Skip to main content

More Shopping Malarkey

 Seriously, I think I ought to collate a collection of shopping stories. Why do odd things happen when I am in shops? Am I a shopping angst magnet? Or am I merely hyper vigilant and notice these things more acutely than other people? Or are people just angrier than they used to be. Hmmmm….

Anyway, I made a trip into town today, mostly to collect a print I’d taken into a framing shop a couple of weeks ago. The print was a birthday gift. Here it is, all done up in its lovely blue frame and white mountings: 


I’ve been wandering around the house trying to decide where to hang it. Ideally, it will go in my study/ writing room but that means I’ll have to redecorate first and really, I’m not in the mood for painting and wallpapering at the moment. 

Back to the shops. After collecting the picture and enjoying a lovely chat with the couple who own the framing shop, I popped into B & M to stock up on bird food because it’s the cheapest (!) place to buy it. The cost of sunflower seeds has become prohibitive. £24.00 for a 12.5 kg sack compared with £16 a few months ago. The Damson Cottage birdie population will go through a sack in around ten days. Add on the cost of peanuts and fat balls and I reckon feeding our garden birds would be in excess of £20 a week. As we are being inundated with starlings at the moment, £20 is a conservative estimate. Also, I am no longer bringing in a wage. So sunflower seeds have been replaced by the same weight in mixed seeds at £7 a sack, and whilst the birds were initially sniffy about this change, they’ve got over themselves and have adapted to the substandard non-sunflower seeds offering. Peckers can’t be choosers, eh?

Whilst waiting at the checkout, because even though there were only two of us being served, the other person decided to initiate a very complex refund process which the B & M till system couldn’t cope with, I could hear a couple making their way up and down the aisles and their discussion was growing ever more heated.

Woman: Just hold the basket, will you? I need to look at these toys.

Man: I thought we’d already got him something.

Woman: We have. But this is for his Christmas Eve box.

Man: (mutters something undecipherable)

Woman: How about this? Do you think he’ll like this? It’d go with the other things in his box.

Man: I don’t know. You started it all, with this Christmas Even box thing. I don’t know why he needs all this as well as Christmas presents…

Woman: (at the very top of her very loud voice) IT’S PEER PRESSURE, DEREK!

Honestly, what has Christmas come to? Not only is there all the pressure for presents on Christmas Day itself, now it seems that families have to deal with the cost of providing Christmas Eve boxes, too. It’s insane. Insane and unnecessary. 

And peer pressure? Seriously? Peer pressure is another name for bullying. And I thought the world was supposed to be all about anti-bullying these days. 

Excuse me if I emit a cynical ‘Pah!’

Comments

Anonymous said…
It is insane. Do people not know they are in charge of their own life?
KJ
23 November 2022 at 17:01
Denise said…
You’d like to think they do, KJ. I am beginning to despair.
23 November 2022 at 18:06
Anonymous said…
What a lovely picture by the way! Just how I picture you.
KJ
27 November 2022 at 14:38
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Frosted Dawn Enigma

The decorators are in at the moment. Stairs and landing. Given my previous history of 'Hoo Ha Occurring on Stairs ' - reference the Trapped Under the Sofa Incident and the Foot Wedged Between Bookcase and Stair Rise Debacle - I thought it wise to pay for professionals to decorate the stairs and landing rather than get myself in a mix with ladder and plank combinations and achieve the Magic Three of staircase accidents. The decorators are a father and son combo who go by the  names of Craig and David. This automatically causes me entertainment. 'Came in on a Monday, prepped, filled and undercoated, back on Thursday, first top coating, by Friday finishing touches...' Okay, not as frisky or well-scanned as the original song, but you get where I'm coming from. Anyway, before they started the job Craig asked what colour I wanted for the walls. 'Same colour as the downstairs walls, please,' said I. 'Dulux Frosted Dawn.' And then white for all the woodw
2 comments
Read more

Day 1 - Decisions Are Made Beyond the Author's Control.

‘Well,’ I say, looking at the expectant faces gathered around the huge table in the Great Dining Hall of Much Malarkey Manor, ‘I didn’t think it was going to happen this year, but it is!’ There is a sharp intake of breath as everyone wonders of what I speak. I’ve been muttering about all sorts recently, and I’m not talking liquorice here either.   ‘The Much Malarkey Manor Annual and Traditional Christmas Story!’ I say, and wait for the expulsed air of relief to settle before I continue. ‘I thought we had done it all. I thought we had covered every Christmas story there was. I’ve been wracking my brains for a full two months now, trying to come up with something we haven’t done before and then it hit me! We haven’t done a version of one of the Great Christmas Films of Yore!’ ‘Your what?’ says Mrs Slocombe, who is more interested in the selection of pastries I have brought to this breakfast meeting, because that is what one does, isn’t it? Eat pastries at breakfast mee
8 comments
Read more

Launched!

  I was going to wait until tomorrow to launch the ‘Hallo Tarot!’ website, what with tomorrow being 1st July and, therefore, a nice tidy date for a beginning. But this afternoon, I became involved in a flurry of final tidy loose ends activity, and thus ended up cracking the metaphorical bottle of champagne against the ship of which I am Captain and whoosh! Off she went into the World Wide Web!  You can find it here : www.hallotarot.co.uk The blog is moving there, too, so unless things go horribly wrong, this will be the last entry here.  I hope to see you on the other side then! Let me know what you think. 
Post a Comment
Read more