Today's shopping trip down town. (26/7/2024)

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Well, it's actually yesterday's again because it's way passed midnight here. And we didn't actually need to get much actual shopping. We were mainly going to get Mum's repeat prescription and look at some more elephant sculptures. I got up really early - 7:00am, a rare occurrence for me - because Mum said she wanted to go out early. My weather app said sunny and no chance of rain, so neither of us took a coat with us. I took the trolley and Mum took her walker. When we went out there was a car on next doors drive and someone was cleaning the house ready for the new occupiers. I heard them talking and when we walked passed I could see one of them hoovering the hallway! Seeing as my Mum was with me today we walked up St Chads Road rather than crossing the road and going round Stowe Pool on the top path. We crossed the road further down St Chads Road nearly opposite Netherstowe School instead. But then we did go up to the top path by Stowe Pool further along than I would have done if I was on my own. We saw a flock of geese when we were walking by Stowe Pool. Then after we'd walked by Stowe Pool we went to the toilet by the Cathedral. But first I pointed out our first elephant of the day, which is by the back of the Cathedral near the (relatively) new statue of St Chad. My Mum had only seen this elephant on my photo before. I think this elephant is called Staffie. We spent a long time in the toilet. When we came out we went up Dam Street and I showed my Mum the elephant that is by Minster Pool. This one is called Flora and she's a very flowery elephant! We passed Tony the gold elephant at the other end of Dam Street. And then we decided to have some fish and chips for our lunch. Well, Mum had fish and chips. I just had a large fish. We got them from the mobile fish and chip van outside Boots. It said on the board Fish and chips £6 and further down it said Fish £3. But when the lady charged us for them she only charged us £5 for both! My Mum said, You're not going to make a profit if you keep doing that! We passed another of the elephants, called Time for Tea, which had an Alice in Wonderland theme. We found a bench under the covered walkway up The Three Spires Shopping centre to eat our lunch. It was yummy! Mum couldn't eat all of hers so I ate what she left. I insisted on giving my Mum £3 for my fish so I gave her a £10 note and got her to give me £7 change! When we'd had our lunch, and I'd thrown the packaging in the bin, we went to get my Mum's repeat prescription. On the way we passed another elephant called Henry the elephant, which is based on Henry the Eighth! As we were going up to the pharmacy we saw some boards round some of the old shops and on one of them it says Demolition in progress! Keep out! I thought they might have been building a new Marks and Spencer there, but it's not. It's what they're calling the Everyman Leisure Centre, and it's not just those 3 shops that they're demolishing, it's the multi-story car park behind aswell! Anyway, we went to get Mum's repeat prescription, and after that we went into Peacocks to have a look round. After a bit of browsing we came out with nothing. We came back down The Three Spires Shopping Centre, past Henry the elephant, and we went into the Smart Ideas shop. (I think that's what it's called.) It stocks lots of gift ideas, trinkets, soft toys, jewellery, even Thorntons chocolates! I was captivated by the glitter clams! They are like large ornamental clams with like a large Crystal oyster inside with glitter in them, and the Crystal oyster rotates and lights up! They come in various colours. One of them was making quite a racket! I bet you'd go a bit giddy if you looked at them for too long! My Mum was looking for a birthday present for her friend Nan Nutt. After lots of looking she eventually chose a pretty hand-painted flowery vase. When we'd paid for that, as Mum didn't want to go to Tesco, we went back through the covered walkway and out the other end to see another elephant, Nellie, which is situated inbetween the Garrick Theatre and a St Giles Hospice shop. Then we went round to where another elephant is, by where the old Police Station used to be. This elephant is called Elovephant, (E-love-phant!), and it has a large heart painted on it. After we'd looked at the Elovephant elephant, we crossed the road, and went back round where we'd come from. We could see the other side of where they were doing the demolition from here, and we stopped to watch for a while. It looked like this one digger was ontop of a mound of rubble. I watched as one claw thing grabbed a piece of masonry and pulled it down with a loud noise! We went through Tudor Row, which is a narrow pedestrian street with old fashioned cobbles on the ground. We sat on a bench for a while listening to Duran Duran being played in a record shop. They were playing the Rio album. That's the first vinyl album I ever owned. (I've got it on CD now.) Then we continued on down Tudor Row. We came to a shop that sells crystals and stuff, and there was this stone head