THURSDAY 21 DECEMBER 2006 – A MERRY XMAS TO ALL MY READER (sic)

My problems are solved! She who writes the lists is now back for Christmas and today we are in Sainsbury’s doing the last big shop together before the Big Day. And there are more than 3 days to go so we are well ahead of ourselves. No last minute Christmas Eve panic buying for Mr & Mrs Organised! And it goes like clockwork. The puzzling items on the e-mailed list are easily dealt with and acquired, the pancettas are back in stock (I buy 4 to celebrate) and all the unlisted items that are de rigeur (French) at Christmas such as clementines, stuffing, gammon, aluminium foil etc are gleefully swept into the (large) trolley. And to cap it all both the ingress and egress barriers on the car park are broken so everyone parks for free at Christmas. There is a God! One of the good things for me about buying unusual items is that the till roll or whatever it’s called reveals yet more interesting purchases. ‘Olde English Chest Stuff’, for example. This sounds like a cure for pneumonia sold by a vendor off the back of a cart in the 1700s (no lorries then). And then there’s a ‘Colgate Pump’. This could well be a stomach pump for those of you who bought the Bernard Matthew’s half price turkeys! Or to deal with an excess of Olde English Chest Stuff perhaps? Interestingly aluminium foil comes up as turkey foil on the till roll – presumably calling it aluminium foil is politically and environmentally incorrect these days? I must remember to put it in the recycling. Talking of remembering I just remembered I saw a Sainsbury’s lorry on the motorway recently … in the Basics livery! I tried to see if it had an Eastern European number plate but the rain and spray made this impossible. OK, that’s it, back again after the festivities are over! Happy Christmas!

Items bought 111
Cost £222.55 (huge)
Cost per item £2.00
Checkout number 22
Nectar Points balance 874 (my wife cashed in (stole) 500 points)