Shopping.

I had to go to the post office again this morning so I gave myself enough time to have a wander along the High Street. I'm not sure what these ladies were doing with their balloons in The Square in front of our local museum but it was probably something to do with International Women's Day.

Judging from reports about the grim state of other town High Streets we seem to be quite lucky with ours probably because we do not have any out of town shopping malls. Instead the High Street is pedestrianised during the day and there is good range of shops. The shops themselves are nothing much architecturally but if you look up there are a lot of interesting Georgian and older buildings. Those combined with the quaint cobbled alleyways from medieval times give the town its character.

I had a wander around the shops and thought I might finally treat myself to a hoody from Next. I had looked at it before Christmas and decided that I really didn't need to buy more clothes. Then weeks later I relented and went to buy it but it was no longer on the shop rails. I chased up a member of staff who found several of the cream ones put away in the storeroom, but not the black. So then I asked if they could order one in but as it was old stock it wasn't in the current catalogue and they couldn't find the product number. And that was the end of that. But then last week I found both the cream and the black ones back down on the shop floor. Again I thought that perhaps I shouldn't buy it and walked away only to later regret my decision. So today I went in determined to buy one and guess what? No fluffy hoodies on the shop floor. This time when they did find the right size in the store room I treated myself to this rather indulgent purchase. After all a fluffy, black hoody ticks all the boxes for me.

I taught in the afternoon and was home early enough to fit in an hour's gardening before the sun hid behind the trees.