Next finished and open

Next is open and just in time for Christmas. This contentious development is, of course, very popular; the carpark was full and I could see the coffee lounge was heaving with people. I'm sure that most people don't think, know or even care about the fact that this store was built on this site. This was a battle lost. You can read about the issues here, but I'm not about to rehearse them again. You can also see how the buildig has developed over time here.

After a good swim I spent most of the rest of the day doing bits and pieces, you know the sort of things that accumulate on a "to do" list. The list included yet again contacting Hyundai with another fault in the lemon. This time the ESP function wasn't working, something to do with the system that controls breaking on different wheels. We asked them to check steering when it went in to have the rear screen replaced. And it came back with this fault. I have to take it back tomorrow.

The most annoying was with the house contents. Had a very good offer, from the same company as we are currently with, but I wanted to add a few things. Turned out that some of these things added £100 to the premium. A new search brought up AXA as the best quote but there is no way I'm going to use them ever again as they were behind the audacious and destructive plan to build on over 20 ha of green belt with An industrial estate known as the Kent International Gateway. This land was on the edge of the village and right up against the North Downs AONB and would have been visible for miles around. A two year fight lead to the planning inspector rejecting the application.

In the end, with the house insurance, we agreed that the additional sums I wanted to include we're not needed, so we were back where we started only 30 minutes wasted!