not quite as planned

Okay. So we got a couple of orders for prints from the Christmas party. While our printer did a good job on the 4x6s, we thought we'd better send off for 8x10s. And, my friend wanted to go to Bury and I thought we could all go together. So Monday night Bob tried Jessops for the prints. The upload and order system was much easier to use than Tesco's, and I thought we had a winner. Then it came time to pay, and that was a little complicated, but finally worked. Also, more expensive than Tesco. (Right, because Tesco in Bury doesn't have a photo lab, and there is a Jessops there. Jessops is a national chain camera store.) The site eventually (after much digging) said that the sizes we ordered would take 1 day.

So Wednesday morning Bob got up early - 9:45 - and we got ready to go. I called my friend, and she wanted to go to Brandon first, so decided to drive herself and we'd try to meet up in Bury. Then I thought we'd better check, so we looked on Jessops' website, and the pics were printed, but hadn't arrived in store yet. Oh, now it tells us that it's 1 day to print, and 1-3 days to be delivered to the store. thanks. So we stopped to think and decided that we didn't have a compelling reason to go to Bury (especially as we'd be going Thursday or Saturday to get the pictures).
In the meantime, Referral Management called with Riah's cardiologist appointment - Friday morning! I told Bob and he said no can do on Friday; as he has a 12-14 hour shift every Friday night he didn't want to get up early and take us to Cambridge in the morning. So I called them back and had it changed to the 23rd. Which was when I'd had a WIC appointment, so I still need to change that.

Well, there we were all dressed up and nowhere to go. That would never do! We decided to go to Mildenhall to look for Fry's chocolate for my dad. We got parking downtown, and the first store we tried had it, though a little higher than I expected. Wanting to keep our change for parking next time, we used the 5pound note I'd got for Dad to buy his candy. Oops. I'll have to look again for a new fiver and send it in a card.
Then we went on to the two thrift stores in town (didn't get anything).

After that we went to RAF Mildenhall for lunch at the BXtra. After a decent lunch (Riah spilled water and Ella spilled chocolate shake) we spied another friend and had a little visit, and then walked through the store. I got some new kitchen washcloths, as I'm now changing them out every day. But that took too long, so we were unable to go over to the bowling alley to sign up for Cedwryck's birthday party, or get gas, or take the long way home and get farm fresh eggs at the roadside veg stand (which I suspect is owned by church people - they have a farm on that road, anyway). So we came home and Bob got ready for work.

I put the littles down for a nap, but it was nice and warm so I let the big ones play outside instead of doing book work.

After an early supper we got our shoes and coats back on and headed out. I had a big list of things to do, so kept whittling down to a manageable list. But as I went by the post office it was still open, so I put that back on the list. Okay, first stop, thrift store (open in the pm on Wednesday). I got a snowman puzzle (because you know I'm always doing puzzles, with so many babies running around), a travel book, and a wraparound skirt (that's for Taryn to play in). Going in there I couldn't find my envelope of ones that I'd put in my bag. When I checked out I realized I forgot to bring my bag full of shopping bags I'd planned to take up there for their use and my kitchen space.
Then a run to the commissary for one more item to fill Mom and Dad's Christmas box. Then out to the car to tape it up. But I ran out of tape, so back in for tape. Then back to the post office, which was now closed. It bothers me logically because they didn't close on an hour (it was after 5 when they were open, and before 6 when they were closed), but I was okay with it emotionally because I'd already decided I wasn't going to get that done that trip. Then I took the paperwork for the MR2 to Bob at work, because one of his "guys" is buying it. Bob asked me to get him a new photo magazine. Elijah was waking up, so I stopped at the shoppette and nursed him in the car, in the parking lot. Then realized it's the other shoppette that has the magazines.

So Elijah was happy again, and we went to the BX. Everybody had to use the toilets. The British gift shop didn't have anything I wanted to buy, to get a fiver back in change. So into the store, where the first thing I see is 50% off the Christmas pattern Polish pottery. Oh, yeah. As the cart was already full of people and coats and bags, I got another cart, made a bed in the back for ELijah and started piling pottery in the front. :-) As it turned out, the big pieces were already marked at half price, and the cashier took off another 50% at checkout. So good deals. We also may or may not have found something for Bob's birthday. At checkout Elijah just lay on my arm (he'd got fussy earlier and I picked him up) and looked around. It impressed the cashier no end.

Then we went to the "Shoppette without gas" to get a magazine. I left the children in the van, and it's just as well, since they have expanded their porn selection without expanding the vision barriers. grrr. Anyway, I got two magazines and a sudoku book. And home again in time for Bible and bed.

ANd now Bob's up and we ARE going to Bury. Maybe tomorrow I'll make it to the bowling alley and veg stand. :-)