Trawling around...

It was lovely to wake up this morning facing three days off work! After a leisurely morning, and bacon sandwiches all round for breakfast, Sophie and I dropped Mike off at Abbie's as they were returning to Southampton today. Our birthdays are on the 15th and 26th so we've made a plan to go down on the 22nd to celebrate.

After we'd dropped Mike off, Sophie and I drove down to Riverside to visit Boots, but there were queues of cars to get in, so we turned around and headed to Smith's Farm Shop instead. We were amazed to find it closed! What a surprise! Today is still counted as a Bank Holiday so maybe they decided to have a long weekend? Sophie was not happy, as she needed to get some foodie gifts for Zain, so we decided to return to Boots and try our luck again.

Things hadn't improved much but this time we managed to park and walk over to Boots. Sophie bought some gifts for Zain and then we popped to Next to look in there. By now, I think she was getting fed up with trawling around the shops, and she was annoyed that she was still having to look for presents! She picked out a fleece quilt cover, pillowcases and sheet, but Zain said he didn't want them!

Before going home we decided to go to Beckworth, but the place was packed and they were giving out buzzers for the cafe, with a wait time of an hour... Er, no thanks! The world has gone mad! It's getting to the point now where we just won't bother with Beckworth because of the long wait times!

We had a quick look around, but decided to go to Farndon Fields tomorrow, and combine it with lunch and shopping in Market Harborough. A much better idea!

I'd promised Mum I would take their Christmas presents over today, so we put them all in a big bag and drove over. They met us in Reception, but my Dad seemed really off with both of us for some unknown reason! We handed them their presents and left, popping into the Costa near the A14 for a hot chocolate before taking the scenic route home.

The weather improved slightly this afternoon but there wasn't much sign of the sun, just a golden sliver on the horizon where it was beginning to set. The white Christmas they were hinting at certainly never happened and we're due to get really mild temperatures at New Year. There's been talk of about 15-16c!

In the evening Sophie and I played Scrabble and we enjoyed beef casserole for dinner. As usual, she thrashed me!