Passing the time of day

G arranged to take her car into the garage to have it checked. It's been playing up a bit and is coming up for its registration renewal so it's time to pay attention to it.

Nice to see our serviceman Khalid again after ages. He looks after the car/us very well. The two parts I ordered from the secondhand market had already been delivered and Khalid had one of them replaced in no time.

As the problem is electrical and a bit complicated, it was suggested we wait at a nearby mall while they checked it. We got dropped off at Festival City - in our own car - so we decided to make the most of the time. The main reason for being in Godiva was to a. sit down without having our masks on and b. we've never experienced the delights of their beverages, so today was a first. The fact that we had an Entertainer voucher made it sweeter. I have to say, it was very luxurious. G had a tea with fresh mint. :)

Coffee over, we headed to IKEA and just broggled through the store, checking out the sofas in a few of the living rooms! G then remembered she wanted to look at frying pans, so we came home with one. Oh, on the way there, we popped into the Naturalizer store. They're having a big stock clearance promotion and I have come home with two pairs of BZees! I hadn't heard of this brand before. They are American and make very interesting shoes, and the £20 for 1 or £26 for 2 deal was a bit hard to ignore, especially as a pair in normal times costs £50!!

We finally heard around 1 o'clock that the tests have been completed. The list of things that need to be replaced is not large but it is expensive and definitely more than what we're willing to spend on the car. Fortunately, there is a very good secondhand market for these vehicles so it is possible to bring the cost down quite drastically.

We finally collected the car and were home for an early 4 o'clock tea. While we were out, G had a large box delivered. The Police department is giving out care boxes to the (ahem) over 60s and G was encouraged by Pauline to apply for one. It arrived the very next day! We're going to open it tomorrow to explore the contents.