Sunday

Sunday 26.04.2015

I wonder if life is returning a little more towards normality ( the start of my comic routine Ha!) today. I woke up at 5.24 am after turning my light off about 1.00 am, it felt much more right. Naturally my first port of call was the loo but then I was able to come and turn the infernal machine one. This is day one of my holiday from blogging and dealing with post and already I’m desperate to sign on. Be fair, it’s Sunday, whet’re the chances of Mike getting up and catching me? Oh, you think as high as one in a hundred, ha ha ha. At 7.00 am I took my morning meds and made a coffee then came back to work, by 9.15 am I’d more or less caught up so had a play with ebay. That’s always fun and I found an eyeglass repair kit that Muriel’s looking for. As I’m supposed to be on holiday and taking a week away from the computer I went to sit in the lounge to glance through a magazine but I was twitchy within minutes. I thought there’s a chance he might rise about 10.00 am so I risked until then and went back to the lounge to act innocent. I even turned a youngsters film on part way through to pretend I’d been watching from the beginning. A few twitches and snores but no movement. By 11.00 am I thought he might be dead so I turned the TV up a bit so any haunting wouldn’t disturb me. Bang on cue this apparition appeared. There were moans and groans but no chains.Eventually it spoke ” Mornin’ bro” it said in a voice approaching human.

By the time he’s had a second intravenous coffee he was a little more alert and because his team were p;laying this afternoon we thought we’d get out for lunch and back ASAP so he didn’t miss all the match. We left the house at 12.30 pm and went to the Ivy. Angie was the first one to greet us then Rob and a new youngster called Matt. We were sitting at the table when we saw Tariq for the first time and he was flying through doing some work on some frames.Angie did the drinks while we checked the menu. Mike was dithering between two specials as soon as I’d taken my pre foodie we ordered and went out for a cigarette. When we came back in we say Shirley who we haven’t seen for a long time and then even Shella was out and said hello in passing. We caught everyone today. Once lunch was over Mike had a conversation with Rob about fish and tanks while I paid then we left. He remembered I wanted something from town yesterday and went straight up there instead of going home and I wish we’d been out longer. We got home and he allowed me on the computer ( ebay only, yeah like that’s going to happen) while he watched what was left of the match. The news went from bad to worse as I could tell from the volume of his shouts about the ref being blind. His team lost 3-0 at the end, ouch. I sat with him for a while and fell asleep.

A little after 4.00 pm he decided to go home and woke me up to say goodbye and tell me to go back to sleep again. I said my goodbyes and offered my thanks and the moment he was out of the house I was back on the computer. There were little periods of guilt when I went back to my chair and there were moments of intense tiredness when I struggled to keep my eyes open. I was following a couple of things on ebay though so didn’t want to risk it. I won the one I really wanted. I even watched an Indiana Jones movie on TV till 10.00 pm before coming through for the night. I’ve done the blog as a reserve in case I can’t resist putting one out. But I’m going to get an early night anyway .

Monday.

Well here we are on day 2 of the non-computer holiday. A  3.53 am wake up and get up. A slow amble to the loo as being on holiday means I have all the time in the world. Of course that’s not such a great idea if you really need to go as the latter part of the journey really needs speeding up. That means stubbed toes and phone knocked off console table plus assorted debris from all the local takeaways by which I mean menus and not bits of food. I got back to my room eventually and booted up the computer.It was just for the sake of looking at ebay of course. For some reason there was much less post than usual and that was rattled of by 6.15 am so I went to take my meds and make a coffee.I sat in the lounge and enjoyed watching it get lighter and listening to the birds sing. They could do with a little more emphasis on the bass and maybe follow the conductor a little more closely. They are in the Land of Song after all.

