Mul on veel jutustamata lugu sellest, kuidas me käisime Davidiga aprilli lõpus tükikest Kesk-Inglismaad avastamas. Meie peamine peatuspaik oli Manchester, aga me kolasime mitu päeva hoopis mujal ringi. Ühel päeval oli eesmärk käia Alrey Hallis ja teisel päeval Black Country Living Museumis.

Jaanuari lõpus, kui David sai 45, kinkisin talle sünnipäevaks reisi, mille suurem mõte keerles tema ühe lemmikseriaali “Peaky Blinders” ümber. Planeerisin reisi teadlikult aprilli teise poolde, et ilmad oleksid pisut ilusamad, aga täis-turistihooaeg ei oleks veel peal. Tegelikult panin haiguse kõrvalt selle jaoks pikalt ka finantsi kõrvale, et me saaksime natuke rohkem nautida ka hotelli ja selle võlusid – nagu näiteks Manchesteri kesklinna vaadet 14. korruselt. Ausalt öeldes oli see natuke nagu ka preemiareis mulle endale, et suutsin eelmisel aastal nii vapper olla.

Tundub, et ettevalmistusega ja mõtetega kuhu minna panin täppi, sest mõlemad suuremad Manchesterist väljas asuvad sihtkohad olid parajalt inimtühjad. Samas tuias seal ringi sobilik ports elu teises vaatuses siblivaid kodanikke (ma pean siinkohal silmas, et nad olid +40 ikka).

Lendasime Manchesteri kolmapäeval – päev pärast immunoteraapiat ja tõele au andes, siis ma kartsin terve aja, et ei pruugi reisi vastu pidada. Õnneks mu keha siiski kuulas mu soovi ja jaksas kuni laupäevani kenasti kõike kaasa teha. See tähendab, ka kolme esimese päevaga kõndida umbes 59 000 sammu. Rekord tuli reedel, kui käisime Black Country Living Museumis, mis on üks “Peaky Blindersi” peamisi filmimise lokatsioone.

See vabaõhumuuseum on täiesti erakordne paik. See, kuidas nad jutustavad loo sellest, miks piirkonda kutsuti kunagi Black Countryks – ehk mustaks maaks – on lihtne, loogiline ja väga elutruu. Selgeks sai see, kuidas kunagi söekaevanduses elu päriselt käis, kuidas ja miks veeti hobuseid kaevandusse, milliseid töid tegid naised, milliseid mehed ning kuidas turvalisus ajaga söekaevandustest muutus.

Saime piiluda ka sarjast tuttavasse Charlie’s yardi ehk kanaliäärsesse töökotta, näha üht õiget elupaigana kasutatud hobukaarikut, eelmise sajandi esimese poole apteeki, erinevasse kümnendisse jäävaid majapidamisi, telliste valmistamise töökoda, söekaevandust, lasteaeda-polikliinikut, kirikut, muusikapoodi, raamatukogu jne.

Üks ägedamaid elamusi oli kindlasti ka kinokülastus. Tol päeval oli kinomenüüs 1930. aasta Stan Laureli ja Oliver Hardy “Hog Wild”. Saalitäis rahvast rõkkas naerda ja elas igale kaadrile kaasa umbes sama entusiastlikult kui toonane kinopublik. Arvestades, et vahepeal on möödunud ligi sajand, siis oli kindlasti tegemist omas ajas väga vägeva action-komöödiaga. Olgem ausad, see on väga kift film ka tänases võtmes.

Vabaõhumuuseumi külastust alustasime me tegelikult bussisõiduga, mis tegi kogu alale tiiru peale. Kuna muuseum asus meie hotellist umbes kahe tunni, kuhu kuulus kaks rongisõitu ja umbes pooletunnine jalutuskäik, kaugusel, tähendas see seda, et päeva lõpuks olin ma väga läbi, aga väga õnnelik.

