Ice dance

After working all night I got about 4 hours sleep and then packed for our trip North to see the European Ice Skating Championships. We had intended to leave early and go walking - but by the time we had packed the car it was our usual late start. Spent the first night in Chesterfield Travelodge - had to drive around Chesterfield ringroad  to get to the Travelodge, so only caught a glimpse of the crooked spire - and it certainly is crooked!
We had the first of many Burger Kings and a drink, then Phil had a walk around and I did Nothing!
Next morning we had a look around the cycle shop opposite - and then drove up to Sheffield, only making one minor detour due to misreading of the satnav.
We got to the stadium just in time to see the beginning of the mens solo ice dance - and I recognised Plushenko - possibly the only ice dancer I would recognise apart from that nice bloke from dancing on ice who's name I can never remember.
We left at the break to go and find the Travelodge - a challenge as the satnav thought it was down a residential cul de sac, and Travelodge had hidden the building behind a petrol station and had forgotten to turn on the light for the sign. Luckily Phil spotted it as we drove around the roundabout for the second time.
We settled in the room and drove down for an evening of the pairs skaters - wonderful.  Collected a subway for dinner and drove back to the Travelodge.

Eltham Palace

 Realised that our English Heritage membership expires at the end of February - so went up to Eltham Palace - which is fantastic - and I want to live there! Failing Eltham Palace wouldn't mind a six bedroom house with swimming pool that we saw on the way home - but at 2.25 million I think that is about as out of reach as Eltham Palace is.

Wedding shopping 3.

Second lot of Wedding Shopping - my dress and jacket.

Wounded!

Not only did he fall off his bike riding over an icy puddle on Saturday but he then whacked his head on a steel cabinet at work.

Walk along the Medway

Wedding Shopping 2

Picked Jill up from work and went back to Bluewater to look for shoes and a dress for the mother of the bride (that would be me) Failure on both counts - I tried on a few dresses but looked like a sack of potatoes in most of them - diet here we come.
Jill treated me to dinner at Carluccio which was really nice.

Wedding shopping

Jill came over and we drove up to Bluewater to look at wedding dresses. There was a queue of cars out of Bluewater reaching back to the A2 - and the car parks were heaving with cars driving around looking for places - kept on following the queue around to the back of the centre and followed one other car up to the top level where there were about 7 places in the first row of cars - result! We fought our way through the crowds and Jill tried on dresses in Monsoon and Fenwicks. Although there were a couple of dresses she liked - and a couple I liked - we didn't find a dress until we went to Oriental Pearl. They were very good there and added straps and a hook to the train - picture to follow after the wedding!