New paintings and regular art updates.
Somewhere to sit
Somewhere to think
Look at the view
(a car park?)
Time to rest with your shopping
Before you go to the car!
Not one for a memorial…
Here sat Hilda
Her shopping bag
Was too heavy
And her chicken defrosted
Before she got it home….
I went out in the car today. Only to a post office to send some documents off and get some shopping. The postmaster asked me what was in the envelope that was addressed to “the bereavement team”. When I said a copy of hubbys will and death certificate he was instantly sympathetic.
As a sign we might be living in the matrix, while I had been waiting in the queue I had spotted a box of cuppa soups that I like. After I’d handed over my letter I turned round to pick up the soup… Where was it. I stood for two or three minutes but could no longer see it. A glitch in the matrix? All the other boxes of soup I had spied were also missing. Perhaps I had dreamt it.
Then I went into a shop and got a cornish pasty and a chocolate brownie for tea. I noticed that the woman who served me had a runny nose and touched it with her hand before picking up the brownie. I got home washed my hands, microwaved the pasty, washed my hands, microwaved the brownie, washed my hands. I think I might have been overcautious but I’d rather be safe than sorry.
Yesterday I walked into town, which isn’t far, got some shopping and walked home on my own. Then I contacted a firm to sort something out, then we went to the doctors to get out flu vaccine and finally I joined a choir practice for a Christmas concert. Two hours of Loud singing!
That was more in one day than I’d done in six weeks. But I was feeling stubborn and I’m fed up of being off my feet.
But all I’ve done today is fetch the milk in. I’m shattered. My poorly leg and feet are aching, my arm is shaking and sore, and I just want to sleep.
Could it be the result of the flu jab? I don’t think so, I usually don’t have a reaction. No, I think its because I tried to overdo things yesterday. I shall continue to rest today, then attempt more tomorrow.
I can’t get in the kitchen to cook meals, my ankle won’t take my weight and I can’t stand to stir things. So my hubby has had to discover the microwave and things other than boiled eggs (which he can do). He assumed a frozen potato and a chilled cornish pastie would take the same time to heat in the microwave on the same plate….
I pointed out that he should look on the packaging. Tea is a bit bland and boring, but at least it’s safe. My hubby can’t hear the alarm on the cooker that tells you the food has been in for it’s cooking time…
But very kindly, a friend came and did some shopping for us. Hubby doesn’t always get things that are on the list. He substitutes things like natural yoghurt for fruit yoghurt (probably healthier) or will buy three bunches of grapes and five tins of tomatoes instead of one. It’s not wrong, but I don’t have the cupboard space. BUT he’s learning, making decisions, working things out. And I am truly thankful.
I have just been shopping, for the first time in a week. But really I’ve only been out a few times in a month through ill health. The trouble is the superstore I go to was refurbished in the summer and because I’ve been going to a cheaper, smaller, super market I don’t know where things are. It took me about half an hour to get eight things! I used to be able to go in and get what I wanted in about five to ten minutes. Now I have to search. Plus they have added a lot more self checkouts. I prefer the manned tills, but there were big queues today so I used the self checkout. I had several ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’ situations. Partly because I took my own bag and it didn’t like it. Then it kept telling me to put the last item back in the basket? A woman manning the checkouts had to come over and sort out the computer screen. Oh for old fashioned checkout people. I went home and vowed not to go out again tonight.
Get me some daffs to go with the tulips I said… So he did..
I also asked for some cheese for sandwiches, so he bought really hard cheese like parmizan which you would grate on to pasta. And the quiche I asked for turned into a pizza….
I don’t know if its a tactic to get over being asked to go shopping, I do wonder? I know supermarkets do substitute things, but to say that there was only one sort of cheese in the chiller cabinet? I guess he walked past the cheese and went to the Italian counter instead. And he told me there were lots of daffodil flowers for sale, he’d seen them earlier? But he came back with sprouting bulbs. Clearly he can’t hear or doesn’t understand.
Retail therapy, that’s what women shopping is something called. And yes sometimes going out and buying things can be fun. But it’s not something I can afford to do all the time.
Normal household shopping is more mundane. How many tins of beans or loaves do I need this week. Will I need to go out more than once? How long will things last?
My hubby says he hates shopping. So I asked him if he thought I enjoyed it? We don’t have the skills to order on line and I prefer to vary what I get. I like variety when I shop and seeing the things that are there.
But shopping is not a pleasure. Its a chore. Like washing up or doing the dishes.
Let me let you into a secret. Women are not genetically programmed to do household chores. We are not robots, not domestic goddesses not slaves or maids. If we have partners they should share the work. Just because women have generally always managed household chores doesn’t mean they always will do or should.
I can’t understand why you can call a woman a ‘slut’ for having an untidy or messy home, but you can’t use the same expression for men? Why are women picked on?
‘Treat them mean, keep them keen’ ? No ‘Treat them fair, do your share!’ Should be the slogan!
I’m still struggling so a friend offered to come and pick me up and we could go shopping.
But hubby just told me off for troubling other people. He still didn’t get what I wanted he says he fu(£%ING hates shopping. I had given him a long list earlier but he came back with twenty bananas instead of a pork pie. We discussed why and I suggested he tick things off as he got them. Half an hour later I gave him a list with four things on. He went out and managed to get two of them but didn’t tick them off. He thinks oatibix are porridge and pizzas are quiche! At least he got me some decaff. He’d be good working at a supermarket because he explained they were substitutions! Basically he can’t cope with walking round the shops he gets overwhelmed and wants to get back out and home. I can see him wandering off when we go together. He can’t concentrate!
Who would choose gherkins and limes for a nice choice of food for shopping?
I asked my hubby to do some shopping today. Get some bread and milk and something nice I said. Do you need a list? No I’ll be OK.
Off he went to the supermarket. Its not far away and he wasn’t going to buy much. When he came back he’d bought:
Mini butter stollen
Limes
Gherkins
A tin of tomatoes
Rich tea biscuits
Four litres of semi skimmed milk
A wholewheat loaf.
So I made him two slices of toast with a mini butter stollen on each slice (well they say butter on the packaging, and we have run out of butter).
I asked him if he wants gherkin and lime for tea? He laughed. Then ate the mini butter stollen!
Someone asked if there should only be self service tills in supermarkets. I aid no. I went to our local supermarket yesterday evening. I had to get a lot of stuff so we got a trolley. Have you ever tried balancing everything from your trolley on the tiny platform at the self service till? balancing it and then putting it in bags and balancing them on the other tiny platform that weighs your goods? It was crazy. There was one woman helper. She had to let me move stuff so I could carry on.
Plus it puts decent people out of work!
Mallaband-Brown