First day of hols

Today didn't go quite according to plan, but it was okay.

Still tired because of not being able to turn in bed and waking up several times a night but I had seen online something about the Salvation Army and carols in Barnstaple High Street this morning and I assumed that meant a brass band, so I said we should take Tess in first thing and get into the Christmas spirit. But just as we were about to set off Richard's mum phoned to say her central heating was playing up, and as I'm the only one who knows how to use the control panel we went round to sort that out and then Richard ended up helping her to sort out replacing an LED Christmas tree thing.

We finally got into town but had to park away from the centre because of the time of year, and that meant walking - which I'm not very good at. But we remained in good spirits and got to the high street while it was still very much morning. There was no sight nor sound of Christmas music or bands or carols, so we asked Tess if she wanted to see if the jewellers were doing ear piercings today. She was very keen and totally thrilled. We'd been planning on taking her around now as part of her Christmas present but wanted to make certain she was sure. At the jeweller's she nearly chickened out but the girl doing the piercing was young and kind and put Tess at ease so she went for it. At the actual moment of piecing Tess looked like she'd changed her mind again and - in her words "thought about crying but didn't". She was really happy with the result and we all went and had a lovely light early lunch in a little café tucked away in church walk in a lovely old part of Barnstaple (photo).

Back on the high street it became clear I assumed wrong about the brass band. There was none. There were just four Salvation Army members singing carols on their own and even that wasn't for long... One member collapsed in the middle of the high street and an ambulance had to be called. I hope she's okay.

There was someone with an owl on the high street though. And a woman sprayed gold pretending to be a statue. And there was a wolf. And buskers. And someone playing a hurdy gurdy.

Barnstaple is a bit peculiar sometimes.

The afternoon involved tea and present-wrapping, and more tea and online shopping for food for Christmas and the rest of the week. And Richard walked the dog and then went back to his mum's to put some beds together.

We thought it would be nice to pop over with Gemma to Richard's mum's new house for 20 mins this evening but she didn't want us because it was the final of Strictly Come Dancing.


We got the bill for our new heating system and our solar panels already. We've not made any power yet!