A spot of Christmas shopping...

It's been a busy day today with a lot of driving about!

The morning sped past and at 2.30pm Sophie and I left for the day as she had a doctor's appointment in Guilsborough and then we were off to do our Christmas shopping in Milton Keynes. We waited a fair time to see the doctor and afterwards I decided to head to Junction 18 of the M1 rather than backtrack all through Northampton. It was a good decision, despite the roadworks between Junction 18 and 16 and the traffic being very heavy indeed.

The approach roads to Milton Keynes were busy with the rush hour traffic and I was very glad when we found a space in the multi-storey car park and I breathed a sigh of relief. Of course, we couldn't hit the shops until we'd had our fix of coffee and a little cake in the Costa outlet in Waterstones!

My first job was to buy Keith's present and he'd asked for a coat or a jacket. I scoured Debenhams and found one that was OK, but I wanted to look in M&S before I finally decided. I was glad I did because after looking at virtually every coat in the shop we finally agreed on one that I thought would be perfect!

After buying the coat we went off to Boots where I bought some stocking fillers for the children. The shopping centre was very busy indeed, much busier than this time last year and it was more like a Saturday. From Boots we called into River Island where Sophie bought some presents for her friends and then John Lewis which was packed with people, frantic looks on their faces as they searched the shelves for appropriate gifts. The checkout queues snaked their way around the store so we fled outside to a small stall-holder selling cheese. My friend Lynda is a cheese fiend so I bought her a gift pack of assorted cheeses and I decided to add a bottle of wine as well. I hope she'll be pleased!

We made our weary way back to the other end of the shopping centre and Sophie called into New Look while I sank down onto the stone seat outside to wait. By now it was quite chilly and I could feel a cold starting...Huh!

We had a quick look in Debenhams (I steered Sophie firmly away from the Mac concession) and then it was back to the car and the dark journey home. Keith was making toad in the hole for tea, and with a glass of Malt whisky to try and chase away the beginnings of my cold, I felt a lot better!