Retail Therapy

 Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off just after seven. She had a busy day scheduled at work and wanted an early start. Once we had supervised the usual ablutions, breakfast, and dressing we took Ellie round to school.

We had planned a trip to Gunwharf Quays. It is the Silver Vixen's birthday at the weekend. It was time for a shopping trip. We had a good run through and the place was pretty deserted when we arrived. We worked our way around the mall, shop by shop. The Silver Vixen browsed the various rails of clothes and tried on a couple of stunning dresses. Unfortunately, as nice as they were, they didn't fit so we left without them. We did find a Radley bag that she liked, and resolved to collect that on the way back to the car.

They have got a small Christmas Market on one of the squares, and their decorations are looking lovely (though one suspects they would be more impressive once it get dark). There was fudge, there were chocolates, there was a bar, there was a stall selling Yorkshire adding wraps (?), and there was a bratwurst stall selling the biggest German sausages you could imagine. It was all so tempting.

We stopped off at Loch Fyne for lunch. We were among the very first people in, but it soon filled up. We both selected from their "specials" board. The Silver Vixen had a salmon pate to start, followed by a pan fried sea bass. The Gorse Fox had scallops on a bed of haggis as a starter, followed by tuna on bed of artichoke and n'duja risotto. These really were exceptional. We both finished off with the creamiest cheesecake (blueberry) that we had ever tasted.

After a very leisurely lunch, we did one more tour of the shops (and stopped off at Radley for the bag). Then we made our way back to the car and cruised home in time for a cup of tea and half an hour "feet-up" before collecting Ellie from school.