You can tell it's a Bank Holiday, because the roads are busy and it's raining.

We were 'up North' yesterday, to attend a Hamster Show at Lymm, in Cheshire. We only came 2nd in the hamster racing this time.

The track used for the Hamster Racing

The Old Cross, in the centre of Lymm.

This morning, we went to the Cheshire Oaks shopping centre, near Ellesmere Port. We got there shortly after opening time, and it was already busy. By the time we left there were lines of cars snaking through the car parks, looking for spaces. When we got to the motorway, there was a long queue of traffic on the opposite carriageway, trying to leave at the junction. They can't have been wanting to visit Ellesmere Port itself - the town isn't that interesting.

We were in the Vans shop at the Cheshire Oaks, being slightly confused by shoe sizes. Normally, American shoe sizes are just British sizes +1, so we're used to a size 11 being a 'normal' size 10.

There were some shoes on the shelves labelled size 11, but with a sticker on saying 'UK8.5'. At first we thought they had been mis-labelled but then we realised they were women's sizes. To add to the confusion, they looked more like men's shoes. Ah well. I'm sure they do it deliberately to confuse us.