By 7.30 am I was getting twitchy so went and got dressed then sat down at the computer again and read some more of a book I’ve been sent. I had to knock off at 9.00 am to go out. I really needed to get my prescription request in if I’m to stand any chance of getting the drugs tomorrow, even then it’s not a sure thing. I saw my young delivery lady in there while I was dropping the scrip off but we only got to say hello. I dawdled on the way back as the sun was out and it was pleasantly warm. When I got back of course I shut myself away in my room with no natural light to see to whatever messages had come in since I finished earlier. It seemed like a chore and not the usual pleasure so once I’d finished I got very daring and made myself a second coffee and did a little more reading. There was a knock at the door which I assumed was the postman but it was the warden come to give me time off for good behaviour. Don’t worry though, I only got 15 minutes. She was dressed for the sun and I hoped her shift would be over before the rain came. As she departed the postman arrived with a medal I’d ordered for John last week. That’ll please him. I’d much rather it was the leather jacket from China that I ordered for his birthday though.

I stopped for lunch at 11.30 am and put the TV on. I was shocked to find there was no Murder She Wrote, ah well there’s always my Bargain Hunt which I haven’t seen for a while. I took my pre-food tablet and made myself busy doing some bread and butter before I put my cottage pie in the microwave. I was a bit early and saw the end of the last programme as well when lunch was ready. I took the pots through and then settled to watch the auction part of the programme but didn’t get too far before Somnos visited. It was getting on for 2.00 pm when I came too again. Instead of going straight back as usual I checked the other channels and stayed another half an hour. When I finally got my act together it took a while to clear the post that had come in and that from the second email address too. I remembered something I was watching on ebay and wasn’t pleased to see it had ended when the warden had come. If I’d been in here I could have had it for £2.50. Still, no-one else bid on it and it’s gone back on so I hope it gets ignored again and I’m more alert next time. It’s very often the luck of the draw.

I stopped work completely at 5.00 pm and wandered back through to the lounge. I put my quiz on but where I’d normally come back at 6.30 pm I indulged myself and stayed away till 9.00 pm after another Indiana Jones film. Mail till 10.30 pm then the blog after which I’m off to bed to read no matter what the backlog is.I wonder if I can avoid going near it in the morning.

Tuesday.

I was in bed at 11.40 pm last night and stayed away from the backlog as I’d promised. I only read until 12.30 am and then put out my light. I was soon asleep. It may have been a prompt from my bladder or equally some other reason but I was up again at 3.15 am. After a visit to the loo I could have gone back to bed but the chances are I would not have slept. I checked out ebay and also made some changes on Ancestry.com before I could wait no longer and signed into my mail account. The backlog from last night turned out to be no more than a dozen pieces and they were soon dispensed with. Even doing the normal day’s mail I managed to clear it by 6.15 am and went straight to the kitchen to have something to eat. I was tempted by some Rice Crispies  but after taking my tablets with milk I didn’t want to drink even more and I couldn’t trust myself to stay away from jokes about cereal killers. I stuck with my cold toast- boring. By the time it was done I’d taken my tablets and it was 6.30 am, I had it in the lounge and having disposed of my plate turned the TV onto an old episode of Will and Grace before nodding off for almost an hour.

At 7.25 am I made my way back to the bedroom and got dressed. The sun was shining but it was cold with a breeze. Rain would come. I dealt with some more mail then decided to start reading the next section of the book I’ve been sent. It’s marvelous and despite mentioning a gaming world is not in the least boring, what’s more I found myself not questioning it at all despite it currently being beyond our capabilities. At 9.00 pm I got myself ready to go out. Firstly to the Post Office to send off some information to the DWP (Dept. of Works and Pensions) via recorded delivery so they can’t claim not to have received it as they did twice last year. I had a prepaid envelope and was surprised o see they reduced the cost of my recorded delivery by the amount of the prepay. That I thought was good. Then it was a walk down to Pauline’s. I got my new TV magazine and some fresh bread and a day’s worth of cigarettes as they didn’t have enough of my brand in. I did get an extra 10 for Matt on Wednesday evening. There were still no chips in curry sauce so I’ll have to remember of Saturday to go to the frozen foods place.

