What a bargain!

Started the week with what I think was one of my best ever bargains. Whilst doing a bit of food shopping, I spotted a 'reduced' Christmas hamper, at a price I could hardly believe. But there it was, written clearly on three stickers .......'Reduced to £8.50'. The wicker hamper alone was worth the asking price, and after a quick inspection of those contents that we could actually see inside, Mike struggled to the checkout with it, wondering if anyone would query the price. No ....not a problem. Back home we were delighted to find that it contained two bottles of wine and one of Champagne, along with all the other luxury food items (all with OK 'use by' dates) Naturally, I had to do some research via the internet. It appears that the original price had been in the region of £150! Well............if someone's made a big mistake, sorry, because we've already made a start on the contents and they're delicious! The empty hamper is just the thing for storing magazines in, in the conservatory.

We spent that afternoon strolling around Lichfield in the sunshine, pretending we were tourists. Mike met up with an 'old' work mate and spent some time catching up on all the news. That evening our friends D & D came round for a meal, to make up for all the events we'd had to cancel over the holiday period, due to illness. It was a lovely, relaxed evening and they too were very impressed with the 'bargain'.

Tuesday was Mike's regular appointment at the QE, where we met up again with one of the kidney cancer patients who started on the Sutent trial along with Mike, five years ago. It's good to share experiences and to note, that despite the side-effects, both the men look so well, and are leading active lives. We have a lot to be thankful for.

I took the opportunity of a bright and sunny day to spend some time on Wednesday down on the plot, planting out some more onion sets (better late than never). Last year the container grown carrots were a success, so I'll repeat the process again this year. However, as I intend replacing the mixture of sand and compost to make sure there are no over-wintering pests, I tipped the contents of the two containers onto my salad bed, and the strawberry bed, rather than waste them. Mike spent some time on Wednesday tracking our son A's flight back to Heathrow from Hong Kong. He'd spent a couple of days holiday there on his way back from Taiwan, where he'd been working for over a week. He arrived back at our home around 6pm where he was ready to tuck into a good, traditional English meal of toad-in-the-hole. I think he enjoyed it much more that one particularly gruesome tit-bit he'd sampled whilst away. From what he told us, it was very much akin to something we'd seen on 'An Idiot Abroad' (China). His next working trip is to Nigeria. Now that should be interesting!

It's ages since I've been out with the Walking Club. I decided to give Wednesday a miss, even though I'm more or less over the 'flu now, because my friend Molly and I were to do a pre-walk the following day(we'll be leading the walkers next Wednesday), and I didn't want to overdo things. I couldn't believe our luck, when I woke up on such a superb morning. There had been a heavy frost, but the sky was blue and the sun shining, as we set off to Hartshill Hayes Country Park, the start of our walk. I suppose it's too much to hope for the same weather conditions next week, when we lead the rest of the long walkers on the same walk, but it would be great. On our way back through Hartshill we looked around the very interesting boat yard, built to maintain the boats carrying stone from the Hartshill quarries. This part of the canal was built around 1733 for transporting the Hartshill stone, coal from Bedworth, lime, sand, sugar, timber and manure. Staring into the gloom of the blacksmiths shop we could make out all the tools and implements still in situ. The yard isn't open to the public, as far as I know, but there was no one about, and we couldn't resist having a look around. Molly, who had planned the walk and tested it out around Christmas, was keen to show me a plaque on the wall of a fairly modern block of flats in Hartshill, dedicated to the 'famous' poet, Michael Drayton, who I must admit, I'd never heard of. He was born 1563 in a cottage which once stood on the green across the road, and now demolished. Apparently, Michael Drayton was a friend of William Shakespeare, and is buried in Westminster Abbey. If anyone doesn't enjoy our walk next week, I'll make them stand below the plaque while I read them one of Drayton's very, very long poems!