Päev varem, neljapäeval, sõitsime rongi ja taksoga Arley Halli, et imetleda sealset massiivset mõisaaeda ja piiluda sisse mõisahoonesse. Meie pettumuseks selgus kohapeal, et mõisahoone on avalikkusele avatud ainult ühel teisipäeval igas kuus… tegin nalja, et sisse pääseb täiskuu ajal viirukeid põletades. Pettumusest üle saanuna suutsime ikkagi kogu seda ilu nautida.

Muide, seda mõisamaja avalikkusele avatuse teemat arutasime põgusalt ka ühe aias ringi jalutanud härraga, kes tõdes muigel sui, et ilmselt ei olnud meie külastuse ajal “kodus” ka Thomas Shelby. Kes pole sarja näinud, siis tegemist on Gillian Murphy mängitava peaosalisega.

Ahjaa, Arley Halli kirikus/kabelis oli ka üks naljakas nurgake, mille taha piiludes vaatas vastu õlgedest mees… Mis iganes eesmärgil ta seal on, siis meie saime kõhutäie naerda, sest oletasime, et igal pool hiilivad ringi mõrtsukad, kummalised posijad jne. Nimelt on meil juba mõnda aega õhtuseks meelelahutuseks 2000. alguse Briti krimisari “Wire in the blood”. No ja kes ei teaks Midsomeri sarja, kus on kogu maakond vist juba kolm korda maha notitud ja ikka leidub seal nii ohvreid kui tapjaid.

Lisaks Arley Hallile käisime tol neljapäeval ka väikeses linnas nimega Warrington, kus sattusime pooljuhuslikult linna hallatavasse muuseumi. Kolm (!) korrust täis põnevust, ajalugu, kunsti! Muide, sealt on pärit “Alice Imedemaalt” autor Lewis Carroll ja Titanicu kapten Edward J. Smith. See muuseum oli tõesti juhuslik leid. Nagu ka see linn. Pidime lihtsalt Manchesterist sinna rongiga sõitma, et edasi järgmise transpordiga mõisa jõuda. Igatahes, soovitan soojalt kogu ümbrust.

Muidugi käisime ka Manchesteris ringi ja jõudsime seal paari muuseumi. Nägime dinosauruse skeletti, seda, kuidas puuvillast niiti tehakse, nuusutasime lähemalt piirkonna tööstusrevolutsiooniaegset elu ja vaatasime suuri ronge.

Kuna ma selles postituses joriseda ei taha, siis jutustan järgmisel korral praegusest juba pühapäevast kestvast haigusest. Ei lähe kuidagi paremaks, pigem muutub see mahlakasena jooksev tatt ainult kollakasrohekamaks ja kogu olemine läheb nõrgemaks – kuumahood käivad iga tund peal ja vahepeal tekib tunne nagu tahaks südame välja oksendada. Aga juba reedel (homme) tuleb anda uued vereproovid ja teisipäeval minna immunoteraapiasse.

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I still haven’t told the story of how David and I went to explore a little corner of Central England at the end of April. Our main base was Manchester, but for several days we actually wandered around elsewhere. One day our goal was to visit Arley Hall, and on another day we went to the Black Country Living Museum.

At the end of January, when David turned 45, I gave him a birthday trip centered around one of his favorite TV series, Peaky Blinders. I deliberately planned the trip for the second half of April so the weather would hopefully be a little nicer, while the full tourist season still hadn’t kicked in yet. To be honest, despite everything related to my illness, I had also been putting money aside for a long time so we could enjoy the hotel and its little luxuries a bit more, like the view over central Manchester from the 14th floor. In many ways it also felt like a reward trip for myself, for having managed to stay so brave throughout the previous year.

It seems I got the timing and destinations exactly right, because both of the larger attractions outside Manchester were pleasantly uncrowded. At the same time, there was still a fitting number of fellow “second-act-of-life” visitors wandering around (meaning people over 40).

We flew to Manchester on Wednesday, the day after my immunotherapy treatment, and honestly, the entire time I was afraid I might not physically manage the trip. Fortunately, my body listened to what I wanted and held up beautifully until Saturday. Which also meant walking around 59,000 steps during the first three days alone. The record came on Friday when we visited Black Country Living Museum, one of the main filming locations for Peaky Blinders.