I came back home and was disappointed to see there was still no package from China. No tracking number for my misdirected parcel either that went back to the Herpes courier yesterday.Let’s see if they can find me this time. The postman didn’t call at all today so I concentrated on getting my mail up to date and then reading until lunch time. I had to time the lunch right today as there was a programme advertised on Carcasonne and region. Giving the history of the castles as they stand and then a fascinating piece about a village that was found which was certainly Cathar and which had been pulled to the ground after all the residents had been removed. Nothing and no-one had lived there since the Cathars which gave great insight into their way of living. There was also a castle built at the start of the Cathar presence in the Languedoc which only lasted until the Cathars were ousted. I know not what happened to the residents in either place but for the Cathars the choice was usually either recant the faith (Christianity) or be burned. Many chose the latter. The Catholics in some cases just burned whole towns without asking who was what so they may well have killed their own and maybe even Jews and Moors since the Cathars were known to deal with them and share information. The Catholic Church even called this a Crusade.

After lunch I had a little snooze as I’m on holiday. It only lasted 45 minutes but was welcome nonetheless. I came back to start doing some searching on ebay for a few different things. Ebay fascinates me. I sent some more money as a donation to the earthquake appeal in Nepal though I usually prefer to do it through paypal it wasn’t an option with this particular group. That unnerves me a bit sometimes but it seemed OK today. Finally I settled down to do a bit of work and answer the posts made today where possible. It may be that I was a little choosy but that’s not to denigrate any of the posts, it’s merely in the spirit of not spending all my time online. At 5.00 pm I felt peckish and went to have a bag of crisps. I settled down with my quiz, then with a little Big Bang until finally I settled on a horror film to watch from 7.00 pm. Yes, you can tell the quality from the time it was shown and to be honest I wouldn’t have classed it in the horror genre either. It was more a warlock coming of age movie. I did manage to glance through a few magazines while it was on. At 9.00 pm I turned off and came through. I even brought my meds with me to take a little later rather than walk back for them.

There as very little in my secondary post address for some reason, everything seems to be going to the primary one and not transferring. That’s OK as it saves me looking at the same ones twice even if I don’t action them more than once. But there are people who only use the second one and they need answers too. I dealt with those then went to the primary site to respond which included a process of changing a password to  access a site but first I had to allow them to create a password and then I could change it. I have no idea why I couldn’t have stuck with my original one. By 10.30 I was up to date and could come straight to the blog. I’m for bed after that. I need my energy tomorrow with a MuJo day then games night. I hope no-one expects any responses tomorrow or I’ll be up all night.

Wednesday.

Of necessity this is a very short post. I have been very busy all day and evening and it’s left me very little time.

I was in bed for 11.45 pm  last night and the light went off at about 12.30 am. I woke up as 1.56 am then 2.18 am before finally getting up at 3.15 am. Thinking I had all the time in then world I visited the loo then signed on. If I hadn’t been sitting down I would have had too. I even had palpitations. Thanks folks ! I don’t know where all the mail comes from unless I’m getting someone else’s in error as well. It was a serious session that was only halted at 6.00 am for my breakfast and my meds. As usual I went for my cold, buttered, toast. At some stage I’ll have to start eating my way through the gargantuan box of Rice Krispies I bought.

It was 9.25 am when I finished the post and got dressed. I’m glad I did because it was only just gone 10.00 am when MuJo arrived. I passed John the medal he’d asked me to order last week while I busied myself with drinks.We chatted for a while and in all honesty I admit I dragged it out as much as possible so we didn’t go out too early. In the end it was almost 11.30 am when we did. We ended up in Holywell so I knew it would be the chippy today. Mu wanted the Post Office but John insisted on eating first. Just as well I’d delayed things. It was only 11.45 am at that point. We ate and as usual it was a nice though large and not very healthy meal, then we had a look round a couple of shops while Mu did what she needed to do.

