A first visit to Derby

I'd never been to Derby before, except passing through on the train, so it was a new experience. Quite an exciting one too, though that's more about the way the Villager bus drivers approach their task.

"Con brio" is the best description, probably. Hanging on tight is compulsory. Anyway, in less than thirty minutes, we were in the city's spiffy new bus station, and exploring the centre. We'd had a useful briefing from Steven and Maureen from the walking group, and Sheila had done a bit of on-line research to get the locations of the shops we wanted to visit.

It was a largely successful trip. I've got the T-mobile Wireless Pointer for internet access (it's better than the MiFi as it has a connector for an external antenna), and after a lunch in Bird's on Irongate near the Cathedral (shades of the old Lyons Corner houses) we braved the Westfield centre.

In there, you could be almost anywhere on the planet. I bought a new mega wok from Lakeland, as well as a further supply of EasiYo sachets, and Sheila found some tops she liked in good old Marks and Sparks. Before that, we'd been to Silly Sid's, a rather cavernous furniture store, full of hand written price tags and odd characters lurking in the shadows.

We'd hoped to see some swivel recliners in there, but didn't find the ones we were looking for.

We got the 1400 bus back, and were glad to collapse in the boat. I've had the Pointer working; it's easy to set up and to reset the SSID (network name) and log on password, and it seems quite quick, though I had to sit it on the roof to get a signal. I've ordered the needed adaptor from Boaters Phone Company; once that comes, the beast can just sit on the desk, plugged into the antenna and a power supply.

The new phone from 3 has arrived at Elanor's, but it will be Friday before we get it here.