Visiting old haunts

I offered to go shopping with Keith this morning, just for a change, and it was quite enjoyable! We went to Costa first and had a coffee (and an almond croissant for me), and then did some of the shopping in Aldi. There was an unpleasant aroma of "cows' bums" about this morning, so somewhere, a farmer was spreading manure over the fields!

We sped through Tesco and arrived home at midday. I pootled about for a while, and then drove over to Kettering to see Mum. She had been out at a garden centre on Monday, and I'd seen photos of her just with her Zimmer frame, so I felt a bit more confident taking her out. I decided we'd go for a drive as I really didn't fancy sitting in her stuffy room for an hour.

As usual, it was a gorgeous day; we'd seen some cloud this morning and the tiniest spots of rain, but it had come to nothing. We drove past her old house first, did a lap of our estate and then headed into Northampton via the Brixworth bypass. I wanted to go and see our old soft play business, and to be honest, I was shocked when I drove into the car park. The surface of the car park was still potholed, with one cone standing forlornly over one deep rut. The car park nearest the building, which used to have a lovely area of grass and trees (and where I used to feed the crows), had a huge amount of old dead wood and greenery piled up next to the fence... It looked awful. Were they trying to stop people from coming over from the area of wasteland behind the car park? It used to be so lovely here with the cut grass and trees!

There weren't many cars in the car park, but then, with the weather, I didn't expect anything else. It was a little worrying, I have to admit! We drove into Northampton and around the estate where we used to live. The houses and gardens looked a little scruffy, and when we stopped outside our old house, I couldn't believe how much the trees and bushes had grown. We used to be able to see the dual carriageway and the Weston Favell Centre from our garden, but not any more! I am amazed the little spinney opposite the house was still there! It was a perfect spot for new houses!

We left the estate and drove into the centre of Northampton and past Tricker's in St Michael's Road, where my Mum used to work. She was very happy there, and she wondered why she had left. It was great to see her recognising our old haunts and looking happy!

Before taking her back, I decided to call at the reservoir car park and buy an ice cream for us, but the van wasn't there! Typical! We had both thoroughly enjoyed our little trip, and we'll definitely do it more often!

Back home, I did some housework and then tried to cool down in the kitchen by having all the doors and windows open. It was an easy dinner tonight: chicken Kievs, asparagus, long-stem broccoli and crushed new potatoes.

After we'd eaten, we watched an episode of World War II with Tom Hanks. Tonight's episode was about the aerial bombardment of Germany, with Hamburg obliterated by bombs and fire. A million people were made homeless, and I hadn't realised that the city was so badly affected. I am learning a lot about the war by watching this and just wish I'd studied history at A-level!