A delightful afternoon!

We were out of the house by 7.30am this morning and dropped the VW off at the garage in Moulton for its MOT. We took Sophie to work and called into Café 900 for a sausage bap and coffee. Before heading home, we managed to get Olive washed in the Morrison's automatic car wash and I finished her off with a cloth at home as it hadn't done the best of jobs! I used to think black cars were difficult to keep clean, but white ones seem even worse!

I had a shower, and Keith and I did some necessary but boring chores, such as renewing the VW's car insurance, which is due next month. I can't complain about the boring chores today, though, as the last four Wednesdays have been enjoyable!

I discovered that the VW hadn't passed its MOT when I went onto the gov.uk site to check. It had failed because of a leak in one of the rear shock absorbers. Glen called and said he would replace both of them and asked us to collect the car at about 1.30pm, just before I was due to go and see my friend Michelle for a cup of tea and a long-overdue catch-up.

I hadn't seen Michelle to speak to for ages - I think the last time was at a dinner party at Paul's house - so it was great to sit and chat with her in her lovely, cosy living room for a couple of hours. Her Siamese cats, Hector and Lily, kept us company and she had lit her fire with coal so it was blissfully warm. We chatted non-stop and enjoyed a cup of tea and a delicious slice of Victoria sponge cake. What a delightful way to spend a cold January afternoon! Lily kept trying to get onto the table and lick the cream, naughty cat! She is very much like Monty in that respect, who was addicted to all things dairy!

At 4.30pm, Keith and I set off for Brackmills to collect Sophie from work and returned home through surprisingly good traffic to finish off the shopping list and come up with meals for the rest of the week and the weekend.

We had an easy dinner tonight - Keith's corned beef, potato and onion stew - and enjoyed two funny shows on the television that made us all laugh out loud. We saw the Christmas Never Mind The Buzzcocks, which was hilarious, and then another Christmas show, Gone Fishing with Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse. They were in the glorious Dordogne and the scenery looked stunning. It was another funny show and cheered us up!