Welcome - Cheadle & Gatley 41 Club

Manchester Round Table (formerly Cheadle & Gatley Round Table) have been very active in resurrecting Area 46

and now contribute 3 members to the Area Executive.

The Table is currently 10 members strong with an expected transfer in arriving soon.

Our club is truly international with members coming from the distant shores of Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire.

Not content with this status, however, 15 members were persuaded to travel to Porto in early April,

having been encouraged by forecasts that the rain there would be warmer than in Cheadle.

Arriving at the airport for a 4.30 am start, members immediately demonstrated their travelling mastery by

endeavouring to scan passports instead of boarding cards, presenting passports that were unsigned and

trying to tap into the public transport contactless system using Euro notes.

Once arrived in Porto, the team selected the metro stop closest to the hotel from Google maps,

unaware that the route was a mile long one in three hill surfaced with cobbles. Arriving at reception

exhausted we did, however, find comfortable rooms in a central square and established base camp in

the Café Java, affectionately renamed ‘Kellet’s Bar’. Whilst some retired to the hotel to catch up on

sleep, others preferred to invest 20 Euros in a tour bus ticket so they could sleep sitting upright in the open air.

The rest of the weekend passed in an alcoholic haze. During a guided walking tour of the city, two

members showed their support for the local LGBT community by wearing pink shirts and holding

hands before everyone tested their eyesight when a young woman was spotted preparing to jump from

a third floor balcony.

The following day featured a guided tour of the Cockburns port lodge complete with tasting followed

by an abortive attempt to find an outside restaurant for lunch before being relegated to an old

warehouse where we were forced to eat alone.

On the last day, everyone took the metro to the beach at Matasinhos to partake of a team lunch in a

beachside restaurant before returning to the airport for one last Super Bock before joining the flight

home, arriving at midnight and disappearing into the balmy Manchester night. Hasta la vista, baby!

Andy Hunter

International Office