half a league, half a league

I got great mail yesterday, a parcel from turlough.

Thank you so much for the birthday present, Turlough. I'll keep it safe, and unopened, until my actual birthday, that way I know I'll have a lovely surprise to open. Though, I must admit, I was tempted to open it right now. You're the best ♥

Other than that it was a busy day as we went off and stocked James' unit at the craft shop, and very nice it looks too. He's between a sea glass unit and one that seems to sell a mixture of things, so the wood stands out nicely. I'm still not sure how profitable it's going to be, but the ladies running the shop are lovely and didn't charge for this last week of Jan, which was good of them. If you want to see, I've uploaded a photo here

Then, after stocking the unit we first, took Megan -- Kayleigh's cat -- to the vet and then went to pick Bodhi up from school as Kayleigh and Lucy were having a cinema and meal out day date. Bodhi was just as fun, and four going on fourteenish as usual. She wanted to give me some presents, including, a piece of paper to cut, four toy dragons, one of Kayleigh's bras and a Stitch hat. When I told her that it wouldn't fit my head she told me it had a thing at the back that made the hat bigger and how did I not know that as grown-ups are supposed to know everything. So, consider me told yet again. And also wonder when I'll become this magical grown up that does know everything.

Then later, it was The Traitors final episode which I'd been looking forward to so much. That show though, it had me on the end of my seat a few times thinking something was going to happen that didn't. But I was happy with the ending.

Today was a cinema day and as James had a Wagamama gift voucher, we went there for dinner. I had the silken tofu firecracker curry, and every bite teetered on the edge of being too hot. Which was my fault, as I did see the name. But still, it was tasty despite it making my nose run.

We'd gone to see Mercy which has been getting some bad reviews but despite being ridiculous in places, still kept me in suspense all the way through. I especially liked the concept of the film being the same time length of the trial on-screen, as the countdown was shown often, making it easy to work out when to dash out for a toilet break.

Some good things that have happened recently.

pensnest, your parcel arrived. So far Kevin has been in the cave bed and Murphy has sat on top of it. Thankfully, not at the same time. Thank you so much.

James' work sent him a card signed by his whole team along with some money from a collection his team leader had arranged. I'd like to say this was a surprise, but she'd accidentally copied him into the arranging email a few weeks ago, and he'd seen before the email had been retracted. But, surprise or not, it was lovely people had put in money, especially a such an expensive time of the year. He's thinking of using it to buy our new Beamish yearly pass, which seems a good idea to me.

James also got a phone call to say he had a space in a craft shop. The way it works is you can pay to hire a unit with four shelves and a hanging space, then the shop sells the products for you. We'd inquired last year, but there were no spaces then, but two units had come free, and he'd been given one of them. It's £40 a month rental, which is under the price we'd pay for four weekends/tables at craft fairs, but with much less work. Obviously, we've no idea how profitable this will be, but it's worth a go, and when we went to the shop earlier to check out details, it was lovely to see his name already up there on his unit. Now, he just needs to work out what to take to the shop, and get his stock levels back up. But, the shop is aware of circumstances, and have said to go and fill the shelves when he feels up to it.

16 people were at exercise only class on Monday, the most we've had ever. More than half of those were newbies, so many of them that I couldn't even say hello to every new starter, something I always try to do. Why I'm adding it to the good things list though is, I asked if there was a risk of having to leave the programme being as it was getting so busy, and I'm well over the official graduation time, but Rosie reassured me that I didn't have to go anywhere.

A new Starbucks opened in my town today, so we had a wander down to check it out. The place was buzzing, and we were well past the first 50 people who were given free coffee. But, when we had to go outside to try to log onto the app due to terrible connection inside, one of the managers saw and gave us both free coffee vouchers anyway. So, I got a pistachio matcha latte, and very tasty it was, too.