Yesterday (Sunday) we decided to go to Farthing Downs and The Fox for lunch. We made a booking, but after we had both read the bad news regarding food and service there, we decided to do something else instead. We went down to the restaurant street of Croydon and found a Thai Restaurant. We had lunch at about 2.00 p.m. and stayed there for the afternoon. It was really lovely to have Asian food again. We then went down to Croydon Minster for the 5.30 Evensong, which turned out to be 6.30 p.m. We found another cafe to sit for about 45 minutes. The service was well worth it. Very short sermon on Remembrance Day and the choir were as good as we had been hoping. We had been told it was High Church, which meant that they use the old Book of Common Prayer, I think. Anyway, we like having that as well as it is traditional for us.

We walked home from Croydon Minster feeling really relaxed and happy.

This morning the weather was windy, but promised to be fine and cloudy, with about a 40% possibility of rain in the afternoon. We decided to try walking from The Fox back through Happy Valley and across Farthing Downs, the opposite way to our previous walk. We took a picnic lunch and set off at about 12.00 p.m. At first the wind was challenging, but we got used to it and for most of the walk it was behind us. By using our jacket hoods we could avoid getting chilled.

We really enjoyed being out in the fresh air and having a walk that wasn’t too difficult. We went to a cafe at the edge of a park, which we discovered last time, and were able to enjoy a pot of tea and a scone with jam and cream each.

The wind was quite cold coming home and because we had been resting we felt colder than earlier. We were able to catch a different bus, get off and do some shopping in East Croydon, and then take a tram one stop to get close to where we live.