We Had A New Visitor,

in the garden,

a green woodpecker, (Picus viridis), a little difficult to see as he was just below our window,

and he did not make things easier by settling again behind a bush,

and only just moved to be only a little obscured, then he was off,

next I had a telephone call from that nice chap Joel at Jessops, my camera had been repaired and although they were not open, he had to pop into the shop for a couple of hours and whilst he was there, I could call by and pick it up, so I was off to the bus stop,

arriving in Bromley,

I made my way to the market square,

and along the High Street,

past the Churchill Theatre,

in the distance,

Jessops, I telephoned to let them know I was outside, what a nice gesture to think of telephoning me, camera picked up,

and I was on my way back, past the Christmas tree,

and into the crowded park, joining huge numbers of people out for the day,

not a single parking space in the road leading to our home, cars everywhere,

we had a quiet afternoon, but in the evening after our meal,

our new Monopoly set had arrived, tilted the Monopoly Longest Game Ever edition,

Diana used one of the new tokens, I decided to use one of the tokens from the old game we already had,

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there had of course been a lot of changes, the worst for us was the fact that the property cards had been made smaller, without glasses I could not read them and even Diana had trouble with some of them, as we played we change the rules slightly to the way we normally play, and decided that some of the community chest and chance cards we would ignore, I will not labour the point about who won, but I lost, we rounded off the evening with one from Endeavour, followed by one from Midsomer Murders and with the end of that, we were off to bed.

One Of The Crows,

was training me well,

if there were no nuts on the window sill, he would tap the glass, when he saw me get up from typing the blog, he was off on his wings to the hedge or tree, I then put some nuts out, close the window and back he would fly, yes he has got me well trained! Diana had already left for work, meanwhile I was waiting in for a package to be collected, which in the early afternoon it was, so I was out, on two missions,

walking through the park,

I could not help but notice that this year there was a bumper crop of acorns,

my first mission into Bromley,

to Jessops to drop off the Panasonic Lumix GX8 camera that failed on Sunday, Joel, who I spoke to gave the camera his professional once over, making sure I had not pressed a button that might have stopped the auto-focus working, but it was not that simple, so details taken he will send the camera back for hopefully a repair, the estimated time for return about 4 weeks, so our next trip out will be with the Sony Alpha a7 II with its 28-70 zoom lens, but for today I am using our pocket Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ25, which will have its sensor cleaned when the GX8 is returned,

I walked past the Art Deco styled cinema to the produce shop where before I had bought some chestnuts, but alas none were in stock, so on to my next mission, back to Beckenham and on to the tram,

to Croydon and the twin chimneys,

which meant,

I was at IKEA,

yesterday on her day off, Diana had been looking at some of the photographs of our travels and decided that a few needed frames, to be hung in our bedroom,

I think they were expecting crowds, but luckily today no queuing,

so 4 frames picked up and I was out in no time,

back to Beckenham and through the park and home,

some of the trees with hardly any leaves left,

this is where the photographs we wanted framed were taken, the Lido de Paris, 

when we visited in March 2018,

these of course were professionally taken,

by the photographer in the venue,

and what a night we had! we treated ourselves to the V.I.P. meal and table, what a memorable event that really was, back down to earth, I watched some television after my evening meal,

at 10.45 Diana called so I was on my way to the 162 bus stop at Beckenham Junction station, home and feet up for the last part of New Tricks, then A Touch of Frost before we were off to bed.

First Thing,

Diana was off to work, 

as it was still dark, I walked with her to the bus stop,

on the way back the Christmas tree in the garden of Foxgrove Lodge looking nice,

looking out of the window the fox was waiting,

and it did not take long for one of the crows to realise we were back,

for myself I was out, walking past the green,

and church to catch a 227 into Bromley,

I thought the queue was for Primark, but it was not, it was for the bank,

lots of stalls,

many selling seasonal goods,

like these wreaths,

lots of flowers too,

Bromley's Christmas tree looking nice,

this is where I was heading for my first stop of the day, the Glades shopping centre,

to everyone!

a huge tree in the central concourse,

complete with Santa's choo-choo train,

this is where I was headed, we had 2 bags of pods to give in to recycle, also we wanted to buy 2 boxes of cleaner/descaler for the machine, the water where we live is exceptionally hard, in the time we have had the coffee machine it has needed a descale 4 times,

now that is a big Christmas bubble!

out of the Glades and into the pedestrianised High Street, where there was a mini fair,

with all manner of rides,

all looking so nice,

the detail amazing,

and here was my second port of call, Jessops, I had agree to have the camera I dropped off a few weeks ago repaired, the cost was in the region of £200+ there was one other thing, the sensor in our pocket camera badly needed cleaning, so I asked for some sort of guide price for when the Lumix is returned, I will have the pocket camera cleaned,

Joel asked to see the camera and very kindly gave the outside of the lens a good clean, but alas as I suspected, the specks of dust were on the sensor and on the inside of the lens, and the news was not good, £80-£100, for a clean, but then Joel had a great idea, he suggested going a few shops along and buy a recondition second hand pocket camera, a quick look on the Internet and there was not only my pocket camera, but the next model up with built in GPS what ever that is, many thanks indeed to Joel, what a diamond geezer, 

and here is the shop, more about the camera and the more than helpful assistant, Alfie, later, 

Christmas is defiantly here with so many stalls selling Christmas decorations,

but what is this all about? I have absolutely no idea!

I was tempted to buy some whelks, but then remember we still had some in the freezer,

however I was tempted to buy some of these, huge chestnuts,

they were on one of the outside open air stalls,

past the tree to the bus stop,

and back to Beckenham High Street, I had a few more things to pick up in Marks and Spencer's,

the fox was waiting,

and was soon tucking into a snack,

time to look at the camera, not only did it have a charger and battery, which as they (the batteries) are £19.00 or so each was a result, but it also came with a carrying pouch that you can wear on your belt, in the shop CEX the assistant there was so helpful, I showed Alfie the problem in my camera with dust on the sensor, so he fired up the camera and checked that there was not a problem with the one I was about to buy, it was perfect, and the cost? £32.00, including a 2 year warrantee, as far as I am concerned what a bargain! and many thanks to both Joel and Alfie for being so helpful,

in the evening a pre-meal sherry, Diana was still at work, 

so it was home alone for myself, my evening meal was a prawn cocktail sans salad, but with for a change, rolled kiln smoked trout, from Arbroath, Scotland, which we visited in September 2019,

next a treat, Diana had bought me a bubbly advent calendar, a bottle a day until Christmas,

it was so nice,

I just had to open another one!

I kept in the Christmas spirt with the candles lit,

back to the red, 'Cheers!',

just before 11.00 Diana called, so off to the bus stop and back past Foxgrove Lodge, we settled down for a coffee and a chat, Diana has another early start tomorrow so for us we were off to bed.