Wednesday 27 March 2013

A Hectic Weekend

The last few days have been busy and involved a fair bit of running around and 'doing'.  It started Saturday.  I had only arranged to meet someone for a coffee, taking perhaps an hour and half, two hours tops.  Plenty of time left in the day to bake some bread.  I had read in Paul Hollywoods 'Bread' what would be an ideal size tin for bread.  I had exactly the size given, but it is my tattiest tin, the non-stick is not even there is some places.  I guess I am hanging onto it because I've not yet got another one to replace it.  I asked Mum in the morning if she had one a similar size.  She hadn't.  At the end of a very long and convoluted day, (most of which isn't really for here) I still didn't have a new tin-for-bread-only tin.  Mum had bought a Silverwood 12" multi size pan with two extra dividers, which could of course be used for bread.  It will come in very handy and be very useful and I'm excited that I may have a chance to use it. 
 
Sunday I took Mary-Jane to Messy Church at the Methodist Church in Gosforth.  I was quite wary of this, even though it sounded like fun.  I was on my guard that this might be a way of 'introducing' me to the Church.  This is a very sensitive subject for me, probably more sensitive than what I realise.  The Nuns at the Convent have so much to answer for.  I took Mary-Jane down and boy did we have fun!  The Messy Church was free and there was so many activities for MJ to do - reading, colouring, playing 'kitchen', baking bread rolls, using playdoh, decorating small cupcakes, decorating eggs, face painting, making easter cards and making pictures with tissue paper!  Wow!  And then we had lunch, with cakes - the ones that the children had decorated.  After that there was an Easter Egg Hunt in a wonderful garden of a 'church lady'.  Mary-Jane found two eggs.  On our way home MJ was given two mini creme eggs and two mini Lindt chocolate rabbits.  It was a fantastic two hours.  The only religeous part of it was when we were waiting for the lunch to be put out.  There are two main rooms - the Church and the Church Hall as such.  We were sat in the Church and a visiting Reverend told a bible story of Easter and two songs were sung.  The story was pitched a little above the older childrens head, I thought, but they got the jist of it.  The age ranges were from a babe in arms to about 8 or 9 ish.  I will definitely take Mary-Jane again.  It's on three or four times a year.
 
Sunday afternoon we managed to 'win' a fish tank and supplies from Freecycle.  We went to collect it Sunday afternoon.  It turned out to be from a Knitty Lady that I know, and haven't seen since Gosforth Show, so it was nice to have a quick catch up.
 
Monday morning first thing I hot footed it to Lidl in Whitehaven to get MJ a Balance Bike, they had them on offer that day.  I got there for 9am.  They were already sold out.  I was so disappointed.  The store assistant was very helpful and rang around other stores for me, but without joy.  She took my number and said she would ring me if any of the other stores in the group had any left. 
 
Then it was off to Tesco.  I  wanted to talk to Customer Services about some sausages that I had bought last week.  They were on offer - £1 instead of £2.15.  They had gone through the till at full price.  I hadn't noticed till I got back, then rang the 0846 number to hear a recorded message saying that I should take the product and reciept back to the store and they would double the difference.  Customer Services said they couldn't do this as the sausages were on offer when I bought them, the offer had finished and there was no way they could verify that they were on offer.  I said that I couldn't have returned them on the day (also the last day of the offer) as it was not worth a nearly 20 mile round trip for the princely sum of £2.30.  I said I would never have bought them if they were full price. Still No refund.  However the chap did give me the direct phone number of the stores Customer Services, so that if it happened again, I could ring, speak with them, get the situation clarified, and there would be a credit note waiting for me.  Next time.  Hmmph.
 
I managed to get back for about 10.15 and was due in Gosforth to meet Helen for a cuppa at The Hungry Parrot.  I do enjoy the cuppas and chats with Helen.  Just what I needed after a hectic weekend.

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