What are you all up to

Do you think the Exeter JL a 'proper shop'?

I have been told, by my 'retail advisor' its not-the proper ones are the likes of Cribbs Causeway, Milton Keynes & Kingston!

Our nearest supermarket is 40 mile round trip hence my usual 22000 miles a year mileage.

Even in the last year? your "retail advisor" was having severe withdrawal symptoms if still clocking up those daily milages just to "drool" at the window displays 

No, the usual-which I don't think anyone would use as a descriptor for the last year!

Interestingly, Jean does not do 'window shopping'.

She enjoys a bit or retail therapy but will only enter a shop if she has something in mind and she thinks they may have it.

We are enjoying our "day off", having a lazy morning after an extra hour in bed.  Weather not too bad so may go and see what I need to order for the caravan, we need to replace some of the old kitchen lights.

I think OH plans a small shopping trip this afternoon as we need fruit and veg.

Is it tonight we lose an hour of sleep?   Must remember to go to bed a bit earlier!

Beggars can't be choosers A&J. Exeter is better than having to travel to Bristol to Cribbs. 

We can walk to our  JL and town centre via some ancient woodland (when it dries out enough) and if JL ever goes from here the rest of the town centre will soon follow ,it is already overflowing with coffee and charity shops

Just started on a terrible paper-work exercise !!  Going thro the last X-years papers and documents so that the file & the drawer it all sits in will close .  Think the paper shredder will end up running warm later this afternoon.

KJ, Brian has already tweaked his clocks so that the hour has been lost this morning  and  the night will be just the same as normal  !!  But I will be celebrating the fact that DWP has told me how much my state pension increase will be  AND in December I can look forward to an extra  increase of a whole 25p  so I'll be looking for gift horses near Christmastime !!

It’s a lovely morning here. I have a date with one of OH’s torture machines up in attic. I will at some point be assisted to climb off said machine, dumped in shower for a good soak, and then probably tickle a few plants in the garden. Just one last bed now to tidy, then it’s periodic weeding. I am struggling to find ideal spots now for certain plants, got lots of dahlias to start off in pots, so the work never ends, but the exercise is good.😂 I am at my happiest (at home) with grubby hands and knees, and some kind of gardening implement in hand👍 

We have been sorting our caravan ‘stuff’ ready for our first outing in May (after second jab).  We had to completely empty the caravan in October when it went in for a floor repair in a couple of places, the dreaded delamination!  We have stuff in one of the spare bedrooms and the dining room so perhaps it’s a good job we haven’t been allowed visitors.  Problem is, as often happens with us, I say do we really need this and the reply is ‘yes, I may need it’.  Nothing has been culled so far so I dreading putting it all back in a couple of weeks time!😱😩

It’s our monthly weekend off, so after a late breakfast we headed off to the caravan (parked up in the first field off the yard). We’re planning on going “away” on our next weekend off - only down the fields - so need to be self sufficient. Our 2005 Bailey Senator Louisiana is not as equipped as modern vans (but we like it and it will probably “see us out”). I always  wondered what the funny little sockets with slots for two prongs were for , and now I know - 12 volt! With the convenience of Amazon, we now have converters to cigar type sockets for the two of them, plus a new USB socket very neatly installed by OH. So we can charge all our devices. And the battery won’t run down as we’ve invested in a suitcase type solar power thingy. Apparently it will also come in useful for charging the little digger if we leave it down the fields.

A light cheese and wine lunch and we’re ready for a sit down.

Then later I will be cooking a very posh supper from a kit from a Michelin starred chef. It’s supposed to be easy, but reading the instructions  it seems to use an awful lot of pans, and says things like “set oven to temperature nnn “ - when our Aga has only one temperature, unless you turn it up the day before.