Our Shopping Trip today

We got it wrong, and paid for it dearly.
Usually we are entering the first shop within half an hour of their opening time, but today we went up late and didn’t get to our first supermarket until 10.30.
But I’ll backtrack a little first.

Hubby is after some tech stuff and I wanted an academic diary which is partly why we had our field trip today. I don’t keep a diary as such (other than my current daily entries here on my blog), but I record our utility meter readings weekly, make notes of unusual occurrences or forthcoming events, annual reminders for the car or gas boiler, things like that. A standard January to December diary doesn’t cover us for any January appointments in the New Year especially as we don’t get the gift of a calendar every year now. It was always useful, and we would usually end up with three, but it didn’t matter as one was put up in the kitchen for the daily stuff, one hung up in the bathroom to record our weight every week, and if we had a third, that went up in the scullery to keep a track of our food store.
I got my diary for £1.50 which is what I paid for one last year, but Hubby couldn’t find anything close to what he was after. Sitting inside the car waiting for him, the pavements were heaving. Feeling vulnerable, exposed and nervous, I closed the windows on the passenger side and locked the doors.
So, we pull up outside the first supermarket and I go inside. No-one is on the door, and people are ambling around as if they have all the time in the world. I got a filthy look from one customer as I reached for a loaf of bread. I was nowhere near her, but I was the only person inside the shop wearing a mask and gloves.
I bought some flour today as it has been in short supply, and also lemon juice as Hubby has grown partial to pancakes which are easy to knock up and not too bad on the syn front.
I also bought some fish to try (we have a freezer bag in the car) and a couple of frozen packs of veg. I was second in the checkout queue and the total cost was just over £12.

Hubby goes into the next one, and it is manic.

No-one inside is wearing masks, though I did see several people driving into the car park wearing them! Still no dog food, beef or otherwise now, though it wasn’t desperate as I have a bag in reserve in the cupboard, but we would need some soon.
Hubby is gone an age, and when he comes back has little to show for his expedition. He is angry as people were barging past him, and having enough of it, blocked an aisle with his trolley as he was waiting to pay. A woman tried to push through and told him to ‘get out of the way’. He stood his ground and said one word ‘WAIT!’
She was furious and stomped off.

We are getting this a lot wherever we shop, and quite honestly, we’re sick of it. We have always been polite and considerate, especially since C-19 intruded into everyone’s lives, but it is now being thrown back in our faces. We’ve noticed it is only locals wearing masks and gloves and abiding by the social distancing parameters, and they too are tiring of other people’s attitude.

I went into the final supermarket after a minimum wait and my few things totalled £6.
I was out in under five minutes, by which time the queue consisted of about 10 and tempers were short.
There is a pet shop in this particular complex so Hubby went in on the off chance they might have Maggie’s food. He got the last two bags on the shelf, so we have enough for her for at least three months now.

Coming home, the traffic going into the town was at a crawl. Coming out wasn’t exactly fast moving either, and we got stuck behind a caravan. The sites are open now and full to overflowing. Everyone is being herded together and most are acting as if C-19 never happened or doesn’t have to be taken seriously.
We got home at one o’clock, so had been out for over three hours. It felt like 30.
Time for us to revert to either early morning or late night shopping. The problem with the latter is that the pubs are open now and drunk, angry, frustrated people are even more unpredictable.

Lunch today was steak pie, wedges , green beans and carrots so worth waiting for. I bought a cheap cheesecake today for 65p and invited our neighbour in for tea this afternoon and a slice. We spent a very pleasant hour and a half having a whinge and moan about the visitors, the Chancellor’s mini-budget plans and things in general.

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