A family day out - to the charity shops.

Over half term, like Ingrid, I also went to Norfolk for a few days. We did absolutely nothing and it was lovely. We ate, sat around a bit, got the rowing boat out (we were on the Broads) then ate some more and had another sit down.

On the way home, seeing as we had done very little, we went to Norwich. We intended to be cultured and visit the castle and cathedral but we ended up just pottering around the shops. Now, you may find this hard to believe, seeing as this blog is essentially about shopping, but I don’t like shopping. A mooch around the charity shops for an hour, yes, I like but a full afternoon or day of shopping is not my idea of fun at all. So I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed myself. Norwich is full of independent shops which are crafty or vintage or just a bit different. I kept thinking that I should come back without my men folk for a proper perusal. I particularly liked Loose’s Emporium on Magdalen Street which is full of antiques and collectables, the weird and the wonderful, and had the best toilets. Even they were retro.

On the same street were lots of charity shops and the whole family likes these, my husband and I because we like a bargain and the boys as they know they have more of a chance of us buying something for them than they would in a normal shop.

We were in the Norfolk Cancer Charity shop which was crazy, in a good way. There was people, furniture and stuff everywhere. Younger son was happy as we found him a rucksack; I was flicking through the rails trying to dodge the men carrying a three piece suite and absent minded-ly listening to my elder son. “What’s this, Mum?” he asked pointing at a wooden criss-cross wine rack. “It’s a wine rack” I said “you keep bottles of wine in it”. It was not until I heard the lady near us burst into laughter that I registered his reply – “There’s no point in us buying that, Daddy just gurgles it down”

He’s quite right.