A morning out in Coventry.

Hi Folks.

We had a change of plans over night, which we can easily do because we continuously cruise. The old plan was to head out of the basin to Tesco and onward to Hawkesbury Junction. The nw plan was to stay another day (song title in there somewhere) in Coventry.

We woke up this morning to the temperature having dropped to -1.6c over night, so it was a bit nippy when we woke up, I opened the cabin doors to a heavy frost, which meant that the engineering brick paving was slippery under foot when I took Paddy out for his walk.

By 9.30am we put on our coats and hats and set off into the city. I was on a mission to find a pair of waterproof walking shoes. Millets has now closed down in Coventry, so having been to Trespass and seen their prices we were on the hunt for somewhere else to buy some shoes. Keith asked a Coventry Council worker if he knew if there was another Millets in Coventry, he reckoned they had not moved, but had closed down completely, but he did know of a Sports Direct and was very kind enough to take us to the store, which was really nice of him. In Sports Direct, I bought a pair of Karrimor Arete Low Ladies Walking Shoes they were originally priced at £54.99, but I bought them for £27, so a real bargain.

The cheapest walking shoes in Trespass were £29.99, so I saved myself £2.99 and they look nicer.

We pottered around the city, stopping in the market to have a coffee for 75p each, which is an excellent price. We then popped into Wilkinson's to buy some more bird feeders, the ones on the market were to expensive. Whilst in Wilkinson's I bought a bottle of Shiny Sinks, which I am going to use to clean the brass work outside, it gets rid of the grime and tarnish and helps to being the shine up, ready for me to finish them with Brasso.

Lunchtime was approaching so we went into the Red Panda and had a Chinese Buffet meal, which was just as good as it had been the last time we ate there. After a lovely lunch we were just about all walked out, but I did go into Textiles Direct to buy some flannels. With nothing else to buy we sauntered back to the boat, which was lovely and warm. I began unpacking the shopping whilst the kettle was boiling on the back cabin stove, this was Marmite's opportunity to get nosey. Firstly she was in the bags to see what we had bought, then no sooner had I opened the shoe box and taken the shoes out, she was in the box led down. Marmite is just like a child, give her a cardboard box and she is happy.

Consider we are on the countdown to Christmas the city was not overly busy, even with the International Market on. I am sure that the big stores will be hoping that things improve as the days go by, otherwise we may see many big names going to the wall in 2012.

Time for a coffee and then feet up before feeding ourselves, mog and dog, I will then have the fires to do and the washing up, it will then be time for bed.

Chat soon xx