Thursday, April 7, 2011

Eclectic Delight in Manchester

What fun it was to see the creativity of a man and wife who bought an old school in Manchester and created the Great John Street Hotel, an eclectic delight! Lucky enough to be occupants of this fun place, we thoroughly enjoyed the luxury (especially because someone else was paying for it)!

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The fun creativity sparkled in the “sitting room” upstairs. 

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This terrace was called “The Children’s Playground”.

 

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The rooms were also delightful! A great place to relax and create!

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Above, Dad/Rick….finishing off the final draft of the new book.

Every little cubby was made useful!

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The owner’s wife was the decorator and must have had a ball at flee markets and antique shops!

 

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Every bedroom had a beautifully refurbished bathtub (and even a touch of Indonesian carving)!

 

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Creativity just gives you so many great ideas!  Can’t wait to try some new things when we get home!

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And speaking of delight….we had a terrific time with our new eclectic friends in Manchester! They put on quite an event at a private school where many of their children attend. The campus was incredible! 

 

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As were the very kind and fascinating people. They have started spectacular businesses that I’ve never even thought about!  Each of the 80 people present had an incredible story to tell. Too bad that we didn’t have time to hear all of them!  Such great people whose theme for all their meetings and events this year is “Family First”! 

 

Dinner was boiled lamb shanks, Yorkshire pudding and lovely vegetables complete with a warm apple tart!

 

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Each table represented a value that we talked about. Ours was respect.

 

This darling woman who sat next to us (gathering up centerpieces at the end) was the one responsible for getting us to this event as she had heard us speak in Miami last year. She climbed Kilimanjaro with 4 girlfriends so we had a lot to talk about!

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Here we are with the dynamic chapter leadership!

 

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They gave us the most amazing gift:  a spindle that they found on ebay from one of the old cotton mills. Manchester was the cotton capital of the world at one time and was known for “clothing the world”.  The Museum of Science and Industry was just around the corner from our hotel. Next post about that!  

We LOVE eclectic and these two days were truly an elegant, eclectic experience!

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