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Behind the door today is a story of typical Carol B lateness!

I had arranged to pick Mum up at around 1pm to take her to a Carol Concert at her church, and then for a tour round the stalls in the High Street. However, on my way out of the village, I spotted a neighbour having a difficult time trying to make her way down the very slippery pavements to the bus stop. I decided I had enough time to give her a lift to where she needed to go before I picked Mum up.

While we were on our way to Perth, we got stuck in roadworks, and were delayed by about 15 minutes. So I diverted to Mum first, telling Margaret that I'd drop her off afterwards. However, when I got too Mum's, she had promised her friend Doris a lift to the church too. So I had to empty the passenger seat of various items, and off we went.

But, the council have declared free parking today, so the town and all the carparks were besieged! I dropped Mum, Margaret and Doris outside the church, and I went off to find a parking space. When I eventually got back to the church, the service was well underway, and Mum was apologising to everyone in sight for her 'late' daughter!

Afterwards we went to Pets at Home to pick up some food for her dog and bird, and we had a good look at the fish. Mum is convinced that her old goldfish, Rosie, was trained to rise to the surface of the water on command. In vain I have tried to persuade her it was an automatic response to seeing Mum and knowing that fish food would then appear!

Here she is trying to train some of the other fish!

After shopping we took a drive around the town to see all the lights, but she was too tired to get out and explore. Tomorrow we are off up north of Brechin to visit my aunt and uncle, who are both in their 90's. Thankfully, that will be my last Christmas present drop-off trip this year!