Bath Christmas Market No 5!

Fairtrade Christmas decorations, each one handmade and hand painted, each one individual and beautiful... In case you're wondering, they're elephants!

You may wish to stop reading here as what follows is a self-pitying diatribe.

An early bus into Bath this morning, armed with a long shopping list. En route I stopped off at a smaller Post Office, in order to save time and avoid queuing at the central Bath Post Office. However, I didn't bank on waiting 26 minutes for a second bus into Bath. The buses on this route are meant to run every 12 minutes, two were missing! So when the first bus came along it was packed, and I ended up travelling backwards, wedged in front, back, left and right. By the time I arrived in Bath I felt quite unwell. The only solution was to head straight home again.

I had 15 mins before my return bus so I headed for a pop-up French soap stall that I'd been told (by the owner!) would remain there until Christmas Eve. It had disappeared! So instead I staggered to the Christmas Market to treat myself to one of these beautiful baubles, I buy one every year. With a couple of minutes to spare, I thought I'd pop to the bank to get some cash, both ATMs were out of order and the queue was huge so I had to give up or miss the bus!

The one good thing that happened was that I only had to wait a couple of minutes for my bus but.... Despite pressing the bus bell three times, the bus drove straight past my stop; the driver said the bell hadn't registered!!

So the Curse of the Shopping List strikes again! I only managed to get two of the eleven things on the list. I shall try again tomorrow, or Saturday, or Sunday. But if I don't manage to make it back to Bath and the Christmas Market before it closes for the year on Sunday, at least I now have my beautiful new shiny red and gold bauble! :)