Rushmere Centre, Craigavon

Took a wee run over to Craigavon this afternoon for a spot of shopping. I think this must’ve been the first time the entire all-new Levee line-up has been out together on an excursion like this.

We managed to squeeze in nearly four hours of shopping (not that we bought much) and the kids behaved impeccably the whole time! That said, the baby was asleep. Jay was confined to the front of a double-buggy, and Ray was the only one who needed to be shepherded.

Since we’ve had kids, shopping has been a chore. They don’t like it. We don’t like it. A day shopping with young children inflicts a trauma upon you too terrible for words. Less civilised countries could use it as a form of torture. I don’t know if today was special in some way - sometimes planetary alignment affects the children - but Rushmere is a nice spot.

It’s a very well laid out center, with an impressive roster of big-name chain stores. I don’t normally notice these things, because I’m an old-skool bloke shopper. Start at the music shops, end at the music shops. Maybe get a magazine along the way. Grab a super-sized Chicken Royale meal before heading home. I did a bit of that today at Rushmere, while Mrs Levee hunted for garments to show off her stunning post-pregnancy figure. The whole trip was very relaxed - I was able to browse bookshelves in Easons at my leisure with the boys, and Mrs L was able to add to her new wardrobe (she’s becoming a bit of a clothes-horse…)

I’m not being paid by Rushmere to say this (wish I was), but we had a great day’s shopping. We tend to head Belfast and Lisburn, and when I was younger, Ballymena and Coleraine were the big shopping centres. Just goes to show that there are better places away from the usual haunts. Anyway, enough of that.

On the way home, Mrs L and I had a lively debate about whose fault it was that she got pregnant. My slant was that she got in the way of my sperm. Her story is that my sperm attacked her eggs. I didn’t hear her eggs complaining at the time….