Saints alive

The Gorse Fox has things to achieve this week. This meant that he had decided against football today. As there had been a tournament yesterday, it was likely to be poorly attended anyway, so the Gorse Fox wouldn't be missed. Tuesday was, instead,  set aside for shopping with the Silver Vixen. The question was where should we go? Chichester is too easy and holds no surprises as we visit so often. Gunwharf was a possibility, but again we know what to expect. What we haven't done recently is visit West Quays in Southampton.

We had been warned, by the nice man at Google, how bad the traffic would be round the Chichester bypass. Heeding his warning we cut straight through the middle of the town and out the west side. We were quickly en route and were parked in the multi storey car park at West Quays well within the hour.

John Lewis was the first stop (somewhat predictably) - but we didn't find anything that we wanted at this stage. We made a note to return at the end of the "spree" to pick up some new bedding before returning to the car. We pottered this way and that and visited several stores. Some new clothes were acquired and various watch straps examined for the Silver Vixen's new watch. (All of the watch straps were rejected).

At lunchtime we dropped in for "a cheeky Nando's". The Gorse Fox likes Nando's and sees it as predictable fast food outlet with a good choice of fair quality grilled chicken dishes prepared and served well. Oh no... not the one in West Quays. This was the worst Nando's the Gorse Fox has ever had. The service was very, very slow (the Gorse Fox acknowledges they were busy , but he has been in much busier branches before) and the chicken had all the flavour and texture of boot leather. We both had char-grilled vegetables as a side dish and they were fine. The sweet potato wedges, however, were an indistinct tasteless mush. Dreadful.

We finished our shopping mid-afternoon and headed home. We clearly timed it well as we shot through in about 45 minutes.

Rain. Yes, rain is forecast for this evening.