The funny space ....

 
 It is the funny space between Christmas and New Year. Nothing much has changed and life after Christmas has not yet begun. Shops all full of tat in sales and people spending as little as possible...well I speak for Lee here. I am going fabric shopping. Lee plans to spend nothing. We sniffed the air towards the retail parks and went in the other direction very quickly.

 We went to Ilkley after much debate and a doggy walk in the cold cold cold. The photos are a bit boring today too. I took them really quickly whilst waiting for my Gregg's pasty to cool down at lunchtime.
We spent ages in Boyes department store and bought a lot of thermal wear for Lee. Who was being awkward about it all as he did not want to spend the money on such stuff.
I found some fabric in the haberdashery...not much but some hearts printed in pink and calico for  rag doll bodies.

 We checked on all the charity junk shops and found the same unsold stuff from before Christmas. most of it looked like unwanted stuff from other years that no one wants this year either....Betty's tea rooms we passed still with the same displays...only Barkers the dog shop was taking it all down, There is life after Christmas but not yet.

 The Crescent hotel and restaurant. I stopped just here and took some photos and then looked towards the church we always go to and decided I could not be bothered. so that was that for Ilkley this time.

 And I noted Ilkley now has a trendy Gin lounge. Gin is soooo in at the moment. The 1930s all over again. times of austerity and Gin are back again or if you were born a lot later than me it is the 1980s ...is that about right? I think there was a gin trend in the 1980s. There certainly was with my then mother in law.....Sunday dinner....gin and tonic. The recipe consisted of.....one glass   three lumps of ice followed by gin almost to the top.....a fill up of vermouth and no room for the tonic. This had the effect of blowing yer head off. I remember that she got this recipe out of an American magazine..."drink of the month" or something...
Three of these Gins followed by starters and wine at the table, followed by roast beef and "Yorkshire brick " (no one could ever eat this. baked Yorkshire pud ....hard as hell. Cut into chunks with an electric carver...... I tried soaking it in gravy too to no avail.... they were from Cornwall. This is how it came) ... then more wine  with usually a desert of  ice cream then...port and cheese. now if you were still on your chair at the table it was brandy and coffee. as this stage and false move could end you on the floor or tip backwards was common.
Monday morning back to work.(if you woke...) I remember father in law had a really good job designing nuclear war submarines for the government. He often had to take off Mondays as he was incapable. The civil service expected it . On that level it was the norm.
so the 1980s are being relived as respective. I bet not ..... 

Home we went and fed Monza, lit the wood burner and I ordered lots of new patterns for raggy dolls.
E patterns....waiting for the emails back...and then we can get started on all these raggy dolls.