Another lazy day in Stalybridge

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This morning we made our traditional visit to the Crownpoint Shopping Park at Denton. Over the years we have made some excellent purchases over at Denton. We're a bit worried about the formal night on the cruise and wanted to buy some suitably dressy gear so as not to look too casual on the night of the Captain's Dinner!! Bernie thought that if he bought a jacket to wear with his travel pants that he might be able to get away with it. Hmmn, we looked at some jackets in T K Maxx, but their jackets were expensive ... and, frankly, quite horrible. It also became obvious that a jacket with his very jean-like pants was going to look naff.

Our next stop was Marks and Spencer where we found there were plenty of reasonably priced suits to choose from. I thought that Bernie should try on the rather gorgeous royal blue suit, but he thought that a more conservative grey suit would be more to his liking!! We selected jackets and pants in a few different sizes for him to try on. Ha, the jacket was easy, but the pants were a bit more difficult. Unfortunately, the only pair with the right sized waist were too long. Guess who had to be taking up pants - by hand - the day before our cruise??! We added a white shirt and a red tie so Bernie would be suitably glammed-up. Bernie is sure to get more wear out of his Pure New Wool suit, so we thought that it was a pretty good buy at just £49.00!

With Bernie upping the ante for formal night, I decided that I really needed something more glam to wear than anything that I had brought with me!! Rather than subject Bernie to any more shopping we sent him off to Sports Direct to look for fluorescent badminton tops while Kath and I headed off to look at dresses. After a bit of a look at M&S and a quick check back at T K Maxx we proceeded to my favourite shop at Denton where they stock Dorothy Perkins and Wallis brands. I selected and tried on four maxi-dresses. Kath and I decided that the black and white Wallis frock was a standout so I bought that one. We should make a fine looking couple now at the Captain's Dinner!

The rest of the day was spent lazing around at Stalybridge. After being on the go so much this holiday we enjoyed having a couple of days to relax. We both think that this will be our last Grand Tour of Europe. When we visit in the future - probably not until Bernie finishes work in a couple of years - we want to make longer stops in fewer places so that we can immerse ourselves in the culture a bit more. This trip has felt very much like a 'see it, tick it' visit of iconic tourist destinations. While it has been great to see all of these places we think it would be lovely to stay in self-catered accommodation along some 'roads less travelled' and buy croissants at the local village bakery each morning before finding small and intriguing places to visit.

We have already booked and paid for a tour/cruise of South America next year. We have pencilled in Japan for 2017 and Bernie would like to also like to play badminton at the World Masters Games in Aukland in 2017. Plenty of time to start planning another European adventure for 2018!



Steps for the day 7,931 (5.4 kms)

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