Blogging has stalled for a while as I have been in the UK for one of our routine visits this week and before that we were very busy with entertaining, gardening and other stuff.
This visit I have done the usual stuff such as cutting the grass, tidying the garden, tidying the house following our earlier exit in July and, importantly, I have been on a mission to buy myself some new clothes and shoes. I am desperate for new shoes, most of mine being years old and worn out (or no longer comfortable for my poor old abused feet). I also need new sandals but they will have to wait until next year as by now there are none in the shops.
I dread going shopping for clothes and shoes but dread even more the hassle of buying them online. The waiting in for the parcel or having to fetch it from the corner shop, the trying on to find the fabric is nothing like I expected and the shoes don't fit, followed by the packing up and returning using the various methods dictated by the supplier. Then the checking of my account to make sure the refund arrives.
I had been to one of the retail parks a few miles away and bought a couple of dresses and a jumper in the Weird Fish sale, plus a raincoat from Cotton Traders. The only shoe shop was Pavers but the only shoes that looked suitable were not available in my size.
So, I bit the bullet and went into town. First stop M&S who have moved from the town centre into a new store in a retail park on the edge of town. I queued to get into the inadequately small car park and slid into the only inadequately small parking space I could find, a long way from the shop. At least the parking was free but limited, of course, to two hours otherwise you risk a hefty fine from the people who own the car park. You can't visit all the shops on the site in two hours - unless you are very focussed and don't enjoy browsing.
I was lucky to find jeans and trousers in my size plus underwear in stock. I bit the other bullet of trying them on in the shop, which always seems to be a faff but avoids the inevitable return to the shop if they don't fit when trying them on at home.
I also nipped into the food hall (always a joy) and picked up some small chocolate gifts to take back to France. When we are invited out to lunch we take some chocs for the hosts and M&S chocs are always well received.
Next I went into the town centre and parked in a central car park. By then I was hungry so I popped into the Post Office. The building that used to be the Post Office is now a bar restaurant. I hesitated but thought how bad can it be? The décor was a cross between Frankie and Benny and an old railway station caff. This surprised me as I thought that kind of thing had gone out of fashion now. Having paid £8.60 for a very dismal bacon sandwich (just two small slices of unbuttered toast and two minute rashers of bacon) and a small bottle of mineral water I ventured out to the shops. I am out of touch with how much eating out costs in the UK.
There used to be two Clarks shoe shops in town, plus others such as Lilley & Skinner and a huge shoe department in the Co-Op. The Co-Op, our wonderful department store, closed several years ago and there is now just one Clarks shoe shop and two that seem to sell cheap trainers. I was out of luck.
However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed wandering around the town. The weather was fine which always helps but somehow it didn't feel quite so down at heel as it has felt lately. There are still plenty of empty shops and too many nail bars* and vape shops for my liking but on the whole I thought I could come to like the place again.
The indulgent wandering around town added time to my car parking fee which was £4.60. So by now I was £13.20 out of pocket and only a very mean bacon sandwich to show for it. (We rarely have to pay anything at all for car parking in our part of France.)
My plan was to head to yet another retail park way out of town where there was a Hotter shoe shop, a drive which took forty minues. If I was unlucky there I would have to go to the dreaded Meadow Hall - the massive shopping centre on the outskirts of Sheffield - which would involve at least a forty minute drive up the M1(depending on the time I hit the motorway and if there had been any "incidents"). In Hotter I hit gold and came away with a selection of shoes, boots and trainers that will see me through several winters.
Changing the subject, I have been trying to eat very healthily while chez nous uk as all that socialising and enjoying life over the summer chez nous fr has taken its toll on the waistline. I have had huge success with poached eggs.
You may laugh but poaching eggs is, IMHO, a black art and over the years I have tried a number of methods with mixed success. I have tried microwaving them (Nancy Birtwhistle's method) often resulting in exploded egg, the silicone egg poaching pods (eggs stuck like glue to the pods), steaming them in a tea strainer over a pan of simmering water (stuck like Gorilla glue to that), and, most successful so far, sliding them into a large shallow pan of barely simmering water from a small cup (Nigella Lawson's method). This would produce eggs that varied from perfect little balls of deliciousness to something that looked like a strangled jelly fish (but still tasted good).
More recently I have bit the bullet and done it the old fashioned way with HUGE SUCCESS. Sliding the egg from a cup into a small but deep saucepan of just simmering water containing a splash of white wine vinegar has worked for me. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the freshness of the egg but when the white is just no longer transparent the egg seems to have that oh so perfect runny yolk we all aim for. A thing of joy without a doubt.
Last but not least, I have just finished reading this book. I started it on the aeroplane (or rather, while waiting for the one and a half hours delayed flight in the dreadfully uncomfortable and greenhouse-like waiting room at Limoges airport which they euphemistically call the "departure lounge"). Once chez nous uk I couldn't wait to carry on reading it. Set in the era of coach and horses and parlour maids, it was a bit of a slow start but very worth sticking with it to the end. If you like a tale with unexpected twists and turns you would enjoy it.
As a post script, Blogger seems to have thrown a wobbly yet again and no longer updates my reading list or the blog list on my sidebar. Does anybody have any idea how to fix this?
* As a further post script I recently stumbled across an article which refers to the invasion of nail bars into towns all over the world. The writer refers to the nails as "acrylic claws". They definitely would not suit my lifestyle and I often wonder how people manage with them!
