Christmas preparations 2017

This afternoon, my girlfriend and her mother needed to shop to pick up a few items for the Christmas activities they have planned for the next few days. They had asked if I would come along to help and I said yes but even if they hadn't, I'd have volunteered. I'm happy to help but more than that, it's time spent with them both and it gave more chance for us all to talk, as well as good exercise for me. Overall, a delightful and productive afternoon!

Caramel Irish cream

A few months ago, a friend of mine from one of the other houses at my accommodation gave me a bottle of salted caramel Irish cream. The drink was highly delicious and when I mentioned it to my mother, she liked the sound of it and wanted to try it at some point.

As a gift for her and my brother, I purchased a bottle of it the other day and will be presenting it to them next time I'm at their house. Salted caramel Irish cream - the Tesco Finest brand - is deeply tasty and for anyone who is a fan of Irish cream and salted caramel, I recommend it, regardless of brand.

The new bath mat

At my accommodation last year, it quickly became necessary for me to purchase a bath mat, for there was none outside the shower and when the floor became wet, it became dangerous as it would be easy to slip on.

Unfortunately, I accidentally left the bath mat in the house and during the maintenance period it was seemingly removed. Fortunately, this after I went out I purchased a new bath mat. It was either buy a new one or go stick to trying to not slip on the wet floor. I prefer the former.

So, for the second year in a row, I have a new bath mat!

Two inactive days and a card

Yesterday and today have been disappointments in that I'd been hoping to go out and catch up on exercise that I'd missed prior to my assignment deadlines but instead, I've mostly been indoors doing other things since it's just been raining all day for both days. Oh, well. Fortunately, my exam is a week tomorrow so there is time for me to exercise a little before then, in between revising.

On a minor but happier note, I used my new Morrisons More card; a few weeks ago, I applied for one online and it arrived last week. All a More card does is collect points every time I spend at Morrisons and over time, enough points will amass to win me vouchers and other items.

Gamston Morrisons

Gamston is a small village adjacent to West Bridgford and is along my old bus route from my grandparents' house. In Gamston is a large Morrisons where my grandparents frequently do their shopping. Now, I have been to this Morrisons several times before but today is the first time I went there by myself, unless you count two years ago when I walked to the store but didn't go in because it was a Sunday and it was closing at 4:00pm.

So why did I go there, when there is a Morrisons in Clifton? Mostly because the Gamston Morrisons is larger than the Clifton one is - close to twice the size - and because I wanted to take a bus trip out to Gamston and then walk back from there to the city centre. It was a worthwhile afternoon from that perspective.

"I Feel It Coming" - The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk

Yesterday afternoon, I was in a clothing store with a friend when this awesome song came on the shop's radio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kx-ke9RKww

It's "I Feel It Coming" by The Weeknd and features Daft Punk. Barely listening to the radio nowadays means I miss out on great music such as this track, which comes from Starboy, The Weeknd's third studio album. I was fortunate to come across "I Feel It Coming" when I did!

And this song joins the list of tracks I have (or in this case, will soon have) in my music collection that I discovered randomly in a store one day.

Not dog mess

Besides submitting a formative plan for an essay that is due in three weeks, my day has mostly been unproductive. My cold meant I couldn't sleep and so I was up all night until almost 6:00am, which I most definitely could have done without. As such, I've had to sleep in parts of the day to catch up on rest; needless to say, I'm not happy with how today progressed.

This evening, I went up to Morrisons to purchase for dinner for tonight. On the way there, I trod in something slippery and then groaned, as I thought I had trod in dog mess. There's no easy place at my accommodation to clean my shoes but beyond that, even if there were, being sick still meant I wasn't looking forward to the prospect of cleaning dog dump from my shoe.

Before continuing to Morrisons, I removed my shoe to ensure it really was mess on my shoe. Luckily for me, I had only stepped in loose mud from the grass; I had not stepped in anything disgusting. A feeling of relief came over me at that point.

The shopping librarian

A familiar face crossed my path in Morrisons this evening. I was busy shopping there when I spotted a former librarian from Central shopping in there; he acknowledged me with a wink but he and I later conversed outside when we both ended up finishing our shopping near-simultaneously.

