The things I carried

GG and I went on an outing today. I'd intended to go to Stonehouse first, because things in Stonehouse tend to close early, but she wanted to go to Wotton-under-Edge and Yate. I drew the line at Yate, because apart from charity shops she could only recommend it for Tesco's.

So we went to Wotton, which is still in Gloucestershire and has quirky architecture and independent shops as well as charity shops, cafes, a bookshop, TWO travel agents, an independent cinema, an arts centre, and so on. In fact, since the last time I went there (years ago) it seems to have become gentrified, but I'm not complaining.

I managed to find a Travel Scrabble set for our forthcoming holiday, and an Easter Egg hunt kit for nursery. In another shop, I found the wooden skittles for one of the twins (I'm leaving them when I start my new job). I also bought some beautiful prints in a craft shop, for me. We had hot chocolate in one of the many cafes, and I bought some cards for resale. I'm not sure what GG bought, I think she was saving herself for the next place.

We decided (or maybe I did) to skip Yate and double back to Stonehouse, via Dursley. GG was convinced that there'd be nothing new in the charity shops because she goes there regularly, but she was wrong! She found lots of new stock in at least one shop, and bought me a decorated egg. She also got some clothes and ordered a hand made white bird table.

I had been intending to do some research around places to take one of the twins next week, but some of the places and shops were closed or closing because it was already after 1pm. This was annoying. Must remember not to go after 1, except on a Thursday, when the library is open from 2pm. (Maybe CoVid is causing these short opening hours, but I remember that in the Beforetimes there were also early closing hours in this town).

Anyway, I found some frozen fruit and veg sold loose in the Co-op (they do give you a bag to put it in, but you can choose how much you want), which made me very happy. We also found out about a local coach tour company that runs trips from Stonehouse. Whoop whoop, that might just work for us in the summer. Good research!

Then we went back to my place and had lunch, using the non-frozen food I'd bought in the Co-op. I settled down to listen to a podcast and do a jigsaw we had started the other day, but found that CS had already finished it! So I restarted another that I had only made partial inroads into last year, and listened to a whole podcast series called Dead Hand on BBC Sounds, which was chilling in the extreme. I'm pleased that I didn't have nightmares (this is a backblip) but maybe that's because I started listening to Jon Ronson afterwards (Things Fell Apart podcast). He has such a soothing voice, even when he's unpicking a story of a simple action that yielded catastrophic results.