Wednesday 19th January

19/365: third time lucky ... I made it to the museum!

I met Joy as arranged (actually I had to text her to say I was running late as I hadn't factored in the time it'd take to de-ice the car!) and finally made it to the photo exhibition in the museum. As it turned out I had a good time and enjoyed Joy's company but I was completely underwhelmed by the exhibition ... I was expecting it to be bigger but there were only about 20, maybe 25 photos which took all of 10 minutes to look at. There were some good ones though. This meant we had time to look around the museum as well. The refurbishment involved opening up the top floor so there is a lot more space over two floors for all the exhibits but I feel that it's lost some of the charm of the old place. One plus is that I was able to take some more photos for my monthly challenge and the WPSH.

After the museum we went our separate ways and I indulged in a pleasant half hour in Waterstones deciding how to spend my birthday token. I wasn't going to bother because my knee was throbbing (I had a fall at home first thing and have twisted my knee. Again!) but then I caught sight of that magic word ... 'Sale', so I went in. In the end I settled for 'Moonflower Murders' by Anthony Horowitz and 'Eight Detectives' by Alex Pavesi, which were in the 'buy 1, get 1 half price' offer and then I was given an additional 50% off at the checkout, so I still have some money left on the token to spend at a later date.  Holland & Barrett is near Waterstones so I popped in there to look at their alternatives to coffee drinks. It's quite a small store so I don't know if the larger ones have more choice but I had two to choose from - Barleycup or Whole Earth Nocaf Organic drink. I bought the Whole Earth this time because it was a smaller jar and I didn't want to waste money if I didn't like it, but ... drumroll ... I do like it and it will definitely meet the need for a hot drink to enjoy after meals. I'll try the Barleycup next time but will be perfectly happy with the Whole Earth option if I don't like the Barleycup. All in all, it was a good day.

I watched the second episode of Watercolour Challenge yesterday and realised that they have changed things around. I'm sure there used to be a different group of painters every day and the winners from Monday to Thursday would compete to find the winner of the week. The winners of the week then competed to find the series winner. With the latest series it's been the same group of four painters in the two episodes I've seen so it's not following the original format ... I'm assuming we see the same group all week. I'm not sure what I think of that as we won't get to see the broad variety of styles we saw in the original series, but it's too soon to make a judgement on whether it's a change for better or worse. 

Today it's the nutrition club online class (nutrition to support skin health), followed by my piano lesson, followed by lunch with J, followed by a Zoom meeting with H & Co for the 2022 photo challenge, so a bit of a full on day. Before the nutrition club I need to phone the surgery and try to arrange to actually see my doctor about my knee as it's even more painful today. Wish me luck!