OK, when it comes to doing the shopping on a weekend, i'm usually squeezing in half an hour at the supermarket between a rugby, footbal or cricket match.
Now the rugby and footie season is over, I still can't presuade the boys (hubby included) to come to Morrisons. This weekend was different as I announced we were off into Wetherby for lunch and spot of buying local (groans all round from the boys).
First a trip to our local barber at the Cutting rooms, then onto Pomfrets for lunch. They had my favorite Eggs Benedict! I didn't even know you could get that in Wetherby, plus the boys ate all thier lunch without any fuss!
Now for the difficult bit, how to get the boys round a variety of shops without loads of arguments........ the cake shop was to be the reward if they were good.
It turns out that going into smaller shops is way more entertaining for children that one big one! Oscar loved choosing his own plums and cherries in Johnsons and I picked up some more of that gorgeous local asaparagus we had tried in the week. George enjoyed counting the money and change - a novelty when you're used to seeing Mum swipe a debit card!
Nest stop Appletons pork butcher for the ham (which proved to be incredibly tasty for tea) and then onto the new Cheese shop where the boys tried some bread dipped in the worlds finest Olive Oil and Andy and I tried some amazing blue cheeses.
Finally the cake shop - Cooplands where the boys were simply spoilt for choice. A few grins and happy faces later we headed home, surprised at how much we had all enjoyed pootling round the shops together.
I'm not saying the boys would be begging to go shopping every weekend, but it certainly surprised me how they both enjoyed the process of gong round the smaller, mroe personal shops. It's so nice to meet new people, bump into familiar faces in the market place, much more pleasant than draggin the kids around a very impersonal supermarket.
My resolution is made, I'm going to shop locally as much as I can.... I know that if we don't use our local retailers we will lose them.
