Shopping around for the best prices

Hello I had a lovely start to the day, I watched the third and last episode of  Cilla, a drama about Cilla Black's early days from typist, to singing in the Cavern in Liverpool, to her first television series. The amazing Sheriden Smith played her, what a fantastic actress she is. If anyone has missed it you can see it on ITV Player, possibly not available in other parts of the world though. It is on Yoootooob, but the quality of the first episode is not brilliant. It brought back many happy memories for me, I had a ball in the swinging sixties. Here is a clip of Sheriden singing Anyone who had a heart. She sang all the songs herself and I must say she sang them brilliantly. 

It was MOT day for the car today. I was undecided where to take it. Last year it passed and the tester man put an advisory note on it. Apparently there is a tiny hole in the middle section of the exhaust. I remember taking it in to a garage I have used before for my repairs, and they said it wasn't urgent, and drop it in when I had time. Well one year on and I still haven't had it done, so I expected it to fail on that. 

I didn't know whether to take it back to the same place for it's test, but decided not to. Although he is a bit cheaper than most places at £40, he doesn't give you a time, just asks that you drop it in first thing in the morning and he will get round to it sometime during the day. Not very convenient. I looked on the internet yesterday and found that Halfords do an MOT for £30, looks good, the only proviso is that you book and pay online. I don't normally buy anything on the internet, don't like putting my card details into the computer, but I thought I would give it a try to get the special price. The site was easy to follow, find your local branch, insert the details of the car, and name and address etc. Halfords is conveniently situated close to the town so no hanging about waiting for it, I can drop it in and do my own thing. 

I was in Poundstretcher when they rang to say it was ready. When I got back I had a nice surprise, it had passed. The notification of the exhaust leak was still there, still not urgent, plus another notification of brake pipes starting to corrode. Replacing them is not urgent, and I was told they would probably be ok until the next MOT test in a years time. The man at Halfords said he would put a note on his file to send me a letter in six months to bring it back for a visual check. That will do nicely I thought. I left with a big grin on my face, yipeeee, it's passed, and only £30 spent. I was in two minds whether to get the exhaust repair done before I took it for test, I'm glad I didn't now, it can wait a bit longer. 

I had a bimble round town while the car was being done, and went to the 20 21 Arts Centre to see what was new. This is what I found in the main exhibition area. Scaffolding, laid along the floor and through and over that door at the far end, with a tall pyramid tower in the middle. Now who in their right mind can call that art. I was gobsmacked, well almost.  

Here is the blurb about the so called artist. I couldn't resist putting something in the visitors book, and I can tell you it wasn't at all complementary. I managed to control my language, just. I saw that a lot of comments before mine were along the same lines. Apparently Ms Ellis was supposed to provide another piece of artwork, which according to the picture in the brochure, look a lot more interesting than this. There had been some kind of hitch in getting the piece ready, so the scaffolding was brought in instead. They needn't have bothered, the empty space would have been better. 

I visited five shops while I was in town to pick up bits and bobs, mainly pet food. Found some Ribena reduced to 50p as it was out of date by one month. I like Ribena but never buy it because it is usually quite expensive. My cats have taken a liking to Ultima dried cat food and I found some in Wilko for £1.75 for 750 grms. It's a bit more expensive than the Whiskas dry so I ration it.

Aldi is close to Halfords so I popped in there, to pick up a few items that I had run out of.
Carrots 1kg 65p
Bananas 1kg 68p
Quiche £1.19. This will do for four meals with veg added.
2 x soft cheese with garlic @ 49p each
6 x large free range eggs 99p
2 packets cream crackers 28p each.
Also Bugsy likes their small trays of gourmet food, at 20p each.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to see Helen at her house. She has a new sewing machine and has started going to sewing classes. She has asked me to help with zips as she is struggling to get to grips with them. Also she is not sure how the machine works. That will be fun.

Welcome to the new readers, hope there is something of interest here. I'm just an ordinary pensioner  trying to make the best of my life.  

Toodle pip.