We were out and about this morning as Sophie had an appointment at the beauty salon, Keith wanted to look for a pair of trousers, and we needed to drop off the shopping at the Kettering Food Bank. It was a beautiful day, but very cold, with blue skies and sunshine.
We sat and waited for Sophie in the small car park of the beauty salon, and when she was finished, we headed to the huge garden centre at Wootton. The nearby Waitrose was busy, but the garden centre was quiet. We popped into a separate Cotton Traders outlet first to look for trousers. Keith had ordered a pair from an internet retailer and they hadn't bothered to let him know that they were out of stock! It was only when I phoned and spoke to a gormless man that we learnt they were never going to arrive!
Keith didn't like any of the trousers in Cotton Traders, so we ventured into the garden centre itself. The place was stuffed full of homeware, gifts, books, indoor plants, Christmas decorations of every colour you could think of, plus two outlets selling clothes and shoes. Again, Keith wasn't keen on the trousers, so we gave up and left, managing to avoid the tempting displays of items on offer! If anyone had left their Christmas shopping to the last minute, they could have bought it all here, there was so much choice!
We headed to Kettering and Sophie called ahead to make sure they were open and still accepting donations of food. We became embroiled in a traffic jam on the outskirts of Kettering but made it in time to the Food Bank and received a warm welcome from the staff who gave us a thank you card and a chocolate.
After lunch, we headed to the care home to see Mum, and I gave her the gifts I'd bought. We sat and watched ET with her, which was lovely as it had been ages since I'd seen the film and it brought back wonderful memories of the ride at Universal. My Mum seemed very quiet today so it was a dispiriting visit, and it didn't make me feel any better about our trip to Berlin tomorrow. I knew she would be well looked after at the care home, but I still felt guilty.
Back home we relaxed for an hour, freshened up and went to The Royal Oak for an early dinner. We were a little disappointed to learn that our table was in the back room, which was empty and devoid of any atmosphere. Sophie and I shared a bottle of French Sauvignon Blanch and we chose halloumi bites and chicken to start, both served with honey sauces. Keith chose Scampi for his main course, I had a Thai green curry and Sophie chose salmon. It was a lovely meal, and the food was very good, but we all felt a little glum for some reason! The back room gradually filled up but it would have been lovely to have been seated in the main room of the pub next to one of the fires!
We headed home and caught the last half hour of the hymns from Kings College Chapel in Cambridge, before watching Mastermind and Christmas University Challenge. It was then time for an early bed as we had a 6am start tomorrow!
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