Today's trip down town.

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Well, technically, it's yesterday's, because it's after midnight! My Mum came shopping with me and we did a bit of Christmas shopping. I already found some Christmas wrapping paper in my bedroom that was in sheets rather than rolls but my Mum still wanted to see if she could get some more. Stowe Pool was a bit frozen over today. Part of it was OK, but I think most of it was frozen. (See pic.) We set off at 10:00am approx and got into town at around 11:30-11:35am ish. We didn't bother going to the toilet. We went straight to the man on the market to get some strawberries but he didn't have any today. He had plenty of raspberries but no strawberries, so we decided to go and get some strawberries from the new Tesco after all. Next we went up to Holland and Barrett and we got some sea salt for me, 3 packets of red liquorice, 1 for me, 1 for Mum and 1 for my step-dad, a bar of sugar free chocolate for my Mum, a box of sugar free sweets for me and 3 packets of seaweed thins also for me. Then we went to Tesco and got some strawberries, a chicken and bacon pasta bake for me and some grated cheese. We payed for that and then after that we went to The Works where my Mum got 3 calendars with mini diaries to give to people, one was a train one for my step-dad, one was a dog one for my Mum's friend Nan Nutt who likes dogs, and I think the other one was a kitten one which I think Mum's having for the kitchen. I got 3 diaries, 1 for me, 1 for my sister-in-law Ali and 1 for my brother Dave. I also got 2 mini colour your own scroll things with colouring pencils for my little nephews, which means I've got them 3 Christmas presents each and my Mum still hasn't got them anything yet! I still hope to get another little something each for Dave and Ali. I've got a book about an Abbey for my step-dad but I want to get him a little something else extra aswell. Next we went to Wilkos to look for some sheets of wrapping paper and something for our friends dogs. I saw some doggy treat Christmas stockings and persuaded my Mum to get 2 of those. We looked for wrapping paper but could only see rolls not sheets. Mum managed to get some tags though. We payed and then went and sat on the plastic bench near the door. We were sitting there for 20 minutes and my Mum even managed to nod off! Mum said why don't we go to a cafe for lunch because it was already 2:00pm and we hadn't had any lunch yet. We decided to go to Iceland first so we wouldn't have to double back to go to Iceland. Mum got quite a bit of stuff including party stuff like duck rolls and she even got a small turkey crown for the Christmas dinner. She also got paella, and we got 2 pizza style garlic breads. Our trolley was really full so when we were packing at the till we filled 2 bags with the stuff but only one bag would fit in the trolley. Mum carried the other bag on the seat of her walker. We headed off with the intention of going to the cafe. Minster Pool was still frozen over and you could see where people had been chucking rubbish and even a rock onto the ice! When we came round the end of Minster Pool I looked at my watch and it was quarter to three. If we went to the cafe even if we came out when it was still light it would definitely begin to go dark before we got home. And it was cold enough then! If we stayed it would get even colder later on so I said to my Mum, Maybe we should just go home, and she said yes, so instead of going to the cafe we headed in the direction of Stowe Pool to go home. We saw a friend of ours from Church just as we were turning into the path that leads to Stowe Pool. Some kids were running past us and Ian said that there were some lads playing on the ice on Stowe Pool and he said there was a lady there who was concerned and she was thinking of calling the police. Only a few days ago 3 lads had died after walking onto the ice on a canal or something in Solihull. My Mum said to Ian, they'll never learn! Then as we were walking round Stowe Pool we saw some of the lads on the icy surface of Stowe Pool doing some skids. OK, they were only at the edge of the pool, but like my Mum said, Stowe Pool gets deep very quickly and if the ice broke they could very easily fall into a deeper part! I had my gloves on but even so my fingers were very cold and soon it got so bad I thought I might get frost bite! My fingers were so painful with the cold that it made me cry. I rubbed my hands together when I stopped to let my Mum catch up with me but it didn't do much good. Mum let me push her walker for a bit while she took over pushing the trolley. That helped a bit because the handles on the walker weren't as cold as the handle on the trolley, but not much! I was so glad to get in and get my hands warm but my feet were perishing too and they took longer to warm up when we got inside. It was 4:05pm when we got home! I unpacked the groceries and made sure all the frozen stuff was in the freezers. Then I made me and my Mum a cup of coffee. I had grain coffee with soy milk and Mum had regular coffee with ordinary milk and 1 sweetener. After that I had my dinner and I had the chicken and bacon pasta bake that I got from Tesco. I didn't have another drink because I'd had the coffee. At 7:00pm I watched The One Show and Sam Ryder was on, who came 2nd in the Eurovision song contest. He's got an album out now called "There's nothing but Space, Man." He's also done a New Year's Eve concert that will be shown on BBC1 on Christmas Eve at 11:30pm and I plan to watch that. Usually these days I just go to bed at the usual time on New Year's Eve, but not if Sam Ryder's on! That guy does something to me! Anyway, I hope you all had a nice day. See you later.