THERE'S ALWAYS ONE!

I woke up and needed to go into the bathroom at 2.38 a.m. - amazing how we know the precise time, isn’t it?  When I got back into bed, I felt wide awake so by 3.40 I decided to go downstairs and do some work on my computer.  I heard Mr. HCB stumbling into the bathroom, so he shouted to make sure I was OK, so having reassured him,  I made myself a cup of coffee and set to work deleting lots of duplicate photographs etc - the sort of thing that needs to be done in the middle of the night!

By the time he got up at 6.45 I was still going strong, so decided that it would be a good idea to go over to Aldi and do some shopping before the “school Mums”  got there.  There was very little traffic so I got there in no time and there were very few people actually in the store - in fact, I think there were more staff than customers.  Had a minor blip though when I realised I needed a pound coin to unleash a trolley, but I had no money - I blame Mr. HCB - he told me to “put it all on the card” but one of the cashiers gave me a trolley without needing any money - so kind. 

It was a doddle wandering around and I was really proud of myself because I bought all healthy stuff - no mince pies, no little dark chocolate heart biscuits and no crisps - but I did buy three bottles of red wine because that was what Mr. HCB had asked me to get - and he was pleased with them - a French and an Argentinan Malbec  and a French Carcassonne, so as we will be on our own at Christmas - the first time for well over fifty years - and won’t need to drive anywhere, we can both have a glass or three of red wine!

I saw these chocolate Santas on one of the shelves - actually I did have to do a bit of rearranging - but you won’t be surprised at that and if you know me, you will also know that the rearrangement ALWAYS looks better than the original!  However, the one on the end indicated he didn’t want his photograph taken, so turned his back on me - how rude - just a shame it's not Silly Saturday today!  I think they will even do for Wide Wednesday - the subject is "eye-catching" and I think they are!

When I came out after 45 minutes, and probably the quickest I have done any shopping for sometime, I had a chat with James, a volunteer for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance - trying to drum up some business for them.  The Air Ambulance needs £10,000 a day to stay in the air and of course, with all that’s gone on, they, like many charities, are strapped for funds.  I had seen James before, and told him about the fingerless gloves I had made in their colours of yellow and green - and he said he remembered speaking to me in our town centre some months ago.  I was also able to tell him that we do give them a monthly sum, because we are so grateful that they were around when our younger son was involved in a serious accident when he was 15 years old.

Things that brought me joy today:

Shopping without lots of people being around, so having time to look

Hearing from several friends I hadn’t heard from for sometime after my Facebook profile was hacked - every cloud has a silver lining!

Speaking to James and being able to encourage him on a cold morning

“There are three stages of man: 
     he believes in Santa Claus; 
          he does not believe in Santa Claus; 
               he is Santa Claus.”
Bob Phillips