Magical Mystery Tour.

Hi Folks.

Summer has returned and the temperature is going to be rising this week. I hope it is nice for the weekend.

Today was my day for dressing up and putting a small amount of make-up on, which does not happen very often, as I am not a huge make-up wearer, but when we go out I like to look a little bit human.

Your thinking ok, so where were you going??

No where terribly exciting Northampton to be exact. We have never been there before and as we like to visit new places, this was on our list of places to visit. So after getting the morning jobs done, we left the boat and headed for the bus stop to catch the 10.10am Daventry Dart. The title of my posting is very apt, because the bus took us on a mystery tour of the local villages, we passed through Roade, Blisworth, Collingtree into Northampton. We got off at the1970's Greyfriars bus station, which is dark and a little depressing, but the town centre made up for that with its beautiful buildings from all era's. Before setting off around the town we had a coffee in the Market, which was very welcome.

All Saint's Church.

Stunning looking building The Fish.

The Guildhall was constructed mostly in the 1860s in Victorian Gothic architecture, and extended in the 1990s. The one thing I have learnt when walking around villages, towns and cities, is to always look up, because although most shop front look the same, the same cannot be said about what is above the shops. You do see some fantastic architecture if you look up. Whilst taking photographs a gentleman stopped us and gave us a quick history lesson about Gold Street. He told us that in the Second World War a British plane came down in Gold Street, it actually missed All Saint's Church though. He reckoned that if you stand down the bottom of the street and look up the road, you can sometimes still see the scaring on the buildings. Northampton had a large Jewish population in the 13th century, which was centred around Gold Street.

After enjoying a wander around the town, we had lunch at a Chinese Buffet called Aroma which was very nice and only cost £6.80 each for all you can eat.

You may know by now we are charity shop lovers and Northampton has a large selection of them, but there were very few bargains to be had, so we came away with only a tablecloth. Before coming home we had a coffee in the cafe in the Market and I went into Supercuts to get my hair trimmed. I had not had it trimmed since April, when I had it done in Market Harborough, so I asked the young lady who was working how long would I have to wait, she told me half an hour which was fine, so I sat and waited my turn, because Supercuts is a walk in and wait hair dressers. For a dry cut you pay £13.95 which is really god value. Whilst sitting there I watched this woman having hair sown into her own hair and thought that not only did the man doing her hair have to be a hairdresser he also had to know had to sew, because otherwise it could all fall out. The woman seemed to be incredibly fussy and the hairdresser doing her hair was looking very frustrated, but the customer is always right I thought. Whilst she was having her hair done, the other hair dresser on duty was working her socks off. It then became evident that the lady having hair extensions sewn in was actually a Supercuts employee, because she got up and began cutting a ladies hair who was being looked after by the young hairdresser who was working her socks off.

Now I maybe wrong , but when you have people waiting for their hair to be cut surely your hair should be done out of hours?

I had to sit and wait half an hour, whilst this woman a member of staff had her extensions sewn in, when she should have been working and the gentleman doing her hair should have been cutting customers hair. Naughty, Naughty Naughty, in my opinion. By the time we came out of Supercuts there was only a small amount of time left, so we waited at the bus station for our bus home. We were on the only ones on the bus for our return journey. We have had a lovely day, and now I am aiming to put my feet up for the evening, but this will come after I do something for dinner. The generator has finished, as has a load of washing, so I now have to hang that up in the engine room. Keith is off to walk Paddy, so I am going now.

Chat soon xx