We checked Tara into the local kennels to give us the chance to get away dead early yesterday morning and headed straight for Hobbycraft. There was only a slight spanner in the works. Using the postcode provided on the website and the SatNav we were deposited in the middle of a housing estate with no sign of any retail park in sight. We kind of guessed that something was up when Jane (the SatNav) told us to come off at Junction 12 instead of Junction 10.
Once we'd finished cursing modern technology, got back on the motorway and found Junction 10 without any further hiccup it wasn't long before we saw the sign for the main shop we were looking for.
We made a quick trip to Asda for refreshments and then proceeded to buy a single duvet and pillow set, fitted sheet and valance for the single bed we've acquired for the spare bedroom. That's a story in itself actually. Thursday night I saw a single bed being offloaded at one of the local charity shops. I mentioned this to Mr Click as we've been looking for a cheap bed for the spare bedroom for a while and suggested he might like to go in and check it out. The following day I got a text to let me know he'd bought it (and a bedside table) and it would be with us Monday.
I'm quite pleased that we'll finally get it all set up as a spare room at last. I mean we've lived there for two and half years and just this year we've broken the habit of using it as a dumping ground for stuff we don't want to look at downstairs. Having the bed in there will greatly reduce this even further and even give visitors somewhere to sleep. Bonus!
Anyway, back to Glasgow Fort. Once we'd finished buying half the home furnishing department of Asda we headed virtually next door and I was in heaven. I always used to be given craft sets as a child, in part because my parents used to describe me as 'creative' (I always had a notebook in hand ready for my latest story), everyone interpreted this as 'artistic' so I got sewing kits, modelling kits, painting and colouring kits. Even now I love all those sorts of things so you can imagine how much I enjoy going to places that Hobbycraft.
There are some crafts that I'm not remotely interested in (decoupage doesn't really interest me particularly) but there are others that I've read about online which interest me. Obviously it's a bit tricky to decide if a craft is for you without seeing it in person so it was good to see some of the things I'd probably need to get before I got stuck in. One thing I'd love to try is making stitch markers for my knitting (and possibly to give as little gifts to knitting friends); it looks like this would be a cross between jewellery making and possibly Fimo clay stuff as well. Might be something to ask for at Christmas... ;-)
After spending a small fortune there, but only going slightly over my self-imposed budget, we headed to a little Chinese restaurant/takeaway called McChan's where we got some of the tastiest Chinese food I've had for a while. We didn't quite understand how the meal deal worked so wound up with extra that we took away for tea - two Chinese meals in a day, so unhealthy.
Other highlights of the day included finding a shoe rack in Lidl for £9.99 and getting me a wheely suitcase for a little trip I'll be taking for £17 (when the Tesco till said it was supposed to be £30)! Considering we've not done a big shop since before Christmas we've now completely stocked up and have enough food to last us well into the summer as well, so all in all it was a very successful day.
Aside from big shopping trips and eating lots of Chinese food, this week's been all about getting my TMA polished off and submitted. I should've really gone on to make a start to the next chapter of the course book, especially as I'm having a busy couple of weeks this month. But I felt like I needed a rest and so I've concentrated on reading the last few books that I've got to read for the course. I'm getting through them quite quickly.
I really enjoyed reading Beverley Naidoo's The Other Side of Truth and as soon as I finished it I went straight onto Melvin Burgess's Junk. It's one that I remember a friend reading and enjoying when I was at school but I'm not enjoying it quite so much after The Other Side of Truth as that was a book I just couldn't put down. This one kind of flits around between different perspectives and as I know what's going to happen (courtesy of the aforementioned friend) I don't feel the same urgency to get to the end.
When I get to the end of Junk I'm determined to read the illustrated version of The Lord of the Rings so I'm trying to use that as an incentive to spur me on but so far it's not really helping me get there any quicker. At least once I finish with Junk I can have a few months of reading anything I want to which always seems to increase my reading speed.
As for TV viewing this week, as I mentioned last week, we finally watched the last episode of ER. I have so much love for that series and as we've been watching it for nearly a year, I really miss it. I think it's one that I'm going to go back and rewatch by myself whenever I get the chance. Especially the later series because for most of them I was only seeing them for the second time and there was so much I'd forgotten since the first viewing.
We've now replaced The Good Life with The Two Ronnies and ER with Criminal Minds, although Criminal Minds didn't seem like such a good thing to watch right before bed so we've switched around when we watch them. The Two Ronnies is excellent before bed viewing so that's worked out well, and Criminal Minds is proving to be good as well; I like things where you can try to solve the mystery along with the characters - so far I'm pretty good at figuring it out.
This week is going to be another long and busy week for me, more of that later in the week. I'm quite looking forward to the week after actually, when I've not got anything planned so I might get to take advantage of a Saturday in bed. I think after these busy weeks recently I'll need it!
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