We drove to Flint but Muriel said she’d go to Lidl rather than Aldi this week. We’d just left Lidl behind in Holywell!!!! I got chocolates for the girls in Temptations then we went for coffee and in John’s case a very big cake. In his haste to go to the loo he didn’t take much care and spilled both his drink and Muriel’s getting up which of course went all over me as then the floor. My trousers and a shoe were drenched and It looked like I’d wet myself. Incident 1. We left here to take a look at the new £ shop they wanted to see so incident 2 followed soon after when John tugged something off a shelf and brought the whole lot down. All he said was “It’s OK, I’m fine,don’t worry about me” before walking on and leaving Mu and myself to pick up after him. He thinks it’s the job of the staff. Incident 3 almost duplicated Incident 2. Incident 4 was when he picked up some crisps then moments later decided he wanted something different so just dumped the original crisps where he was. I picked them up and put them back where they belonged. He checked to see whether I was wearing a coat that said ‘Staff’ on the back.

When we finally left (Yay) we headed back up to Holywell to Lidl where Mu was able to buy John’s pop and a few other items including another big cake for him, and I mean BIG. Finally we went home. John wanted to see a figurine on ebay and Muriel went out to Pauline’s to buy her lottery tickets. It was 4.40 pm when Dil walked in very early. MuJo left at 4.50 pm and I was able to say a proper Hi to Dil and make him a cuppa. Matt had made a mistake last week over his driving lesson and it was in fact this week so Dil had come early and alone as he hadn’t had to pick Matt up. He said Matt was quite peeved at his mistake. We chatted, we watched the quiz and we played. For once the Yahtzee went to me 4-2 but Chase the Lady went to Dil. Horror of horrors Nomination also went Dil’s way. Fortunately the cribbage came back in my direction so we ended up honours even. I had a text from Lee partway through the evening to say Jen is late but the baby is expected anytime. I just asked for news. I also had a text from Karen telling me to look at a local paper online but giving no clues. neither Dil nor I could find anything. After he’d gone and I’d done the usual tidying and washing of pots I returned to my bedroom and looked again.Eventually I found a nice write up and a photograph of my niece Joanne doing her Hugathon in Llandudno. I did a little post with links to the article.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     At 10.30 pm after doing a little mail I stopped to do the blog. I may do some more mail before bed but midnight is my deadline this week.

Thursday.

As I didn’t stop reading until 1.00 am last night I was pleased that it was 5.52 am before I got up this morning. After a desperate dash to the loo I was able to boot up and log on. If I had palpitations yesterday at he sight of what was in my inbox, today was a full blown heart attack. 187 since last night. Cruel people, very cruel. I worked until 7.00 pm then stopped to take my meds, I couldn’t be bothered with breakfast today. Back to work with a coffee and I carried in until 9.00 am when I decided to get dressed. I wrote out a message for the Pensions Agency to let them know I have a whole 1.2% increase in my private pension. I hope this year they work on it before June or July before deciding they’ve overpaid me and start clawing it back. I decided to go and see my friend in the Post Office to send this new information by recorded delivery as I had the ones I sent yesterday. I took her favourite chocolates with me. Since I was last in the queue we were able to have quite a conversation, mainly based around politics as she’s a local councillor. Between us we put the world to rights. I did learn something there. Young Shawn who was drowned last week had been skinny dipping on the spur of the moment, having drunk alcohol it would have reduced his body temperature. At 2.00 am it’s not warm even though it is Spring. The person with him thought he was messing about when he got into difficulties. From the post Office I made my way to Pauline’s for micro chips. She didn’t have any with the curry sauce on but she did have some packets of the microwaveable sauce there so I got one of those.

Back at home I put the stuff in the freezer and then instead of returning to work I changed the big bed and set the bedding to wash. Then the postman called and brought my brown jacket. That pleased me. I did return to work until lunchtime as I’ll change my bed tomorrow. I had some corned beef and some of the micro chips and covered them in the new sachet of Chinese curry sauce, it was really nice. I’d happily buy that again. Whereas I’d normally have 40 winks after I’d eaten I decided to have a burst at the post again before it got too bad. It had just turned 3.00 pm when I came close to being up to date when someone knocked at the door. It was a huge YAY when I saw it was the driver from Herpes with the missing jacket. It fitted fine and again I was very pleased.I checked my phone which I’d left on charge in the kitchen wondering if there was any news on the birth of my new Great Nephew. Nope, but there was one I’d missed from Mike to say he was on his way. I realised that would be about 5.00 pm arrival and the only way he’s believe I’m not doing emails and/or the blog is if I’m able to spend time sitting with him. I returned to work immediately.

