Interesting day. In order to beat the crowds chasing that last brussel sprout in Morrisons at North Road Darlington I was there at 5:55 AM this morning with my trolley and granny catcher on the front just in case anybody got in the way. It was definitely a take no prisoners occasion and I survived but I cannot speak for others! There was a very tense atmosphere as if everybody     believed that the produce available was the last remaining stuff and you better get it now  or else. Could have been right I never saw one turkey in the whole place. Good for them: a supermarket is not the best  place for Turkey to go at Christmas!

Well I did get the food to tide us over until Wednesday and before 6:45 AM I unwisely told a sleeping Fiona about my good deed for the day and it was amazing how she pretended to say what a good chap I was and wasn't that nice when I knew she would rather have stayed in snooze land. Faking a civilised sleepy response is a necessary part of a long lasting marriage!

So, I was up and I usually am up early most mornings and I trucked off down to York to do a nice 8 mile walk around the in the gloom and pecking rain which turned into something more serious within 90 min. York Minster was full of chairs but no people and for about 20 min I was the only person there other than a handful of guys setting the place up for the various services today. I think the Church of England has found the answer to declining congregations: invisible people. Or, they do not do Carol Services at 8:15 AM in the morning! I was asked if I was from radio York and then the recipient of a big moan from the enquirer because   the radio York people have locked up their equipment in a room but they have also locked up some equipment this man needed. Christmas or not: he did not look happy.

I was and I said my usual prayers in the Prayer Chapel for my friends past and present alive and dead. A sudden blood sugar low had me racing towards a pasty shop for a chicken I am not sure what it is called and a Curd Tart. But at 8.30 AM in the morning? That was a new one for me and fairly pleasant and  I will start having chicken pasty and curd tart for breakfast quite often. Nice!

My decision not to take a wetsuit, flippers and snorkel was not good because the river Ouse had burst its banks and part of the walk I wish to do was underwater although I was tempted but I thought within 10 min I will end up someplace like............. Hull and Fiona would not be happy because she wanted me back so we could listen to the carols at Kings College Cambridge at three o'clock.

I got back in good time which was nice and the drive through the very flooded Vale of York was  informative because there are a lot of places I would not like to buy a house in that part of Yorkshire with all this rain that is coming down. There were ponds and pools forming in every depression and huge lakes where small rivers had burst their banks.

It was nice to stretch my legs but I don't think I will be going down to York that much in future and some of the things in my mind,  small as it is, I have resolved. Don't ask me what they are because I don't actually know myself, hence the trip to The Place Where It All Started For Me. Going to York is a true voyage of discovery  but the delights of the Yorkshire Dales, Howgills, Lake District and the just up the road Durham Woods also have their claims on my feet!

It was great  listening to the Carols at Kings with the Fireball Fiona because we both fell asleep through X amount of it and I think she fell asleep over the bits that I was awake and the other way round! Lovely music though !