of a Hindu deity or something. I said it was a Buddha at first, but I don't think it was a Buddha. I said to my Mum, There's a false god. And then this fragrance came wafting out of the shop, and I said, There's your incense to your false god! We came out the other end of Tudor Row onto Bore Street. Now we were looking for Vince, the elephant that was damaged but is now back. I found him at the other end of Bore Street, the end that I don't usually go up. Vince is based on the starry night painting by Vincent Van Gogh. I took a photo of Vince, and I also took a photo of his description on his plinth. After we'd looked at Vince, we headed back down Bore Street the way we had come, and headed back towards the Cathedral. I was bursting for the loo again, so I went to the toilet by the Cathedral again. Then we headed to the Cathedral itself. You have to cross a road, and then we have to go all the way to the front of the path up to the Cathedral because we wouldn't be able to get the trolley or Mum's walker up the steps to the side. They have a little makeshift beach in front of the Cathedral for the summer again, they do it every year. But we weren't here for the beach. We were here to see some elephants! So we went inside the Cathedral. There's a lady there behind a desk. She takes your bookings if you are buying tickets to an event, or if you want to give a donation to the Cathedral you give it to her. It is free to go into the Cathedral, but you can give a donation if you want to. My Mum was feeling generous and gave a donation of £5! We took a leaflet and a What's on in Lichfield booklet. The leaflet was of Saltmine theatre company who are doing Rhyming Bible on the beach infront of the Cathedral in 3rd August at 11:00am. We told the lady we had come to see the elephants, and she said they have 5 elephants, 4 small ones and 2 big ones. I thought, you can't count Mrs! I presume she counted the large one that is outside. Anyway, she told us to go straight on. We found the large elephant at the gift shop, at the side of the centre isle. I don't know what you call them, these side bits! This elephant is called Eternal Life, and it's based on stained glass windows. I took a photo of one side of the elephant, and then I went round the other side and took a photo of that side too. The one side has a butterfly spreading it's wings, and the other side has a Phoenix rising from the ashes. Or something. (The picture above is of the Phoenix side.) Then I took a photo of the description of this elephant too. I tried to bend down and read what it said, but I couldn't get down low enough and I couldn't see, but I found by taking a picture of it with my tablet I could then read what it said on the picture and didn't need to bend down! Then we went off and found two of the smaller elephants. They were in the small isle just off from where Eternal Life was. There were two smaller elephants together. One was called Pip and he was based on a watermelon! I can't remember the name of the other one, it was a very complicated one, but he had what looked like a house on one side and the Cathedral on the other. I took some photos of these two,from either side. Then I photographed a board with their names on them, and the explanation of their names. The other two elephants were included on this board too. Then we went to look for the other two elephants. We thought they could be up the other isle parallel. So I went up a ramp into a middle section. I can't be sure but I think it might have looked like where the choir sit! I said, are we allowed on here? Anyway, we crossed to the other side and found the other two elephants there. These ones were called Daisy and Neilson. Daisy is a flowery elephant if I remember right, and apparently she glows in the dark! And Neilson is based on Mandellas. I took photos of these ones too, from either side. After I'd finished photographing the elephants, we went to have a bit of a look round the Cathedral. I sat down, because I was really tired by then, and photographed some of the stained glass windows and some statues on the walls! Then we started heading back. Mum kept looking at things and I kept taking photos. I photographed the Sleeping Children. Then we came to a sign on the wall which said, These stairs lead to so-and-so's chapel. (I can't remember the name of the fella!) It said please be careful because these stairs are very old. I didn't go up the stairs, but I did take a peak up. I managed to get up a step so I could get look round into the stairs, and guess what? - Yes, I took a photo! And a couple of a window at the bottom. We headed back to the gift shop and had a good look round, but we didn't buy anything. Then we started to make our way home! When we got home it was 6:00pm! I put the telly on quick so I could watch Home and Away. I tried to eat a prawn layered salad, but I was still too full from lunch so I had to chuck some of it away. I'm sorry this post is so long. We did cram a lot in to today. And we still didn't get to see the elephants in Beacon Park! What have you lot been getting up to today? I hope you are all well. Have a great night.