This particular librarian showed us around Central's library on my very first day there back in September 2014 and he left last year to work elsewhere. He popped in to visit later on in the academic year to see how his former colleagues were doing.

Groceries in Clifton (2)

To expand upon my "Groceries in Clifton" post from a few days ago, I neglected to mention three other grocery stores. Down two of the roads close to my university, there is a general store located on each; one of them is situated next to a major nearby pub. I've never been to either so I can't comment on what they are like.

The other is a second Co-op, which is located near to the end (or the beginning) of the bus route for the 48. Usually I'm travelling back at night and haven't noticed it and when I've travelled in the day I haven't been looking in the direction of the Co-op. Again, I haven't been inside but I suspect it will feature a similar layout to every other Co-op I've been to.

Groceries in Clifton

Clifton has five grocery stores (at least five that I've seen, anyway): A Tesco, a Co-op, a Morrisons, an Iceland and an independent outlet called Mace. While I have shopped at all three of these stores, I primarily purchase my groceries from the Morrisons, followed by a Tesco in the Victoria Centre in the city centre, which in turn is followed by the Tesco here. The Tesco here is a small one at a fuel station whereas the one in the Victoria Centre is the size of a usual large supermarket.

While the Co-op was the first store I went to when I first visited Clifton in September 2015, I rarely go there, as the Co-op tends to have higher prices than the others (although not quite so high as Sainsbury's). I've been to Iceland twice and the Mace store once; Iceland's prices vary whereas the Mace store is located on a side street that I rarely walk down.

By contrast, in the town in Northamptonshire that we used to live in, it had three Co-ops: A large one, a medium-sized and a small. I tended to use all three on a mostly equal basis. There was a general store of sorts but I never went there.

As for my mother, she doesn't shop at any of these outlets: She receives weekly home deliveries from Tesco, which is practical for her and my brother.

"Tired of Being Sorry" - Enrique Iglesias and "Wish I Didn't Miss You" - Angie Stone

This is an unusual music post in that I am highlighting a different song each by two completely separate artists. Now, these two songs are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X86S5oZzzh4

"Tired of Being Sorry" by Enrique Iglesias (2007) and...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PWz-NubVpM

..."Wish I Didn't Miss You" by Angie Stone (2002). For the most part, neither of these songs has anything in common; however, I recently heard both while in a store. I typed up some of the lyrics on my phone to then research when I returned to my accommodation. These tracks are certainly a couple of gems!

Unlike Julian Velard and Aly & AJ, however, the existence of Iglesias and Stone was already known to me long before I heard their respective songs in stores.

A familiar face from earlier

I travelled to the city centre this evening to do a small amount of shopping; while I could have purchased my groceries from any of the stores here in Clifton, I had been inside all day and felt like going into the city. As I was just outside a Tesco store on one of the main bus stop areas, I encountered a friend from my Access course, whom I last saw when we were all on Access.

He was pleased to see me and vice versa; it was nice to have a short catch up, even if said catch up occurred at night outside a Tesco store in the city centre. Granted, we can message each other any time we like but it's never the same as talking in person.

Asked to buy in the store

A few hours ago, during a pause in my walk while outside a grocery store, I was approached by two teenage boys. One of them asked me if I would go into the stop for him; I asked why and he said "to get something for [him]". I flat out told him no and he said okay and walked off with his friend.

By "something", it was obvious to me that he wanted me to buy him alcohol and/or cigarettes. I only very rarely buy alcohol for myself, and that's usually in a social setting, and anything to do with smoking I do not buy at all, and in both cases I certainly would not buy them for someone underage. Somebody else might do it for him but no, I wouldn't. My only possible regret is perhaps not warning them of the dangers of what they were doing but perhaps that wasn't my place - I don't know.

There is, of course, the remote chance he wanted me to buy contraception for him, as he might have been too embarrassed to have bought condoms himself, but I seriously doubt that was the case.

