Christmas Shopping

Both M and I had a day off work today, but the weather was too miserable to want to go anywhere outdoors. The forecasted snow didn't arrive, but it was cold with a persistent icy drizzle. Definitely indoor weather. I have come to the conclusion that now might be the right time to trade in my laptop - the one I am using is 6 years old and in good condition, but as I am working two jobs on it I don't want to wait until it starts to become unreliable. I did a bit of research and discovered it has a significantly higher second hand value than I expected, which makes a new one affordable. With this in mind we decided a trip to the Apple store to look at laptops would be a good (indoor!) plan. It turned out to be not as good a plan as we thought; the store was so busy that they were only letting people in with a booked time slot, and the only time available would have stopped us getting back in time to collect TG after school so we had to give it a miss. We did get to see the Christmas lights in the shopping centre, which were cheerful and festive. 

It was still a worthwhile trip, as I was able to get some small stocking fillers and oddments that would not have been worth ordering online, and M and I went to Nandos for lunch. That also involved a virtual queue, where we had to check into the queue online, and then got a text about 40 minutes later to say they had a table ready. Ordering was also digital, with a QR code on the table to direct us to the ordering site. We wondered whether this will continue to be an option or not once the pandemic is over, rather than having to stand in a queue to order. The other shopping success was that I managed to buy two tubs of orange flavoured hot chocolate from Whittards, which made the girls very happy. It was pretty busy, with significant queues for some shops. I dread to think what it will be like at the weekend.

After we got home, M and I watched some more of the excellent Queen's Gambit. I think we have just one episode left to watch now. The girls and I made homemade pizza for dinner, using a packet of gluten free pizza mix from a food hamper which was part of the instagram giveaway H won last month. It took a while for the dough to rise enough, but the end result was very good. While we ate pizza we watched Home Alone.