My birthday is in January – just 3 weeks after Christmas when everyone is fed up and willing payday to hurry up.

So to cheer myself up and chase away the January blues, we always book a night away in Manchester so I can take full advantage of shopping ’til I drop, eating till I’m stuffed and drinking like a fish.

This time we managed to get a great deal for two nights with breakfast at The Marriott Victoria and Albert through Wowcher.

We paid £150 for two nights in a double room, however back in October they upgraded us to a suite with it being our wedding anniversary. I emailed the hotel in advance to see if there were any offers we could get.

The staff at the Marriott go above and beyond and they kindly upgraded us to a junior suite on the 2nd floor.

These suites are incredible. There is a separate lounge area with a sofa that is bigger than my one at home, and a wall mounted TV, plus the usual tea  and coffee facilities. Going through to the bedroom, there is a king sized bed – which I’m sure is actually bigger than a king size as it genuinely feels like I’m in there on my own – and little luxuries like feather down pillows, duvet and swan shaped towels.

The bathroom has a large vanity area, bath and shower with luxe toiletries and a great mirror for getting ready in.

When we arrived at the hotel there was a welcome ‘happy birthday’ tray left in the room with macaroons and raspberries and a birthday card from the staff. It was a real personal touch, which is something you get from all the staff there.

Friday night we were booked into Browns Brasserie for a gifted three course meal.

Browns is my new go to place when travelling to Manchester because the food and service are just amazing. Set in a grand Edwardian building with some amazing architectural features, it’s buzzing with atmosphere and great for people watching. You can read more about our Browns experience here.

After filling up, we walked over to Printworks to catch a movie. After seeing how many award nominations it had received, we opted for 1917 and we weren’t disappointed. Okay, okay, I was asleep for the first 10 minutes. I just needed a little power nap, it’s hard getting up at 5am, working and then eating and drinking my own body weight.

The film is the journey of a young man in the war, racing against the clock to deliver a message that would potentially save thousands of lives.

Dodging the German soldiers in a what seems deserted no mans land, the film grips you and takes you back in time. Look out for my review coming soon.

We got back to the hotel around 1am and sleep was definitely needed.

Saturday means shopping. Yippeeee.

We ate breakfast at the hotel, Simon opting for a full English and me trying to be good with avocado and poached egg. Again, service and food at the hotel is just second to none and nothing is too much trouble.

We walked into town and hit the shops.

To be fair the shopping trip wasn’t as successful as I was hoping for but the high street is between seasons and sales, and I won’t buy for the sake of it.

I did however pop into Selfridges to get matched for some Mac foundation and was really pleased when the make up artist did a full base and blush free of charge.

I love having my make up done, even if I am going to have a shower before I go out.

I came away with lots of goodies from the Mac counter. If I ever feel brave I might just might do a make up blog. We’ll see.

Saturday night and we were booked into Simon’s favourite place to eat – The Botonist.

He was fortunate enough to have tried the new menu when he went to Manchester with Beff on a menu tasting trip. You can read about that here.

Again the service is always fantastic here, we were seated towards the back of the eating area, and water was bought to the table.

Our favourite thing to order hear is the pork scratching and onion petals, this time served with a tangy chilli jam.

We followed this with two of the new hanging kebabs and opted for salt and pepper belly pork, again with a chilli and lime dressing and salt and pepper chips.

These were amazing! I’m sure the waiter said that they are roasted, then put on the grill to make them tender. I don’t think I left anything in my plate, which was probably a bit silly as there certainly wasn’t room for the ‘chocolate brownie hanging kebab’ I was hoping to try, but just couldn’t manage.

After a few drinks and a complimentary Cosmopolitan, we hopped in a taxi and headed back to the hotel.

Normally we would have gone into a few more bars and I had planned to go to Peaky Blinders bar, but shopping had worn me out and vodka, TV, pyjamas and a king sized bed were calling me.

After a great nights sleep I woke early Sunday and after another hearty breakfast we headed out to hunt for the mamucium which is situated at Castlefield heritage park – a Roman fortress rebuilt on the original excavated site.

We have stayed at Castlefield before and thought we were miles away from Piccadilly, but actually it was only about a ten minute walk from the hotel.

After looking around the site we headed over to Manchester cathedral which we had tried to visit on our last stay but was closed. This time it was open to the public and is free to enter.

It’s a lot bigger inside than it looks from the outside, and you can clearly see the difference between the old building – part of which had been destroyed when it was bombed in WWII – and the new building.

If you are a cultural kind of person then I would definitely recommend a visit to these two places.

The typical Manchester weather returned as we left the cathedral and the heavens opened, so again we hopped in a taxi and headed back to the hotel to pack up and leave.

I had a brilliant weekend can’t wait to go back again very soon!