Catz, Kings, ski boot adjustment, the smell of a good book shop and a rather nice lunch

 One of S’s new ski boots was causing some very specific discomfort on the slopes back at the beginning of last year.  As is the way with these things he has waited until the annual ski trip is imminent to get the offending boot refitted.  We headed out to Cambridge yesterday morning on roads which were treacherous locally but better than expected after a few miles.  The boot has remained at Ellis Brigham for later collection so they can stretch it or whatever it is they are going to do.  The next issue is whether we can get our skis serviced in time though, with my untrained eye, I think they are fine so I am not going to worry about that.  I’m probably not going to worry about hopalong much either.  Worst case scenario he has to hire and that may persuade him to address kit issues more timely in future.  Given I am queen of the last minute that might be a little unfair but we only get a week - 10 days skiing a year and that time is very important to us.  It is right at the top of the list to try and increase when we retire but we are also very much aware that it might well come to an earlier end than we might wish due to our own capabilities.  


Thankfully I am not short of any kit right now or I would have been sorely tempted and impulse buying the likes of The North Face, Rab and a few others is an expense I can do without and poses a potential storage problem right now.


After a little general window shopping we found ourselves at Heffers.  It was inevitable, no trip to Cambridge is complete without at least going in for a ‘sniff’.  The  smell of Heffers is a big childhood memory for S and you just don’t get a new book smell in quite the same way from an Amazon delivery and certainly not via Kindle.  






A wander past Kings and St Catharine’s (Catz) Colleges (above) plus a few others eventually led us to Browns for a late lunch.  My sea bass and Devon crab cake served with spinach and tenderstem broccoli was excellent.  It had a dressing with tomato, shallot and toasted coriander seeds.  The sea bass was beautifully cooked and the coriander lent a little surprise every so often to a mouthful.  The service was faultless also. 


All in all a good day out.

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