TUESDAY 1 MAY 2007 - COME ON TIM!

Well, for the first time in ages the car park barriers weren't working. The entry barrier was up but so used are we all to the last few months of uninterrupted foreplay (pushing the button, waiting for a ticket etc) that, like fools, we all stopped at where the barrier ought to have been and pushed the button, waited for a ticket etc etc. I normally tend to drive in on autopilot, savouring the experience to come, but this broken routine woke me up and I noticed that the surface of the car park ramp continues to deteriorate. It is now quite bad although with the dry weather it's not a problem but when the rains come (in July, probably) the slipping and sliding will start all over again! Anyway, into the store. We get a good class of customer in 'our Sainsbury's' and a man asked at the cheese & ham counter where he could find water chestnuts. Good question! The ladies behind the counter (Carol & Marilyn) had obviously called for help from higher up the organisation because as I drew up with my trolley one of them said "This man needs help finding water chestnuts". Now, you will recall that I was called 'sir' a couple of weeks ago and a young lady was called 'love' so C & M were about evens on the politeness stakes. Well this has marked them down quite heavily I'm afraid as they should have referred to him as a 'gentleman', I believe, to be technically correct. Doesn't politeness come before godliness? And whatever is a water chestnut anyway?! Moving on. There was a suspicious looking man (certainly not a gentleman!) hovering near the bakery plinths (note I am now using the right word following the 'leaked' e-mail last week). And closer inspection of his name badge revealed ... the dreaded TalkTalk! My goodness just when I thought we were rid of the scourge for ever back they come. Anyway, unfortunately for him and fortunately for us he was not so much TalkTalk but SilenceSilence! I hung around looking at the rolls, cakes, doughnuts etc hoping he would approach me as I was interested in his opening line, but it was not to be. After a while people started to eye me suspiciously so it was time to move on. I looked back a couple of times but he was doing very little TalkTalking - no bonus for him this week! Not much else really happened this week - the 4 animal hoovers are still there waiting for a home - so it was all a bit dull but the checkout experience made up for it! I had the slightly unhinged cashier again this week (the one who, a few weeks ago, rather than turning on the moving belt with all the groceries on kept leaping out his chair and reaching round the corner to capture the next piece of grocery). His name is Tim! This week he was as animated as ever but much less physical as someone has told him about turning on the moving belt! He gave me a real scare though - as he scanned my wine he leant right across his till and looked me up and down and said "Are you 18?". "I was when I last looked" I said. Not a flicker, not a hint of a smile from Tim although the student in the queue behind me smirked. Now I was dreading the Active Kids voucher bit of the experience but he handled it really well - "Just over £40 so that's 4 vouchers plus 1 from the last customer" he said and gave me 5 (vouchers). He then wished me a happy first day of the month and I was on my way. Now before I close, those of you who are not mathematically challenged will have noticed that my Nectar points sums & calculations sometimes don't work. I think the reason for this is that some garages give Nectar points and if I'm asked if I collect them out comes my card as quick as a flash! That's the theory anyway but yesterday I 'earned' some points in a garage and my card was swiped but my opening balance on my Sainsbury's bill today was exactly the same as my closing balance last week, when it should have been higher by the garage points earned. Hmmmmm. I need to check this out! I thought I'd done with Nectar points a few months ago but obviously not ...

Items bought 31
Cost £41.34
Average cost per item £1.33

Checkout number 14
Nectar points 1486
Active Kids vouchers 59 (somehow I've got 7 more than I thought I had - even I can't count)