It’s beginning to look ...

We were all up and out by 10:30am for a shopping trip to Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth where there are extra discounts to be had on some items featuring Black Friday offers.  I rode with Jo while PY was in the car in front with everybody else.   We were expecting the traffic to be worse than it was and we arrived in good time. We had pre-paid for premium parking - a guaranteed bigger space - which was quite useful.

We had a quick look around the Cadbury’s, M&S and Lindt outlet shops and then we split up little bit. PY went off to get a Costa and that’s when I saw the Christmas market.  It’s not really very big but it had some stalls with those cheeses in wax that only seem to come out at Christmas, some decorations and a stall featuring football-related items that didn’t mention any club names (I assume for copyright reasons). There were a couple of things with printed with Goodison Park which I picked up for Dad.  PY and I looked at all the pans and gadgets in the Tefal shop. I suspect we’ll be getting an air fryer for the Isle of Wight flat but we didn’t pick anything up today. 

We had pre booked a lunch table at The Old Customs House, a Fullers bar and restaurant, but he could only get an early 12:15 for an hour. When we arrived the others were already seated and we quickly ordered some food a drinks using the app. Lots of places seem to be having problems with finding enough staff at the moment but the service here was excellent and everything arrived quickly. I had burger. PY pointed out that it was my third this week. 

As we were eating they came to say that we could have the table for longer so we had coffees and didn’t leave until 2pm. We wandered around more shops, spending too much money in Molten Brown, where one of the sales assistants recognised us from the last time we were there a few weeks ago. We need to spend less. 

Everybody shopped for an hour before we met up so that we could collect our bags and head for the train. We’d decided to start our journey at Portsmouth Harbour, where the train that we would have picked up at Havant starts. We said our goodbyes and found the train was in the platform 20 minutes in advance so we got a seat in the warm and made our way home with a quick change at Guildford. When the trains do work, it’s great. 

When we got back PY ordered a Too Good To Go bag from the Co-Op on Ridgeway.  Bags are very pot luck. A lot of bread and sandwiches in this one.

Afterwards, I spoke to Mum & Dad. and finally, watched Jill Scott get crowned Queen of the Jungle in this year’s I’m A Celebrity. Second was Hollyoaks actor Owen Warner and third former health secretary Matt Hancock.