Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

They sounded great at the proms the other night which you can still hear on the Radio 3 "listen again" service. This was one of the highlights for me- a great version of the old grunge song by Wheatus.

Chester

What gadabouts we are - one day it's Wrexham and the next day it's Lostock Gralam and today it's Chester. We split up after arriving on the bus and I went round on my own to all the charity shops as Hazel and Archie wanted to buy clothes. The very idea! I found no bargains probably because it is the dreaded 13th today. Anyway we had a nice lunch on the bench under the cathedral walls , surrounded by gargoyles and pigeons. Delicious vege sausage rolls from the pastie shop which we had just discovered. Hazel also bought some green T-shirt material for her latest rag rug.

Lots of buskers including many young boys who obviously thought it a good idea to make some money in the school holidays. One young lad was playing the accordion whilst an old man lent over him and shouted "My names Graham - what's your name?!" The young lad looked terrified.

Wrexham

I forgot my camera today so no photos of Wrexham or the bits in between. Fist we dropped some collages off at the converted barn gallery at Stretton some six miles from Wrexham. Luckily the sat nav guided us there - we would have had a hard time finding it otherwise. It's a mixed show of local artists - some 60 or so. The barn space is quite large but can't see how they will fit everyones work in!
Wrexham has some interesting indoor markets that look as if they date back to Victorian times - nice stone reliefs on the outide of bulls head etc. Also a bustling outside market where Hazel bought some plants quite cheaply to brighten up the garden. Popped into several charity shops and had a good rummage. Found a scratchy record of "naval shanties" called UP THE FOC-SLE which will appear soon on my audio blog I'm pretty sure.
We got some vege sausage rolls from Sayers to eat in the small park by the market place.
We needed to get back home for the surveyor- who was coming to measure our windows so had to leave Wrexham at 12-30pm. We shall have to go back and explore further as there seemed to be other shopping streets we did not venture into.
Maybe next time.

Chocolate Production

These are old educational slide rolls in tins and plastic cannisters I bought today from the boot sale at Chervil or is it Chevron? The biggest in the North West they reckon. Huge queue of traffic trying to get in- we waited 20 minutes to reach the cowboy with the money bucket.
Very hot and sunny. Quite pleasant first of all down the far end withmthe bouncy castles and bouncy toilets. Room to walk and browse in the wider avenues of cars and stalls but later - further up it got very packed and the rows were narrower causing congestion and feelings of confinement and aggro. Glad to elave then as it was so warm and needed a drink badly.
I did get a couple of DVD's too- the first series of Spaced which i have on video but can now get rid of. Also old creaky sci-fi film coincidentally called "It Came From Outer Space" but not about 30 somethings living in flat in London, more like green slimey somethings plummeting to earth and taking over the minds of the inhabitants of a small USA town.
Hazel bought some rusty hair curlers and two large metal cash/document boxes.
Archie has been out all day but is now back and strumming his ukulele.
We are thinkingof having a bar-b-q as the weather is warm and we havent had one for a while. I have de-thawed the salmon steaks.
Hazel has been tidying the wood shed. She found evidence of mouse activity - chewed plastic bags- droppings etc.
Nice to sit outside and drink lemonade and have our lunch.
Time to go and skewer some veg and haloumi for the kebabs.

Tidy Mode

Found some old collaged birthday, valentine and anniversary cards whilst sorting through our boxes and cupboards. One such above from 1997.
The boot sale today was pretty muddy over at Chelford. They had changed the field as we assumed the other was more like a swamp! This was bad enough - the car had muddy spray all up the sides and Hazel only waxed and polished it yesterday.
I got a Freeview box for the small TV in the back room but it needs a scart plug and we dont have one so that was a bit annoying. We could look out for a small telly with a scart but probably simpler to just buy a cheap one with built in Freeview and save all that messing around with plugs, cables and sockets.
The PC doc is coming back tomorrow to put a new CD/DVD burner on our ailing computer. The broadband signla is still faltering but not as bad as it was. He said it was BT's fault and nothing he could do. Hopefully I won't be forced to phone up Calcutta to find out!