Staying Home Part 2: Day 10

It has been truly miserable weather all day, which put paid to H's plan to meet her BF for a walk today. The girls then decided that we should go to Frosts garden centre this afternoon - garden centres are allowed to open, which makes sense for the outdoor section, but seems a bit odd where they have large indoor shops selling non-garden items. Frosts turns a lot of its indoor space into a Christmas shop, which was what attracted the girls, and I wanted to try to get a couple of large houseplants to brighten up a corner of the sitting room. I have black thumbs and very few plants survive my poor attempts to keep them alive, but I have managed to keep a large palm type thing from dying for three years, so decided maybe I could try adding more. We were shocked at the price of houseplants, and ended up with just a large poinsettia and a nice pot to put it in. True to form when I have anything to do with a plant, the poinsettia slightly lost a battle with the wind on the way back to the car and is now a bit lopsided.

After Frosts we drove a short distance to the building site where H's house is going to be. Some houses looked almost finished, other parts of the site were just mud. We couldn't see from the road if the foundations have been dug for her house yet. If it was drier we would have had a walk round. We then went on to Starbucks for takeaway Christmas coffees - I had a gingerbread latte and H and TG had toffee nut lattes. Starbucks now do coffees with a soya whipped cream which was a nice treat for H and myself. To add to the Christmassy vibe I had my first mince pie of the season.

After we got back TG and I went to M & S Food so she could buy some treats as a reward for yesterday's excellent school report. Apparently she is having a virtual sleepover with some friends tonight, so she got some popcorn as a sleepover snack. She also wanted to get some sweets for a friend whose birthday is next week. We found a nice houseplant in a basket which was just what I wanted - who knew that I should really have gone to a food shop, not a garden centre to find the right plant! Here are the plant and the poinsettia sitting in their corner (along with the box for a half-done Harry Potter jigsaw). 

We planned a takeaway for tonight to celebrate H's exam success, and after an 11th hour change of plan the girls went back to Milton Keynes to collect a takeaway from Nandos. They have just started offering plant-based "Imitation Chicken", which I tried in a wrap and enjoyed. After that we watched Strictly - at least, three of us watched Strictly and M stayed in the same room not watching. Despite the weather, it has been a good day.