IT'S COMING ALONG!

Mr. HCB thought it would be a good idea to go out to Royal Wootton Bassett and get our fortnightly shop at Aldi this morning, so after popping into Leightons to collect my new reading glasses, off we went.

I have put a selfie in as an extra where you will see the new glasses - they are actually a pale purple, or mauve - and would you believe they came in a purple case (!) - so BIG THANKS to all of you at Leightons for your kindness - you know me so well!  Seb, the lovely lady we saw, smiled when I was “over the moon” about the colour of the case - I tell you, it doesn’t take much to make my day!

Then off we went to Aldi and on the way, I asked Mr. HCB if he would be kind enough to stop so that we could see what progress had been made on the new canal section at Middle Michel, documented in my Blip on 9th July 2024. This is a huge Wichelstowe joint venture between Swindon Borough Council and Barratt Homes, which is now going ahead so well, probably due to the good weather we have had recently.  It will include two new road bridges and a swing bridge, so to show the progress, I have made a collage including a photograph at the top taken on 9th July, then the middle shot showing what has happened to date.  We then crossed the road and the bottom shot is a view of the canal that runs from East Wichel, when the first phase of this canal was built.  This will connect with the new part of the canal and will finally meet up with the old Wilts & Berks Canal that used to run through Swindon.  An exciting project. The orange-coloured path on the right of the middle shot is obviously going to be the towpath. It is going to take years, so hopefully, we may see the completed canal, but if not, I will keep documenting this part for posterity for as long as I can.   

Then it was onwards to Aldi - and we had a lovely encounter with a lady whilst browsing the chicken!  I was looking for chicken breast strips and said to Mr. HCB that if I bought the larger pack, it would do us for at least two days, if not more and the lady next to me said that she liked to do that too.  I said that the larger packs were better value and that we were blessed to be able to afford to buy them.  She agreed with me that she too was blessed, so you know what’s coming next.....I gave her one of my little hearts to bless her.  She looked at it in the palm of her hand and quietly said “Are you Christians?” I told her we were and that we went to a Church in Swindon, which was very active in the local community.  She told us that she and her husband, who was also John, attended a Church in Marlborough where wonderful things were happening.  I told her about our Fun Day on Bank Holiday Monday, which is completely free and she then told us about their Holiday Club for children that ran during the same week.  

What a lovely time and in the middle of Aldi!  We kept seeing her down each aisle and shared more with her.  I felt so blessed - and she said she might have to “borrow” my idea of giving away hearts and was going to pass hers on to someone else, so...having more in my pocket, I gave her another to pass on so that she could keep the one I had given her.

After all that we parted company and we then went into Waitrose, where we only purchased 3 items, milk, bread and toilet rolls.  The toilet rolls were to be a gift to our lovely next door neighbour, Lynn, as she is so good to us in many small ways - and will never take any payment - but likes Waitrose toilet rolls!! ;-)

I did mention to Lynn when we gave her the toilet rolls that I had read only yesterday that somewhat annoyingly, Waitrose have cut the number of sheets in their toilet rolls from 240 to 190 but the price has stayed the same!! :-(  We thought we might both write to the MD complaining about that - but doubt anything will be done!!  Worth a try though!

P.S.  Forgot to say that the lovely Seb gave me another "thingy" that goes over your head and attaches to your glasses, so that you don't lose them - think it's called an "Eyewear Lanyard" - but it's not just any old lanyard, it's an "Etnia Barcelona" Eyewear Lanyard!