The Baubles And The Fly

Today was slightly bizarre - involving a haircut, an unintended motorway journey, a reunion, a credit card cloning conversation, viewing a very expensive house online, a fox sighting in our garden and taking this image of very unseasonal Christmas baubles!
I'll start with the haircut. For some reason I've always hated having my hair cut particularly the part where he you have to sit looking at yourself, usually under harsh lighting, whilst trying to hold what can sometimes be   a very stilted conversation with your hairdresser. The quality of haircuts can vary considerably too so when you find someone good who makes the process bearable you want to hold onto them. 
I finally found a great barbers with friendly staff who did great haircuts at very reasonable prices but sadly it closed down during the pandemic. However, one of the staff decided to carry on as a mobile hairdresser. A lovely chap who who loves a chat when he is cutting you hair. Unfortunately he said today would be the last time he would be able to cut my hair as he was moving to Norway - quite a long way to go to avoid cutting my hair! Only joking - the real reason was that his wife is a midwife and she has found a much better opportunity and salary in Norway.
The unintended motorway journey occurred when I got lost taking a traffic diversion on the way to a reunion with some old workmates near Sevenoaks. It was a journey of less than 20 miles along two A roads which should have taken less than 40 minutes. I followed the diversion signs as indicated but for some reason one of them led me on to the M26 and I ended up in a different county (Surrey)!! I eventually managed to get on the M25, through a couple of small gridlocks, back on to one of the original A roads and, having set off uncharacteristically early, arrive less than 10 minutes late for my reunion!
It was so great to see everyone - Marina, Rachel, Irene and Nina. Al was also going to be there but he is currently stuck isolating in Spain after being pinged on the NHS app whilst on holiday. We had a fabulous time catching up and chatted  about a huge range of things - including Rachel having her credit card cloned which resulted in someone buying a £500 Gucci handbag using her card details even though the security check details had been incorrect!
The very expensive house also came up in conversation. One of my ex-bosses, despite having made nearly 500 people redundant (including me), even after using the government furlough scheme in the last year, has just purchased a very expensive country house. I looked it up online (the property prospectus is across several pages) - it is described as an "elegant and stylish house of character". It includes a drawing room, a master suite, 5 other bedrooms, a cinema and games room, an indoor swimming pool complex, an all weather tennis court with it's own pavilion, a folly and a timber cabin all set in 10 acres of landscaped grounds - still at least treating your staff as expendable doesn't pay!
The fox sighting was in the evening in our back garden. The weather had been extremely variable all day - massive downpours followed by strong sunshine. Just as we were preparing dinner a very healthy fox appeared bathed in shaft of evening sunshine looking very charismatic.
Today's shot was taken standing on a garden chair looking down at these Christmas baubles (you can see me doing so in the reflections) just as a large fly landed. A suitably odd ending to a rather bizarre day!