3rd June

We were up early this morning as Isobel had to go for her MMR. There was a lot of uncertainty around the jab when she was a baby and I read up as much as I could about it. Right or wrong I decided not to let her have it. I know the doctor who caused the uncertainty has since been discredited but I stood my decision as I thought that giving a tiny baby three diseases to tackle was too much. She is 14 now and fit and healthy so I do not have the same feeling about it.

Anyway I digress. We decided we were going to go somewhere, anywhere, today. We set off and drove through Halifax and Ripponden and then I had the idea to go to Chester. So we joined the motorway and was soon on the outskirts of Chester. A park and ride was going to be the best idea as I didn't fancy trying to find a parking area and knew that it wouldn't be cheap anyway.

The park and ride was located next to Chester Zoo and was very cheap at £1.70 for me and free for Isobel. Even better was that a man had bought two tickets in error and sold me his spare for £1!

We were soon in Chester and we walked to the end of the first street with a few intermissions into charity shops. Then we got onto one of the main shopping streets. The shoes I had on were flat but were cutting across my foot. A wander into Lush meant we came out nearly £20 worse off but had had some interesting demos. We eventually got to the end of the parade of shops where there was a Primark. During a little trip around there I found some more comfy shoes for only £4. Crossing the road we went to Pizza Hut for our lunch.

Isobel then stuffed her self and ended up what we in Yorkshire call 'pogged' or full to bursting. I was a bit more disciplined and ate just enough to satisfy my appetite without going over the top.

The we walked some more as I now had comfy shoes on my feet! There are a lot of interesting smaller boutiques so I had to keep Isobel out of the multis that she could visit anywhere.

I was pleasantly surprised by the place as I found more places than I have ever done before. We headed back to the bus stop and got back to the car in 30 degree heat. The drive back home was peppered with slow traffic but we didn't do too badly at all.

We arrived home at 6.30pm ish. I got changed and then we went to the canoe club at the pool. So my final bit of exercise was 1.5 hours of paddling up and down the pool.