London Shopping and Football Trip with Wiggly, enjoying coffee in The Imperial Hotel before shopping at High & Mighty in Oxford Street for me and then buying a nice red miniskirt and matching top for her.
On to watch Norwich City beat Crystal Palace and then back to Montague Street for the night after fun in Hyde Park.
I had checked the A-Z Greater London map last night and ascertained that Crystal Palace football ground was well south of Central London.
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Being also beyond the limits of the Underground, I had to take the car which meant a lot of driving for the day but at least the car would let me change and store goods etc. Mill Lane was closed again for bridge repairs and so I had to use Crosshall Road to get over to collect Wiggly from Eynesbury a little later than intended.
She had been awake since 7.00am, half expecting me to get there earlier like before to miss the bridge closure, but I would have struggled to get in as she had left the security chain on. Setting off at 8.15am, the journey was not too bad as this start time meant missing most of the traffic and I eventually pulled into the NCP Car Park alongside the Imperial Hotel by about 9.30am.
This hotel was convenient for me to take Wiggly inside for a morning coffee which I had served in "The Atrium", a spacious conservatory. I took the opportunity to take some photographs of her as well in that nice setting.
It had been my intention to get some money out from London's only Norwich & Peterborough Building Society branch in High Holborn first but, like all other financial institutions in the City, it was closed at weekends. Wiggly had her cash card and we withdrew some money from a machine instead.
The longish walk down to Oxford Street to the first branch of High & Mighty where I tried on a whole host of shirts, trousers, and coats before eventually buying a pair of brown trousers and brown corduroy shirt. Then further along the street until we found a favourite shop of Wiggly.
Although this had not been intended as a shopping trip for her, we were easily diverted and I bought her a nice red mini-skirt and matching jacket top for her to wear first on Christmas Day and then for me when we go out. An even longer walk this time to Edgeware Road and the second branch of High & Mighty where I took a closer look at the coats.
There was a £500 black jacket in fine smooth leather, but I opted for a £100 brown jacket in the end, thinking to possibly pick up one of the others in the January Sales. I also bought a grey/brown check shirt and pair of socks for Daniel that are supposedly all the rage at the moment.
A taxi back to the car and then a snack lunch in the adjacent hotel coffee shop before driving down through South London to the football ground. The ground was a poor setting with reconstruction works in progress and the rest of the facilities looking poor and dowdy.
To make matters worse, it had been pouring with rain but having the car meant that dressing up warmly for the game was possible. Wiggly and I walked arm-in-arm from our parking place, and we used the extending and folding umbrella to keep fairly dry.
The match was rather dull with the midfield players locked in a dour struggle, but Norwich City made most of the running to start with and then Crystal Palace came back at them in the run up to half time when the score was still 0-0. The Norwich City supporters around us appreciated two good saves from Bryan Gunn and chanted "Brian Gunn, Brian Gunn, Brian Brian Gunn; he's got no hair and we don't care, Brian, Brian, Gunn."
Immediately, upon the start of the second half, Darron Eadie picked up the ball in space on the half-way line left of centre near to us and with me screaming "Go on, Go on, Go on, Take him on, Hold it!" from nearby he kept running at the defence and, once he had drawn in the covering defenders and turned them, slipped a good pass inside to Mark Robins who made an even better pass to Ashley Ward who was by then unmarked in the middle and could side foot the ball firmly past the goalkeeper for a well-worked goal
Wiggly and I jumped up and down and hugged kissed one-another as the Norwich City supporters nearby started up their chant again of "Ashley Ward, Ashley Ward, Ashley, Ashley Ward; he gets the ball and scores a goal, Ashley Ashley Ward." and kept it going for some time.
By this time, I was quite hoarse but tried to keep encouraging the main cheerleaders until the final whistle came and we all repeated the complete repertoire of chants until the players all acknowledged the support. The walk back to the car and then the slow drive through Central London.
I made this journey more interesting by taking advantage of Wiggly's mini-skirt and, after removing her black tights and mini-briefs, warmed her legs with my hands slowly from the feet up until I reached her hotspot and then petted her for ages.
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I was quite shattered after all this and flushed from having had the car heating fully up. I still had the journey back home which became quite a chore relieved best by the radio football reports which included news of our victory and Ashley Ward's goal.
Once back at Montagu Street, I unpacked the car and made a pot of tea whilst Wiggly collected some Chinese takeaway food that we had ordered by telephone earlier. This quick meal and then, very tired, on up to Paxton where I collapsed onto the settee in front of the television with Diana until we went to bed.