It's report writing day so I have ....... not been writing reports, apart from a bit of preparatory work in the morning. Instead I went into town, had a good browse around the shops, met a friend for coffee and did a few town jobs. I try and save up my jobs for one trip because apart from the cost of fuel it takes a big chunk of time. One thing I did was go to my medical centre and ask to be taken off my doctor's list and put on another doctor at the same practice. My old doctor hadn't done anything wrong but you don't feel she's that bothered (she sounds concerned but then gives you a prescription for something you are already taking and then when you point that out simply doubles the dose!) One funny thing there, while I was talking to the receptionist I glanced into the large open plan office to see a very large black cat sleeping on one of the office chairs. Apparently he's there every day. I didn't find out if he's actually theirs or someones house cat that has found himself a good day job.
Another of my tasks today was to drive up to the local college to see if the woodworking dept had any bags of wood shavings for my hen house. There weren't any today but I'll try again earlier in the week. Sometimes I get a good car load all bagged up and ready to go. It all depends when their dustmen have been or if anyone else has taken the free wood shavings.
In town I bought a new seed bird feeder which I have now hung over the stream. I also got some more solar powered lamps to put alongside the path for those dark evenings. Next to the bird seed is a bag of oat bran which I buy from a health store partly because I like to support small businesses and partly because I enjoy being able to fill up my bag from a big tub. The plastic eggs are to hang from some twigs in class. The heart shaped candles, in glass dishes and heart shaped silicone cup cake cases were 70% off at Tescos. I had finally made it to the new Tescos that has been built on the site of my beloved Brian Fords. It is quite big with a long sloping escalator so you can take your trolley to the upper level, which was a new experience. (There are only 2 other escalators in Barnstaple.) There was an automated voice saying over and over again ' Please push your trolley off the escalator.' which must have been highly annoying for any staff working near there. Perhaps they'll be able to turn it off when everyone has got over the novelty of the escalator. I didn't buy that much as we are trying to work our way through the stock pile of food we still have. There was a small section of Polish foods and I couldn't resist a packet of bortsch (beetroot soup) and some chocolate. They also have a section with ingredients for Asian cooking with a bit more than your usual curry sauces and powders, some interesting things to try one day. Highly reduced were cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and rice noodles so it will be a noodle dish of some sort tomorrow. I am very pleased to say that even though some fresh cream cakes were being reduced by 50% (banoffee cake, chocolate eclairs, profiteroles etc) I resisted, (after a little deliberation). As they were all family sized boxes I couldn't kid myself that it would be a little treat, and I had eaten a very nice slice of raspberry cheesecake when I met my friend earlier.
I just needed to check out the chocolate to see if it is better than the continental chocolate I buy at Lidlls. I did stock up on strong flour as Tescos value strong flour is still the cheapest around here (50p for 1.5 kg of white & £1.19 for wholemeal). Too late now to think about reports and I have got some library books waiting to be read.