I stopped work and came out of the bedroom at 4.50 pm giving myself a little leeway. I prepared his mug and put the kettle on. It had just boiled and clicked off when he walked in. He found me, a picture of innocence, pouring his coffee out. We were able to sit and natter for a while and then during the quiz I must have zonked. It wasn’t for long but when I came to about 6.30 pm Mike asked me if I wanted something to eat as he was going to the chippy. I did have meals to offer but he wanted some fish. I asked about bread and butter and said I’d do some while he was out and that I’d have a small sausage. (Oi, you at the back, stop sniggering). The moment he left I must have gone straight back to sleep as the next thing I knew was ten minutes later he was waking me up to give me a tray. I felt awful, but I still ate the sausage , chips and curry sauce he’d got me. I did make sure I did the washing up afterwards though. Mike enjoys a comedy called Two Broke Girls which came on at 8.00 pm so I was able to slip away to do some mail while he had his half hour with them. Then I went back through to watch the new Big Bang Theory  followed by a documentary we both fancied about the Illuminati. At 10.00 pm I put another comedy show on for him and slipped away to work. So much comes when my back is turned. It was 11.00 pm before I could start the blog and at that time he thought I’d finished and was in bed. I was tapping very quietly. It’s 11.45 and I soon shall be in bed with my book. The work will have to wait until the morning before he gets up and after I’ve kicked him out to go to his Dad’s.

Friday.

Well, I made bed by midnight, read my book until 1.00 am then settled down. When my internal ( or infernal) alarm went off I was ready to get up. It was 3.03 am so I shot to the loo as quick as a bullet.( Sorry,  I know it wasn’t very punny but it’s all I had). Coming back I booted up the computer and logged into my mail. Not as many as yesterday but still almost 100. Of course in the time it took me to deal with one, two more would come in because there are people who just won’t go to sleep at night mainly in the U.S. or the land of Oz. I’ve heard all this mumbo-jumbo about different time zones but night is night so there. In truth of course I actually found it funny that whatever time I’m on the computer there would be someone I could contact somewhere if I wanted to talk, or could. I worked till 5.30 am. I’d sort of made myself a promise today that I’d look at my WIP, only there hasn’t been any progress in such a long time. I sat in the lounge with it in my hand ( stop it back there, no tittering allowed) and tried to think of what came next. After half an hour I gave up and went through to take my meds including a pre-foodie. I put two slices of bread in the toaster and set to refilling the tablet box. This job always takes a while because I have to refill the tablet drawer from new stocks as I go along. Next Friday I’ll do the same but also make out a prescription request for some more. I do half every two weeks.

Once that job was out of the way I buttered my toast, made a coffee and went to sit in the lounge. I was thinking about the book as I ate. Part of the problem may be the way I was writing this one using real people and their towns/cities as a backdrop and using their skills as an aid to solving problems. In the previous Queen’s Envoy I’d made up the characters and chosen a location to suit me. Of course I know it isn’t the only problem and I know what stopped me writing in the first place so this may be a psychological problem I need to overcome. The other option is that my muse has done a runner and I just have no more stories in me. If anyone knows of an author in North Wales or within reach of North Wales who’d be willing to come kick me up the proverbial or even co-write the book with me I’d be pleased to hear about them.      Alternately if someone just wants to say “Give up you talentless hack”maybe I should just look in that direction.

