Busy Days - Part 1

It's been a busy few days here, mainly on account of Little Bird preparing for her performance at the school talent show, plus a few other things going on at the same time. 

Wednesday night and she was due to stay at school for a dress rehearsal, after which I was to pick her up so we could all go on to our local John Lewis store for a pre-Christmas shopping event I'd signed up for as a My John Lewis member.  Who am I to say no to a free glass of Prosecco, huge minced pies and canapes, whilst perusing the store and possibly ticking a few things off the Christmas list.  As it turned out things didn't run quite so smoothly.

Just as I was about to go and get changed to go out, I got a phone call from OH who was out with the dog.  The little monster had gone AWOL again, in the dark, in the grounds of the local horse riding stables.  As OH had the car with him, I had to walk down there (a good 10/15 minute walk) and together we unsuccessfully tried to get the dog back on the lead for half an hour, before she was finally caught and rounded up by approximately 10 of the staff from the stables in the stable yard itself.  This was a very embarrassing incident which thankfully they found quite funny.  They all thought she was cute.  We thought she was a pain in the proverbial.  Needless to say, the dog was definitely in the dog house after such shenanigans.  We're having real problems with her lately.  She's becoming a real terrierist.  It's always on a night when you have something planned too.

After all the stress of recapturing the dog, I had 10 minutes to get changed and out to pick up Little Bird and eventually we all headed off to JL.  The evening got slightly better from here on in, helped by a nice little glass of bubbly and a few nibbles.  Whilst OH and Little Bird went off to get something to eat, I had a bit of an amble around the store.  Checked out a couple of things I was interested in buying, watched a gift wrapping demonstration and tried to find some Fitflop shoes to try on to get an idea of the sizing, as I'd like to buy some on eBay.  Unfortunately, they didn't stock them in the winter, so I may have to take a trip to Oxford Street in the hope that they have them there.

I was also out of luck with buying the one Christmas present I decided on, some Barbour welly socks for an outdoor loving relative.  Not available in the size I wanted, so I was spared actually spending much money on this occasion.  I did spend a little, as I had to buy a birthday present for one of Little Bird's friends (she'd been invited to a disco party on Saturday night).  I also managed to acquire this cute free Monty tote using a token I had from my My John Lewis membership. 

If you've seen JL's new Christmas ad you will know who Monty is.  He is quite a lovely little guy. They were out of stock of the real thing as it had apparently been their best selling item resulting from a TV ad campaign ever.  Little Bird was thrilled with the bag as she loved the ad, it brought a tear to her eye.  Bless.

Anyway, before I knew it the store was closing and we were on our way home, but the evening had been pleasant and civilised enough.  A little pre-Christmas indulgence and no real crowds to contend with.