The Right Pair of Trousers

On Monday morning paperwork was a good excuse to pop round to see some old friends and put the world to rights.  There were some interesting noises off, as they were having their bathroom refitted.  Fortunately, the floorboards held firm and there were no unexpected arrivals downstairs...

View from the car park

Dear Husband has been bemoaning the state of his trouser collection for some while. As we had a free afternoon we headed off to the super large M & S at Longbridge.  This was Dear Husbands first visit to the store. From a previous visit, I roughly knew how to access the multistory car park where there would be space. The trouble is that the idea of me knowing something roughly always gives my husband the feeling that it is going to go wrong. I have no idea why...

"Don't set your satnav dear.  I have no idea how to set it to get the last bit right. It will drive us round the bend as we will just have to keep ignoring it, while it gives wrong instructions. Instead, I will guide you. Just head towards Birmingham, and take the first roundabout at the edge of Brum. I will give further instructions as we go along."
This, however, was not good enough for my husband who likes everything to be certain and planned.
"Which road do I take to Birmingham?"
"The one that takes you to Longbridge Lane."
"Well, I could go this way or I could go that way..."
"Or you could just go to Birmingham the normal way.  Through Hopwood, up the hill and turn off. I can't remember if it is the Man on the Moon roundabout, or the one before."
"So do I go down the bypass?"
"Yes.  Stop being .....(censored bit)" I said sympathetically. Not.
We found the roundabout, drove down Longbridge Lane, with fields on one side of the road, and houses the other.
"Is this not the edge of Birmingham?" I queried
"Birmingham may begin at Hopwood for all I know." responds my Londoner born & bred husband.
"Hopwood is in Worcestershire..."
Despite our navigational and geographical differences we successfully found the car park.  This was when the fun began.  We had gone up to level 4. Parked the car and walked down the stairs.  Read a different parking sign and were unclear if the 3 hours free parking applied to all floors, or levels one or two only  To be on the safe side, we went back down the stairs and moved the car down to a space on level 2.  We didn't mind paying £3 if required, but we didn't want to be clobbered with an expensive surcharge for non-payment.

View from outside the changing rooms

In M&S dear husband tried on a variety of pairs of trousers, and finally selected the same style as he already has, though a different shade, In order to get another pair in the same shade, he will need to order and collect in store, as there were none in stock. Obviously a popular colour and size.





No trip to M & S is complete without a trip to the food department. For the first time I actually claimed a discount using my sparks card. Until now I have just collected the points.  I was quite impressed that the 10% off food was loaded on to my card.
"£82.83" requested the assistant. Dear Husband hurriedly paid on his John Lewis card, to redeem something from this debaclele.
"HOW did I fit that much in one basket?" I marveled.  Then I remembered the trousers... Phew!

On the way out of the store we stopped by at Customer Services.
"Do you know anything about the car park?" we asked, and explained our confusion.
"Well, the car park isn't anything to do with us, but if you put your car reg into the machine it will tell you if you need to pay." Sure enough, the machine had two entries for our chariot, and required no payment.  Result.  Now if we had remembered to set that location to 'favourites' in the sat nav, we would have had an easier trip next time, but we didn't. Hindsight is wonderful :)

Afterwards, we successfully found our way home, even though the sat nav was sulking, no doubt offended by our independence on the way there.

In the evening the KHT couldn't wait to go to Special Olympics.  She was offered the chance to go to an area meeting, but when I explained the invitation she gave me a stern look and told me not to start anything else.  One step at a time, onwards we go.