Well, what a busy couple of days.

On Tuesday Tom and I refurbished his computer. New 1Tb hard drive and Windows 7 Ultimate. Very nice. Went very quickly too. The only problem was a strange video card which is supposed to do high-def something-or-other but it just didn’t work. The driver wouldn’t install either. But now, without that, it’s all up and running and very sprauncy. It’s always so satisfying to make an old broken computer into a good, fast, working one. There were originally two hard drives in there, both partitioned, and one of them had just died. The other one is still in there, reformatted into one single partition, and that’s where he keeps his music. Just needs an external hard drive now for backing up. At the moment everything is backed up on my external drive, just in case.

Wednesday – hubby went up to Tescos with his Heath-Robinson-type contraption, got as much as he could manage, then schlepped home. But it wasn’t the greatest success. He was fraught and very tired when he got home. So we all rushed about making him cups of tea with a mince pie and putting it all away. It’s all a bit bashed, as it had to be squashed into a rucksack. However, that really doesn’t matter.

Then YD drove into Solihull to meet her friend and took me with her for my hairdo. Then I had lunch with YD and friend, and off I went to Sainsbury’s to finish off the Xmas food shopping. I had hardly really started when the fire alarm in Sainsbury’s and the whole of Mell Square went off, and we all had to leave the store and the shopping centre. So I met YD and off we went to fetch her car, had a cup of tea at her chappie’s parents’ house (which was very welcome indeed). That was nice, particularly so because YD’s chappie’s sister was there with her baby, and they are both lovely.

Next, YD drove me to Waitrose in Hall Green, where we couldn’t get into the car park. However, we parked on the roadside, and I found a trolley. Which had the most interesting shopping list attached to it – YD and I couldn’t stop laughing. I’ve scanned it in and here it is.

Anyway, we got everything we needed. Or so we thought at the time. Desperate for a cup of tea and a sit down when we got home. YD and chappie went up to the huge Tescos just by us for some bits and bobs for dinner, came home, started dinner and discovered that we had a) no garlic and b) no curry paste. Jeez. YD had actually been to two supermarkets that day, and was well ticked off. Meltdown time. I kept well out of the kitchen. Anyway, YD’s chappie saved the day and we had a lovely dinner.

This morning, as a result, husband walked up to Tescos (for the umpteenth time this week) and got the garlic and curry paste. I’ll be glad when the shops shut and we just have to make do with what we have.

Slept late today, planning to make some more mince pies this afternoon, if I don’t have to go back to bed for another little sleep. Am very very tired.