A wee bit of a depressing day!

The first day of 2017 dawned grey and miserable...not the best of starts!

We were all up very late (well, I was downstairs by 8.30am) but the kids were still asleep at 10.30am! As the weather was so horrible - and it had been forecast, so it was no surprise - we lazed about all morning. However, Sophie needed to go and exchange a pair of pyjamas that my Mum had bought her so we were forced to go into Northampton in the afternoon.

It rained all the way there and at times it looked a little sleety. As the temperature was only about 4c I was hoping it would turn into snow, but no such luck. We parked in the Mayhold car park and walked the short distance to the Grosvenor Centre where I went into Boots to get something for my back. I've been suffering for a while now and it's worse when I get up in the morning. Sophie suggested Tiger Balm to rub into the muscles so I bought that along with a Tangle Teezer comb for my hair as it's a nightmare when it's wet. Anything to make my life easier!

Sophie returned some knickers that were too large for her in Next and the assistant had terrible trouble doing the transaction. We had to wait ages while she fiddled about and I could sense Sophie getting madder and madder by the minute! We then had a similar problem in River Island as the pyjamas were no longer in stock and as we hadn't got a receipt the assistant would only give us the sale price. I knew my Mum had bought the garments way before they were in the sale so we said we'd get the receipt and try again later. What a carry on!

To soothe our frayed tempers, we had a coffee in Costa along with a chocolate twist and then headed home. Sophie had bought her friends, Daisy and Laura, presents in Primark, which used to be the beautiful Beatties store in Northampton and is now, sadly, no longer. I'm not a huge fan of Primark, to be honest but it was certainly the busiest of all the stores we visited in the town. We also popped into Accessorize where my daughter bought some jewellery and an evening bag for herself.

The town was pretty quiet and so very depressing. Only half the shops were open and with the weather it wasn't the most enjoyable of afternoons! We gladly went home and relaxed with a drink while Keith cooked a very delicious roast beef and all the trimmings. A good end to the first day of 2017!