depth...literally - I suspect that they are more like glorified antimacassars for the bottom sheets. However, this was more than made up for by the glorious breakfast served by the proprietors - to my mind, a traditional full English breakfast the way we remembered it from last time - bacon, eggs, tomato, sausage, mushrooms and baked beans, washed down with a lavish supply of tea - a glorious start to the day.

Today was a day of contrasting cultural events, both equally enjoyable in their own right. First up, a reasonably cheap bus ride into town (£5 for a day family ticket for the 4 of us) to visit the Harris museum - council run and free entry. An extremely well put together exhibition, very informative, and not too overloaded with information - just enough to keep one interested before moving on to the next display. A lovely collection of glass containers and ceramics over the past few centuries, with an excellent historical commentary on their evolution over time. Also an equally compelling potted history of Preston. Home of the Temperance movement and the first teetotalers (didn't quite catch on, did it?), birthplace of Sir Tom Finney, arguably on of the finest footballers ever to pull on a pair of boots and home of the Preston North End football team, a club with a very long, proud, but sadly not as successful a history as their pedigree might have suggested they should have had over the years - if my memory serves me correct one of the earliest (if not the first) winners of the football league championship. Also the first club to introduce the concept of paying players for their services as professionals. Preston also has a proud Guild history, the oldest in Britain, which they celebrate every 20 years, and which we missed by mere weeks - looks like we'll have to return in 2032, a bit earlier next time though. I also later learnt that Preston was the first place in Britain to open a Kentucky Fried Chicken 'restaurant', opened by the colonel himself - undoubtedly a town of 'firsts'.

I've noticed a number of buildings and streets referencing the name 'Arkwright' - surprisingly, not a reference to the Ronnie Barker character in 'Open all hours', but rather testament to the inventor of the spinning jenny during the industrial revolution - a revolution for a revolution so to speak.

Subway for lunch (kid's choice), then off to Sue' sister, Jean's. Jean's husband, Mick, had very kindly offered to take Patrick and I to the Preston North End game against London club, Crawley Town. Great atmosphere and the game started off reasonably well; nil all at half-time but Preston seemed to have the better part of the play, especially in the first half of the half, but lost their way a bit, not helped by some rather dubious refereeing decisions. Crawley then scored 2 what must be said were pretty good goals, and Preston struggled to get back. A late goal gave back a bit of pride, but it was too little too late, and sadly our presence was not enough to help secure a win for the home side - perhaps in 20 years time when we come back for the Guild. Excellent ground, and seemed, at first glance, to be bigger than Football Park back home, but I think it was probably something of an illusion - the stands were raked more steeply and only one tier.

Back to Jean and Mick's place where Isabel had been entertaining Sue's Matthew, and Jean and a number of her friends had been entertaining Julianne. Preston itself as a town may not be the most scenic nor picturesque, but to a person, the people we have met have been nothing but warm, welcoming and fine ambassadors of the northern hospitality which one often hears about. An especially big thank you to Jean and Mick for giving us your time and friendship - we hope to repay it in some  small way when you come to Adelaide.

Again, the promised free Wi-fi hasn't quite come to fruition at our current accommodation, as it would seem that again, we are quite possibly, in the room furthest from the necessary doohicky thing which makes it work. Luckily, Jean and Mick came to the rescue and kindly allowed Julianne to hack into their bank account and transfer all their money into ours access our blog and we were able to cut and paste successfully as I thought I was going to be able to do a few blogs ago. Hopefully our blogs will now become more regular (no Jean, that wasn't a 'bowel' reference!), even if the content remains abysmal. I will now have to update future blogs whilst we are here, in the awful peace and quiet of the downstairs lounge rather than the highly entertaining battleground between Patrick and Isabel which allows for unhurried and focused attention.