New shoes 2016

Last summer, I bought a new pair of shoes, as my old pair at the time were falling apart. Less than a year later, this new pair have also started falling apart: due to the way I walk, I've worn down the heels but not only that, the front of one of them has split and continued use will split the shoe further.

As such, I invited a friend to come shoe shopping with me today. The first stores we looked around either sold "trendy" shoes or shoes that were way too small for my feet. After over half an hour, we checked out a store that sold outdoor products. The shop assistant in there was as first unsure if they carried shoes in my size but when he looked in the back of the place, he found two pairs in there.

The first pair were well-built but slightly pricey, so I held out for the second; however, they turned out to be even more expensive and far outside my price range. As such, since the first pair were otherwise suitable, I purchased them. It possible that my friend and I could have found a slightly cheaper equivalent pair elsewhere but I'm happy with my purchase: these shoes are tougher than my previous two sets.

That's another half-term over

Half-term is over. To my surprise, I'm already back in Nottingham; my aunt and uncle from the East of England are up here for the weekend and they offered to collect me on their way, which saved my grandfather a trip tomorrow. I shall be using tomorrow to continue my assignments and to run some errands in the city.

Bought a new pair of headphones

Yesterday evening, I bought off Amazon a pair of headphones; to my surprise, they arrived before midday and so I immediately able to start using them. Great!

The sound quality to the headphones is excellent and the set feels comfortable to my head. The problem with the device is that the speakers do not contain the music to my ears only - other people can hear my music while I'm listening to it. Despite this issue, I don't intend to send them back - they cost me about £10.

As a consequence, though, I shall still use my earbuds when on buses; I have no intent of becoming a pest on the bus because of other people hearing my music. My headphones will likely be something I only use at home, much like my original pair were before they were broken (they were accidentally stepped on).

The cashier's good wishes

I posted this to Facebook earlier. I purchased a few items in a Tesco this evening and had this (slightly condensed) discussion with the cashier who served me:

Tesco cashier: "How has your week been so far?"

Me: "It's been good. I've been excited to be back at college."

Cashier: "I haven't heard many be happy about that! What are you studying?"

Me: "An Access course to get me into university."

Cashier, giving thumbs up: "Hope you get it, champ."

I was already in a good mood this evening but the cashier's words only served to strength my positive resolve. He had also been talking to me about putting Cadbury's Daily Milk on Ritz crackers and thought that my putting said chocolate into cooking was a worthy idea. His words were welcome, especially in light of yesterday.

Post-exam shopping

I popped into college late this morning to return some more items to my English teacher, to hand in a feedback form and to give a card to our assistance teacher. Afterwards, a friend and I spent the day shopping for clothes for me. I needed some new "going out" shirts, a new pair of shoes and a zippable pouch for coins.

The result? Almost completely successful; the only issue was that I was only able to purchase one shirt. The store from which I purchase it only had one shirt available of the type I liked; I'll have to return there sometime next week but that's not a problem.

I thought the day was a fun way to cool off after the heavy exam season.

Custard and jam doughnuts

I like jam doughnuts:

At a major store here in the United Kingdom called the Co-operative, shoppers can purchase a bag of jam or custard doughnuts for 75 pence or two bags of doughnuts for £1. I certainly don't want to buy masses of doughnuts but it's pleasant to have them occasionally.

Smart clothing

My cousin and I spent the afternoon clothes shopping...for me. Next week, my class and I will be having a Christmas party at a fancy venue and I needed to purchase some smarter clothing than anything I had in my attire collection prior to today.

Within half an hour, my cousin and I found a suitable pair of trousers for me. The difficult part was finding a decent light, smart jacket to match it. Over the course of the next two hours, we experienced little success in searching for something to fit with the trousers; the three jackets that would have matched them were too small, too large and too expensive, respectively.

Finally, around twenty minutes before my cousin needed to leave, we searched around one more store. In there, we located some ideal suit tops that were in line with what I wanted and they matched the trousers well. My cousin was concerned about the price of them (they were above £50 but below £100) but I received a significant discount for the top I purchased.

I am mildly concerned that the clothing I have purchased is a little too smart for the venue of our party but as one of my friends with whom I was texting said, it's better to be decent than indecent.