Town Day.

Today I had an early start waking sometime before 5.00. Eventually I put my earphones in and listened to the farming program on the radio. Then I thought I might as well do my floor exercises, in the dark and with the earphones. That involved a bit of manoeuvring so that I didn't end up dragging the radio onto the floor. I took the above photo at about 7.00 getting wet from standing in the cloud. Once the morning jobs were done, and a bit more packing, it was time to head into town. Not working in school anymore I hadn't realised quite how crowded it would be as it is the half-term holiday. I had to cruise around the whole of the long stay car park until I spotted another car on the move. Hoping it was someone who had left a space rather than looking for one I crept the wrong way down one section and luckily found a space. I had enough time before meeting my friends to drop off another bag of stuff to a charity shop and to post a birthday parcel. I used the (almost) self-service machines and if I had wanted to I could have made myself a profit because somebody had failed to collect their change. There hadn't been anybody using the machine when I came up so I looked around for the staff member who is there to complete the posting and to deal with any problems. She said people were always doing that and put the not inconsiderable amount (in my eyes at least) in a pot in her cupboard. 

As Lindsay's is no longer open  I met my friends at Tea by the Taw a vintage style tea room and café in the old bus station next to the River Taw. There is a good selection of home-made cakes to chose from and all the crockery is mis-matched vintage set off by pale blue painted furniture and a couple of sofas with cushions and crochet arm-rest protectors along with bunting on the walls and craft items and cards for sale. In all a very pleasant atmosphere and we had a lovely afternoon chatting and laughing as usual.

To finish off my town visit I dropped a couple of pieces of antique furniture at the Hospice furniture shop and went over to do some shopping at Asda. I like to change where I shop every now and again and I have to admit to a fondness for their floor surface. It's some sort of industrial lino which looks like grey marble and has an extremely shiny surface. It just feels nice to walk on and the shopping trolley glides over it.

The Muddiford road is still closed so our back road is constantly full of traffic. We're not on a bus route, apart from the school buses, but here are two of them. The road is so full of mud that before I went out this morning I had to scrape several inches of accumulated mud from the sides of my car.