I decided to put the TV on and watch some American sitcoms starting with Will and Grace, but about 7.50 am I decided to go through and get dressed. At 8.05 am I’d just fastened my shirt when I heard a voice ” Want a cuppa” it said. I went through and it really was him. Not only up but unfortunately awake too. I was shocked. No alarm, no calls, it’s never been known. I sat down next to him for a while to study and see if the real Mike had been abducted by aliens who left a simulacrum in his place. No, it was him alright and the more his bottom spoke the more convinced I was. I’m sure no alien could have recreated that. I disappeared to make my bed. When I came back Mike was also watching US comedies so I stayed in the kitchen to regain my breath and put the washing machine on, then sat with him for an hour. Knowing the Mother’s Mafia would have left Pauline’s by now, I went to get my lottery tickets. (I know none of you will read this for two days but I still hope you had your fingers crossed for my lottery win for tonight.) I’m avoiding looking at the results until the last minute. I’m sure I’ll stay awake all night planning how to spend it.

Mike finally left to go to see his Dad in Manchester. His sister from Canada is over so he’ll see her too and perhaps spend a bit extra time there in her company. As soon as he was out of the door I came back through to work on incoming mail and also checking my ebay account. I spent my holiday watching a house buying programme at 10.00 am for an hour.Then went back and started on Ancestry.com hints.It would be easy to get carried away with all the hints they send but the family tree just gets spread so much thinner and the relationships to me more and more distant that sometimes it isn’t worth carrying on until you forget the next time. At 11.30am I was going to break form lunch but I found some mail I consider important in my other mail address and started doing that. So, it was 12.05 pm before I stopped and made my to the kitchen to take a tablet, stick something in the microwave and go put Bargain Hunt on screen. Both teams made a loss. At 1.00 pm I returned to work on a catch up mission but I knew it was only for an hour as I was departing again at 2.00 pm to see an episode of ‘Who do you think you are’ featuring a UK newsreader called Natasha Kaplinsky. It was a sad story where some of her family escaped to S.Africa as the war began but most of the rest were murdered by the Nazi’s in Belarus. One son, a doctor did get away and fought with the partisans. His son came over from Australia to help his cousin piece together as much of the family history as she could. Very very sad.

Then back to playing catch-up again until 4.10 pm when I went on holiday again for a while. Get out my sunglasses and the lotion please. I was channel hopping to find the funniest things or quizzes, I found both and stayed watching the box until 6.30 pm when I decided to go for a shower. Let’s just say I managed and I’m temporarily clean. I took my dirty clothes through to put them in the washing machine even though I wouldn’t start it tonight. I found I’d forgotten to unload this morning’s lot so did so then and put it to air. I grabbed a bag of crisps and some dark chocolate biscuits and went back to my TV watching. There was a film on I actually found quite good. Mike arrived back about 9.15 pm as I was watching a satire programme we both like so I made him keep schtum till it was over. He was able to talk again when it was over and one of his favourite programmes came on. When he told me all about his day I left him to come through just before 10.00 pm. I managed to clear most of the post before doing the blog. I shall just see if I can clear what’s left before midnight

Saturday.

3.22 am on the last day of my holiday. I had no problem getting up despite having less than 3 hours sleep. No pressure from the bladder means I can take my time this morning though when I get there I know my bladder will take it’s own sweet time anyway and try to fool me with it’s stop-starting so I’m not sure if I’m finished or about to water my feet. My feet were safe. I ambled back to the bedroom and powered up the computer and logged on. My mind is going ten to the dozen trying to decide if today will be the last post on my last blog. I could in fact be playing the Last Post as my last featured piece of music. The problem is, aside from the feeling of deep sadness in my soul, I find I enjoy the blogging and can’t be trusted to keep away from it even when I’m only supposed to be away for a week. I can’t help but answer mail and comment on blogs or twitter when I’m supposed to use the computer for ebay and little else. There should be an AA of some kind. My name is David and I’m an Internet Cheat. I open my email and start work on last night’s stuff which takes until just 4.33 am. A short break to enjoy a cigarette and a drink like post coitus then into today’s mail. That takes until almost 6.30 am when I get dressed while listening out for Mike’s alarm which he tells me he’s reset for 6.30 am now to try and get out of the house by 7.30 am. I’m really grateful that he’s trying to please me and keep me away from shopping crowds but I do wonder what it’s going to be like trying to get him up this first time. Having said that, look how the so-and-so surprised me yesterday. Maybe he’s trying to kill me with kindness. I find I don’t mind.

