It's Not Just Cricket in Headingley

 The Missus and me went on our annual pilgrimage to Headingley last week. 

Not for the cricket but for the charity shops along the high street and the student eateries.

Originally it was on my birthday decades ago, a festive drive to the studenty Leeds suburb to browse and eat a cooked breakfast in Dare, a cafe I assumed was named after Dan, given their rocket logo outside.

Always great fun. I bet we've been going twenty years and I've bought vintage monster magazines, action man clothes, old baubles, horror story cassette tapes, gifts, books and much more over the last two decades.

Dare's gone now, replaced in the Pandemic by a Turkish restaurant, which we've eaten in too. Nowadays we've finished our shopping with a meal at the fab Zaap Thai.

This year it was very slim pickings in the charities. Very little vintage stuff and hardly any toys of any age at all. There were fewer charity shops too, two down since last year, leaving just five now, two of which are Oxfam.

Another thing is that we are buying less and less since our Autumn return from Germany with a carload of stuff. It has meant less Charity shopping in general and much less car booting. I have collected more than enough stock for ebaying next year and the same for the Missus and her craft materials.

So this time we came away with a single second hand paperback, which I bought in Oxfam books: The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

I seem to recall Viggo Mortenson starring in a film adaptation of The Road that I've yet to see, but I do get it mixed up in my head with a Denzel Washington flick called the Book of Eli for some reason, which I've seen.

Do you know The Road? 

The discussion driving home on our road was of this being our final trip to Headingley, a long Christmas tradition sadly drawing to a close.

It has been a year of  tying things off in general, but hopefully in some way leaving us new space for fresh beginnings in 2025.

Is anything old finishing for you readers or perhaps something new starting up? 

I will miss our festive mooches round Headingley though.