A GRAND DAY OUT

Wednesday 4 January 2017

6 degrees sunny

We still felt too ill to do walking on anything other than the flat, so decided to go and do a littl 'shopping'.  Eldest in bed, looking pale and exhausted.  He seems to be suffering from having looked after us.

I have a shower and get out my makeup.  It has been a week now since I started feeling ill - perhaps I would also look pale and interesting.  And thinner.  Alas, I am not 27 like eldest.  My neck looked saggy and I had violent red patches on my cheeks. think Widow Twanky.   And as for my chin, there were more hairs than bison on the Great Plains.  Hair like straw.  I covered it all up with powder and foundation and drew on a smile and lines where I wanted them to be and we emerged into the chilly morning and climbed stiffly into the car.

We drove to Bowness.  OH thought this would be a good place to find sheets.  I thought the probability of finding sheets in Bowness was so low as to be non existent.  We found a 'traditional' tea shop which was strangely empty.  South East Asian music blared out and our overstrong tea and a shared custard slice was slapped down on the table in a firm fashion.   OH said Bowness was rubbish for finding sheets.  We looked at the shops and the wind rattled around our legs.  It was surprisingly cold.  

What we needed to do, announced OH, was to go to Keswick.  Keswick would have sheets. We drove through Windermere and Grasmere and past Thirlmere and tried to get past a tour bus which was driven by a Lakes version of Jeremy Clarkson (speeeeeeeeeddddd!). That's how I would drive if I were on a Tour Bus said OH.  The crowds thinned to nothing after Grasmere.

Keswick was really, really cold.  We had strange chips and a large fish next to a half hearted Christmas tree in the main square (you can no longer drive through and park there but have to pay 3 quid for two hours parking - bxxxxrds said OH, this is the last time we come to Keswick).  No baubles and just a couple of strings of fairy lights, tightly packed in with market barriers in case someone has the urge to touch.  OH brightened at finding a Booths supermarket but it had no fresh cakes.  I asked the butcher on the counter about the cakes and he said he hadnt been over to the other side of the shop since the floods (13 months ago).  He didnt have any dog bones either.

There werent any sheets but I did find a shop called Ness (OH: what makes you think it is Scottish?) and snapped up a divine coat of a butterfly pattern with a rich deep purple and yellow silk butterfly liner.  It made me feel like a Princess.  Even though I look like an Ogre.

Here are some pictures of the day

Dawn flight