This open-air museum is an absolutely extraordinary place. The way they tell the story of why the region was once called the Black Country is simple, logical, and incredibly vivid. It became very clear what life in the coal mines was actually like, how and why horses were taken underground, what kinds of work women did versus men, and how safety conditions in the mines evolved over time.

We also got to peek into Charlie’s Yard, the canal-side workshop familiar from the series, see a real horse-drawn caravan that had actually been used as a home, visit a pharmacy from the first half of the previous century, explore homes from different decades, a brickmaking workshop, a coal mine, a nursery-clinic, a church, a music shop, a library, and much more.

One of the coolest experiences was definitely going to the cinema there. That day they were showing the 1930 Hog Wildstarring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The entire audience roared with laughter and reacted to every scene almost as enthusiastically as cinema audiences probably did back then. Considering nearly a century has passed, it must have been an incredible action comedy in its own time. Honestly though, it’s still a fantastic film even today.

We actually started our visit to the open-air museum with a bus ride around the entire site. Since the museum was located about two hours from our hotel, including two train rides and roughly a thirty-minute walk, by the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted, but also very, very happy.

The day before, on Thursday, we traveled by train and taxi to Arley Hall to admire its massive manor gardens and peek inside the manor house itself. To our disappointment, we discovered on arrival that the house is only open to the public on one Tuesday each month… I joked that perhaps entry was only granted during a full moon while burning incense. Once we got over the disappointment, we still managed to fully enjoy all the beauty around us.

By the way, we briefly discussed this whole “rarely open to the public” topic with a gentleman walking around the gardens, who smilingly remarked that apparently Thomas Shelby wasn’t “home” during our visit either. For anyone who hasn’t seen the series, he’s the main character played by Cillian Murphy.

Of course we also explored Manchester itself and visited a couple of museums there. We saw a dinosaur skeleton, learned how cotton thread is made, got a closer look at life during the Industrial Revolution in the region, and admired giant trains.

Since I don’t want to ramble endlessly in this post, next time I’ll tell the story of the illness I’ve been dealing with since Sunday. It’s not getting any better, if anything, the impressively flowing mucus is only turning more yellow-green, and I keep getting weaker. Hot flashes hit me every hour, and at times it feels like I could vomit my heart out. But already on Friday (tomorrow) I have to give new blood samples, and on Tuesday I’ll be back for immunotherapy again.

Oh, and inside the church/chapel at Arley Hall there was also a funny little corner where, if you peeked behind it, you were suddenly staring at a straw man… Whatever purpose he serves there, we ended up laughing hysterically because we immediately assumed murderers, strange occultists, and other creepy characters were lurking everywhere. For quite some time now, our evening entertainment has been the early-2000s British crime series Wire in the Blood. And of course, who doesn’t know Midsomer Murders, where it feels like the entire county has been murdered three times over already, yet somehow there are still both victims and killers left.

Besides Arley Hall, we also visited the small town of Warrington that same Thursday, where we more or less accidentally stumbled into the town museum. Three (!) floors full of excitement, history, and art! By the way, Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Edward Smith, the captain of the Sinking of the RMS Titanic, both came from there. That museum was truly an accidental discovery. Just like the town itself. We only had to travel there by train from Manchester in order to catch the next transport onward to the manor.

In any case, I warmly recommend the entire surrounding area.

Of course, we also wandered around Manchester itself and managed to visit a couple of museums there. We saw a dinosaur skeleton, learned how cotton thread is made, got a closer look at what life during the Industrial Revolution in the region was actually like, and admired enormous trains.

Since I don’t want to ramble on endlessly in this post, I’ll talk next time about the illness I’ve been dealing with since Sunday. It’s not getting any better, if anything, the impressively flowing mucus is only turning more yellow-green, and my whole body feels weaker and weaker. Hot flashes hit me every hour, and sometimes it feels like I could literally vomit my heart out. But already on Friday (tomorrow) I have to go give new blood samples, and on Tuesday it’s time for immunotherapy again.