It's been a horrible, wet and windy day today and I should have known that going to one of the large retail parks on the outskirts of Northampton was a mistake!
Sophie wanted to go to Homesense, so, after a morning spent doing very little, we left home at 2pm and battled our way through the traffic. The traffic was just horrendous - huge lines of cars moving very slowly and all headed for the shops, just as we were! We arrived in the car park to find it jammed and after a couple of fruitless circuits I decided to give up, saying to Sophie that we can now visit in the week when it's a bit quieter!
I needed to get some diesel desperately so I did that and then we drove to Abington Park and the cafe there, somewhere we'd never been to before. I should think on a lovely summer's day it's a wonderful place to sit and enjoy a coffee or ice-cream in the sunshine, but on a dismal and chilly Saturday it was a different story!
The doors to the outside terrace were wide open so the cafe itself was cold. We both liked the place, though, and Sophie chose a baked potato with cheese as she said her "stomach was eating itself." I had a mug of tea and a Snickers bar and we sat at the far end, as far away from the open doors as we could!
There were a few people having drinks and snacks and I should think in the summer the place is packed. Sophie's potato was not the best, I'm afraid - the bottom of it was black so she ate what she could and left all the lovely salad it had been served with!
We left the cafe and wandered past the bird cages, looking at a couple of peacocks and lots of budgies. By now it was getting dark and it was chilly and damp and the path that we took back to the road was a little creepy as the trees were huge with low-hanging branches. I certainly didn't want to hang around! So we got back into the car and drove to Wyevale where I wanted to look at the Christmas decorations and twinkly lights.
As it was now past 4pm the place was quiet so we were able to wander around looking for our November heart and seeing some lovely little decorations. I bought a little wooden house that lights up and a wooden cabin that would look great on our Scandinavian tree. We searched for a suitable heart for November but they were all too Christmassy - we need to get one like that in December!
On the way home we picked Mike up from Moulton and then it was back for a glass of Gluhwein and the prospect of a hot curry for dinner!
No comments:
Post a Comment