I thought I’d blogged yesterday already!
It was Christmas Shopping Day. We left Davies and Scarlett with my Dad and Ady and I headed into town with a half hearted mental list of stuff to get. We parked outside of the parking zone which ended up being rather further than I’d realised to walk into town (about a mile and a half to the main pedestrian area). We walked along the first bit of town which is mainly charity shops and so we looked in most of those along the way which meant we didn’t really register the distance.
The first real shops we hit were Poundland, Argos, Hawkins and Sports Direct so we bought bits in there (collected stuff we’d reserved online in Argos) including sledges, stocking fillers and wrapping paper. Ady wanted to nto actually buy anything until the way back but I didn’t want to go in every shop twice so proposed we bought everything including the sledges and walked back to the car to deposit them before heading back into town. Then it started raining. I realised about half way just how far it was back to the car but by then we were carrying sledges so not going back to the car wasn’t really an option.
We got most of the stuff on our list, found a couple of other cool things, got presents for both kids from Frazer who had given me money to spend on them and came away with just a couple of things still to get which I’ve managed on Amazon (arriving tomorrow), from Peacocks today and will collect the others from Lancing tomorrow. So that’s us done.
It did take until gone 5pm though and that last walk back to the car, in the rain, in the dark, having argued in Millets about shoes for Ady meant we were knackered, pissed off and soggy.
We got home and I had a bath and got ready to go out. I was meeting up with five ex work mates from the library for a pre-Christmas drink as I had missed their Christmas meal a couple of weeks ago that had been arranged with me in mind when dates were talked about but at the last minute I realised I had double booked myself for. I arrived at the pub first, partially on purpose, I quite like sitting in a pub on my own, much to my Dad’s horror when I was younger as he had a very strongly held opinion that only a certain type of woman sat in pubs on her own! 😆 I chatted to the barman for a while who expressed surprise and asked ‘you can’t be here all on your own?’ He was mightily relieved when I did indeed have a gaggle of friends around me half an hour later, he clearly shares my Dad’s views.
It was a really nice couple of hours catching up on everyone’s year – a couple of the Saturday assistants had come, now in their second year at uni and doing well, another colleague who has been promoted and no one had really seen much of and another who is working out her notice. So there was plenty of shop talk about libraries and plenty of other stuff about life in general. Ady popped in once the kids were in bed (the pub is across the road from Mum & Dad’s) for a last drink which was nice too, he got to answer some of the questions. I’m never sure whether people are relieved to meet him and discover he is a fairly strong character in his own right and not brow beaten by me into crazy ideas, or whether that worries them even more that there are two grown ups in charge of children with equally mad outlooks! Of course if they know the kids then they either write us off or conclude we are better off in the same campervan as each other rather than spoiling more families!
We walked home and chatted to Dad for a while before heading to bed. I was fairly merry having been bought a drink by everyone who came and not eating my dinner until I got home (all I’d had all day was a sausage roll while out shopping) so having eaten my lasagne I collapsed in bed but it was late.
Today Was up early-ish to head to an appointment at Hove Skin Clinicwhere I’ve been refered by the GP for my NicFace flare ups. The letter only came through yesterday with an appointment for today. It was all very posh and fancy and brightly lit with glossy magazines and tea and coffee etc. The doctor I saw was lovely, very clearly knows her stuff, listened to my history and concluded she thinks it is something I am eating / drinking. She does not think it is airbourne otherwise I would have respiratory issues and she does not think it is contact allergy as I would have flare ups elsewhere on my body. So I have been sent away to think about what I might be eating which could cause it, not take any antihistimines or steroids for 2 weeks and go back on January 10th for skin prick allergy testing which fingers crossed will give a conclusion as to what it is. She then suspects I may have to carry an epipen as the increased frequency of the flare ups suggests it could be worsening and the reactions greater which could lead to a serious reaction at some point and as food allergies are easy enough to avoid at home it is not always feasible out and about.
I would so love to have this sorted out as it is something that makes me very fretful about Rum if I have the possibility of NicFace outbreaks hanging over me without easy access to a GP (not technically an emergency so not worthy of emergency attention).
We were then just one block away from Hove Museum which is one of our favourites anyway so we called in there, showing Ady around as he’s not been before. The exhibition currently is Robots with a collection of toy robots and some robot inspired art work along with a film of robot toys. We enjoyed the rest of the musuem as usual, including the toys area and the silent film cinema with old black and white movies, usually local, running on a loop.
We called into Portslade where I got Christmas Eve pjs for the kids and we called into Aldi for various bits and pieces including pizza ingredients for dinner tonight. By then I was feeling really ropey and we came home for lunch.
I decided I either needed to go to bed and call time on the whole day or pull myself together and muddle through so I went for a lovely hot bath and finished reading a book on the kindle written by a friend, all very frothy chick lit style stuff but all the more interesting for knowing the location of the book and being able to second guess some of the characters inspirations. Loved spotting a couple of names of people we know butchered into characters too :).
I lay on the bed and finished reading after my bath at which point I decided I was well enough to go out so went and sorted dinner out for everyone before Ady dropped me off at the library. I was going along to the Reading Group Christmas meeting despite having not read the book. It was lovely to see everyone and they were all really pleased to see me too, so plenty more talking which was hard with my cough and sore throat. The mulled wine had a nice medicinal effect though…
Then I went home with Mike and Rose (not swingers) and Ady came and joined us for a couple of hours chatting. Mike had made his own mulled wine from scratch, along with some wassail and some festive nibbles (plum chutney, pickled shallows, festive sausage rolls). Very interestingly as a result of conversations we have had over the years Mike now eats fish (he was a confirmed vegetarian) and is planning to eat turkey on Christmas Day and meat on two or three other occassions through the year. I love Mike, he is so intelligent and interesting and loves to find opportunities to further educate himself. This year he has learnt all about every festival and made a real point of carrying out different customs and traditions. Their house is full of home made decorations and ideas including a very lovely advent box with numbered drawers which once opened and the days treat consumed are turned around and put back in to make a picture. I was invited to open todays which was a chocolate santa and a clove of garlic ready to plant tomorrow on the shortest day. I always feel I have learnt something after spending time with Mike, along with feeling as though I may have taught him something in return which is always nice :).
We left about 1130pm and I very sensibly came straight to bed, except that was nearly 2 hours ago and I am still blogging and coughing. So that grown up bit is still sneakily being shouted down…