Half-Term

Carol has been on Half-Term this week. After the awful day we had last Saturday (not going to mention it any more. Just read the previous blog post.) it's as well we could go out to find something nice to take our mind of things. On Saturday we went to Stowe Landscape Garden to have something to eat in the restaurant. It was quite a pleasant day, so that made things better. We didn't walk to the actual gardens as it's quite a way. It seemed quite busy there, no doubt because it was the beginning of the holiday period. We had soup and some really nice crusty bread. It's good that we have our National Trust membership so we could get in without paying. You can always rely on there to be decent food in their restaurants and we haven't been in this restaurant since it opened a couple of years ago. A vast improvement on the temporary building which used to house the café when it was on the opposite side of the gardens. There's a new carpark and visitor centre at Stowe.  On Monday Morning we went swimming at Nuffield. The place wasn't busy which makes a change, no surprise I suppose as most other members would be at work. One of the advantages of being either on holiday or retired. On Tuesday we went to Whipsnade and our efforts were rewarded as we saw the red pandas which don't generally come out of hiding. Very rare to see them. Walked a long way so we did at least get some exercise. We visited the central shopping centre in Milton Keynes on Wednesday and I wanted to show Carol the DAB radio/CD player I wanted to buy her as a birthday present in John Lewis. Not sure whether to buy it, but on Friday we went to Kettering as Carol wanted to visit a shop which specialises in dolls houses. Not the sort of place you'd choose to visit. It's very run down with many empty shop units. Seems the fate of so many towns and cities currently. We drove back to Milton Keynes and went to Sainsbury's. We had a look at DAB radio/CD players in the electronics section of the store and found a rather nice Blaupunkt model which suited our purposes. Cost £100 which was cheaper than the Pure model we saw in John Lewis and decided to buy it and used up the Nectar points we've been saving for a long time. This model has more functions than the Pure model, and once we got it functioning in the bedroom found it to be more than adequate. Not only does it have DAB radio and FM stations and the CD function, but you can charge your mobile from it and it connects with other devices which have the added facility of Bluetooth so you can play music from your tablet device or smart phone which makes things even more flexible. Went to Nuffield again on Friday. Certainly getting our money's worth from our membership. I did over 20 lengths of the pool which is great. I have to say it's having a real benefit towards my health and well-being. It's a far deeper pool than D.W. as well as having a sauna as well as a steamroom  and spa.