This was not a successful action. It was an A 3 C2 day. That’s 3 rings of his alarm and 2 calls from me before he shifted himself. At least he was up for 7.00 am and with a couple of sledgehammer hints about me putting my coat on while he was still in his night attire we actually got out of the house at 7.35 am and reached the supermarket at 7.50 am. It’s funny what a few minutes difference getting there early makes. The car park was emptier, no queue for the cash machines, and there was still money in them. On the negative side the staff were still filling shelves and there were no small peeled new potatoes in herb butter for me. We got Ju’s flowers though and wended our way round the shop as usual. Once we’d been through the tills we went to get our cup of coffee and that was very welcome. We decided on no detours this morning but made one anyway to let Mike find a 40th birthday card for his son. We just had to nip into another shop while we were there- Home Bargains. It was a partly successful side trip. We got back aboard his chariot and made our way to Flint. The first stop was -Home Bargains where we actually got what we needed. One more detour through another shop then over the road to Temptations for coffee and Mike’s teasted toecake. The was no Ceri this morning so poor Sian got the teasing instead. Before we left Kyle got  bit too for saying his favourite sweets were Ferraro Rocher. I don’t know how we’ve never been banned.

We left there and Mike asked where we were going, the onus was on me to make the decision as it’s my day. Normally I’d argue the day belongs to both of us and he should go where he likes. Instead I just asked him how he felt about the Tweed Mill  expecting him to say he hates it and lets go to A or B instead. He caught me out by saying “Fine, let’s go there.” To be fair we have made some good purchases there in the past, shoes at a humongous discount or a sports jacket from £290 to £29 plus various gifts for others. There was no intention today other than to look round. The next question was where to eat. Mike said we could go to the Dragon’s Rest and down the expressway so I countered with an alternative of going to the Bells of St Mary’s, going through Prestatyn to St Asaph and then on to the mill. The distances seemed the same so I left the option to Mike. We went to the Bells and had a great carvery. I ate a week’s worth just in case I don’t get the chance to eat next week. Well you never know, I might forget. Afterwards we drove on to the Tweed Mill. The weather is typical Bank Holiday weekend fare, rain interspersed with more rain or possibly sleet. Naturally all the parking spaces nearest the door had gone so it was a bit of a trek but we made it. I’m sure some of you will remember from previous posts that The Tweed Mill is like a clearance village but under one roof and much smaller. Often the heavily discounted stuff is still four times the price of what you’d normally buy elsewhere but you do see things you don’t usually see in local shops. For instance they have a selection of cummerbunds with bowties in harlequin like colours or the old striped boating blazers you’d expect to see in Victorian films where the men wore straw boaters when messing about on the river. Mike loves those blazers and would love one but he can’t quite bring himself to spend that kind of money.

We had a really good look round all the different sections and then ended up at a little coffee bar upstairs.I wasn’t really paying much attention when Mike asked what I wanted so I just answered I’s have the same as him instead of my usual latte. Mike had an Americano so that’s what I got. Small cup, double shot. It was thick enough to chew and strong enough to coat my vocal chords before taking an hour to slide down them and Arnie would have lost out in a strongman competition.talk about strong. We should have gone to the cafe downstairs and had a coffee from the machine. Neither of us actually bought anything on this outing which is unusual but I enjoyed it nonetheless for the change. We went home via Trefnant and then up to Caerwys, along to Holywell and down again to Greenfield and got back about 4.30 pm. Mike made himself a drink while I came through to answer some mail and then let him watch his beloved Manchester United in peace. There wasn’t much peace really as they last again.He came through at 6.30 pm to check out some things on ebay then I went through at 7.00 pm with him to watch some TV. I gave that up at 9.40 pm and came back through. There’s obviously been plenty of mail to go through as well as the blog to do. I started the blog at 11.00 pm and intend to go to bed once I’ve published it

R I P Ben E King died 01.04 2015 aged 76  Another great lost to that party in the stars.

My thanks to you all. Have a wonderful New Week.