A Walk by the River

My mum and I had a lovely day out in Cambridge today. We are nothing if not creatures of habit and our day was almost a carbon copy of our day out there in November!
From school we drove to The Orchard Tearooms in Grantchester and sat under the trees with our pots of tea. There wasn't even a sign of buds on the trees and yet in just a matter of weeks they'll be covered in blossom. 
From there we went for a walk along the river. It was beautiful despite the biting wind.
From there we got the park & ride into Cambridge, looked round the market stalls and I treated myself to a new scarf - a new tradition! Mum treated herself to some Cath Kidston goodies and then we went to the jewellers who made my engagement and wedding rings. 
Last time we were in Cambridge I had taken my rings in to be resized but had a bit of a wobble and didn't want to leave them. This time I was all prepared and the lady got as far as filling out all the paperwork while her colleague went to check the cost.
She came back to say it would be £250. 
Two hundred and fifty pounds!!
To take gold out of my rings.
I apologetically murmured that it was slightly more than I had been expecting and said I needed to think about it.
Food always helps me think so we went to a lovely Thai restaurant for a bargain lunch.
I decided to put three stone back on so the rings aren't so loose see what a normal jewellers would charge so we popped into H Samuel and the lady said they'd be £45 each. Mmmmm, a bit of a difference! 
Although she also said that they'd re-apply the rhodium plating as they'd gone a bit dull.
They were never plated in the first place so that didn't fill me with confidence!
I decided not to think about it any more and put it off again!
We carried on pottering about and then decided to go for tea before heading back to school for the Little Misses. My watch said it was just after 3pm as we got into the gorgeous Fitzbillies so we had about an hour before we needed to set off to the park & ride.
Or so I thought......
As we were sat there after having ordered I happened to glance at the clock on the wall and was confused to see that it said 4.15pm.
I was horrifed to see on my phone that it was indeed 4.15pm and - total idiot that I am - I hadn't changed the time on my watch yesterday and hadn't noticed. We'd thought the day seemed to be going slowly!!
We drank our tea super quickly, wolfed down a sausage roll (me) and a huge slice of carrot cake (mum), and asked for the bill. All in about five minutes!
Then we rushed to the bus stop, saw the bus was there from about 200 yards away so ran for it. We then sat huffing and puffing on the bus for five minutes thinking that there'd been no need to run!
The SatNav said that our ETA at school was 6.03pm. Only three minutes late and I was sure we'd make that up en route. It could have been so much worse if I hadn't noticed the time and we'd sat for ages enjoying a leisurely tea and chat!
All was going well until just outside Cambridge when the ETA jumped up to 6.40pm and it said the roundabout just near school was closed and there were massive tailbacks everywhere due to a big crash and car fire. Great!
I rang my dad to ask him to go and get the Little Misses and sit with them in his car until we got there. He had no car seats to bring them home.
We had to take a very circuitous - but very picturesque - detour and managed to get to school for 6.15pm. Not too bad after all the drama!
The Little Misses were as happy as Larry sat in Papa's car eating their Easter eggs!!
Another lovely day out with my mum. Next time we'll make sure someone else can pick up the Little Misses so don't have to rush back.