An impulsive purchase!

Keith and I took Sophie to uni early this morning as she had a meeting with her friends about their forthcoming trip to New York. We went straight over to Kettering to get some shopping and called to see Mum and Dad for a coffee on the way home.

I spent the rest of the day working on my assignment and cleaning the downstairs of the house. Keith and I tried to clean our dining room chairs but we were unsuccessful - they are still horribly stained and dirty - so I had a look on the internet for a furniture outlet store in Rushden that I had heard about on Facebook. I saw that they were open until 6pm so I suggested to Keith that after picking up Sophie we should go over and have a look.

We found the place quite easily and walked into a huge shed-like building containing loads of tables, chairs, sofas and all manner of furniture. It was freezing cold inside and we wandered around until we saw six chairs that would look great in the conservatory. I had really wanted a faux leather but these were dark grey with a textured fabric surface. They were a good price so after sitting on them and examining them all we bought them there and then! We managed to get four into the back of my car and after taking them home Keith and I returned for the other two, which was a fair journey but worth it to get rid of our horrible old chairs!

To be fair they had done us well over the years we'd had them but there was no way I could invite our friends over with the state they were in...so embarrassing!

In the evening Keith went out to Cogenhoe to see his football team play and I cooked spaghetti bolognese from scratch. I chopped up onions, celery, garlic and carrots and then gently fried them with the meat before letting the whole thing simmer for over an hour, with the addition of red wine, beef stock and tomatoes. It tasted much richer than normal and the only thing I would do differently would be to dry-fry the mince first to cut down on the fat. We all enjoyed the meal and although I was stood over it for almost two hours, the extra taste was worth the trouble!