shopping – Page 3

Did you get the things we needed? (an occasional series)

We sallied forth this morning to do a bit of shoppering – something we don’t necessarily enjoy, so we had several places to go. I wouldn’t say the weather was actually nice when we left, but by the time we got to Whiteladies Road, it was pouring. And neither of us had a jacket, a hat, or an umbrella. Soggy.

We started at Kitchens, where we purchased

a new cheese grater. The Microplane snapped its plastic handle in half last week, and we thus declined to spend £17.95 (if you please) on a replacement, and instead bought a stainless steel one for eight quid
3 huge and 3 medium glass storage jars – the mission to Tidy The House continues
a 12 bottle wine rack. For shoes. Yes, really. Works really well, and we don’t have ~~much~~ any spare floor space

From there we waded round the corner to Wild Oats, the health food place.

two bottles of Teriyaki (two because they are tiny)
some laundry balls – they’d better work, at 35 quid
a sourdough loaf
Ecover washing powder and dishwasher tabs
no blackcurrant juice for perlmonger

In the greengrocer next door, I bought basil, mushrooms and carrots. I do very little greengrocery shopping these days, due to the Riverford box, but sometimes you gotta.

Then we hurtled over to Wai Yee Hong, the Chinese supermarket at Eastville, for

noodles
dried orange peel
3kgs of bicarbonate of soda (great for cleaning)
oolong tea
fresh ginger

Next up, the Better Food Company at St Werberghs.

Ecover fabric conditioner
posh organic kitchen soap stuff
unpasteurised cheddar
brie
no blackcurrant juice for perlmonger
maple syrup

We had lunch there too – very nice pasta bake with roast peppers.

Last call was to Asda, to pick up

some more of the nice plastic storage boxes we bought last week – I WILL organise this house if it kisl me. Which it probably will.
turkey mince for Iggy, as he loves it so
some raw tiger prawns, to be stir fried tonight with the aforementioned basil
a nice little ceramic oblong dish, which will replace the one accidentally left on the gas (made a nice BANG when it exploded)
waffer thin meat for the cats’ treats
some cold meat for next week’s lunches, as I can’t be arsed to go down to Costco and buy a gammon, never mind cook it

We have to go out again in a bit to collect the wine from the offy, but that’s it, now – I’m in for the rest of the weekend.

perlmonger says he may go out on his bike tomorrow to Gloucester Road in a last ditch attempt to find the blackcurrant juice he likes, but I fear he might be better off tilting at windmills … and the forecast is very wet.

Did you get the things we needed? (an occasional series)

We nipped (or popped) down to Costco to get some butter (their Beurre d’Isigny is very nice) and some kabanos, which perlmonger is very fond of for his luncheon.

Somehow, we emerged with a bill for £337 so, as you might surmise, there was a bit more in the trolley than we intended. So, in no particular order …

a Roomba. We’ve been after one of these for a while, and they’ve finally come back onto Costco’s shelves. Shame perlmonger vacuumed the whole house yesterday, but with six cats I’m sure it’ll get a full workout soon,
A copy of John Simpson’s latest book – I really enjoy his stuff
an electric Shiatzu neck massager. No, it’s not for electric necks, no it’s nothing at all to do with a small dog. But it is wonderful, and I suffer from am achey neck,
a pretty hanging basket for beside the front door – primroses and evergreen leaves
two pairs of trousers for perlmonger
24 cans of Whiskas, some smoked Austrian cheese, a huge lump of gammon to make Nigella’s poor white trash ham for Harry’s party next weekend, some belly pork, some seeds (for eating, not growing), a jar of marmalade, and lord knows what else

We’re not fit to be let out really …

People are Very Odd (an occasional series)

I was in our local farm shop this afternoon; a chap knocked down the wicker basket with the baguettes in it, and they fell on the floor. He started picking them up. *With tongs*. And putting them back in the basket.

This struck me as odd, to say the least. When I pitched up to the checkout and discovered he was not a member of staff, but a customer, so I said in dulcet tones to the girl that someone had knocked down the baguettes onto the floor, and put them back in the basket. The staff were not amused, and he scuttled off rapidly.

I then returned home from my round trip, and although our wonderful huge Amana American fridge / freezer was, without doubt, utterly full, I managed to feed it the following:

2 packs of lamb mince, to make kofta meatballs
5 packs of turkey mince, because Iggy loves it so
12 hot cross buns
8 bagels
1 pack of sliced duck breast fillet, on special offer (will make a nice stir fry)

Yes, I went to Sainsburys – something I rarely do, because I hate it so, but we did need some bits, and there wasn’t enough to make a worthwhile online order, and it’s the cheapest place for petrol (although cheap is a ridiculous word, given the price of the bloody stuff).

And I bought a set of inks for the Canon in Staples, which are more expensive than bloody petrol. It’s no wonder we’re all broke.

Now then, shall I order a new Mac Pro? What do you say?

Currys

Attentive readers will know that we have been pursuing an insurance claim. The replacement Bowers & Wilkins speakers arrived yesterday, and are fine. The old, much beloved speakers of perlmonger have been Freecycled, as has the broken amp (which has also been replaced).

That just left the television – and yesterday morning, a little plastic card arrived for us to go shopping in Currys.

We have a local youth club waiting for the old set, and it’s very irritating having only one working SCART socket, so we thought we’d nip (or pop) down to our local branch to pick up the Panasonic we’d selected.

We left the house at 12:10, and the branch is about 10 minutes drive away. We got home at 14:30 …

The first 45 minutes or so was spent waiting for a salesperson to come near the televisual section. There appeared to be very few staff in the store, and they must have lost a fair few sales – we’d have left, but we had no choice about where to shop. Eventually, a helpful chap came along, took our order, checked stock and went upstairs to “the cage”. And returned telling us that the warehouse manager wouldn’t let the only in stock model go, because “it had a scratch on the screen”.

He then helpfully spent 15 minutes ringing round all the local branches to see if they had this model in. They didn’t. Further investigation showed that Currys as a whole were expecting 142 sets on Friday. No, we couldn’t put in an advance order. We went back to the television section, but didn’t see anything we liked as much, so we returned to the cash desk to get them to make a note of what we wanted, so they could give us a call. The woman there wrote it on a piece of paper – not in a book, or anything – so I doubt we’ll ever hear from them again.

By now, we’d been there about 1.5 hours. But foolishly, we decided that we’d buy the new TomTom we wanted – a 720, with Traffic. Off she went to look at the shelves. No 720s with Traffic. So off she went to look in “the cage”. No 720s with Traffic.

We lost the will to live, but we’d come so far … she decided to look in the locked display cabinet in case one was lurking in there. But – where were the keys? 20 minutes later, she found the keys.

SUCCESS! We have a TomTom 720 with Traffic.

We came home, and ate a (very) late lunch, wondering to each other how such a store can make a profit. Their IT systems are rubbish, their stores are understaffed and chaotic. All the staff we did deal with were courteous and pleasant, but clearly thoroughly demoralised.

And you know what? – I did a search online when I got home, and the Currys in Fishponds Road has stock. I think I’ll go up there tomorrow.

It’s no wonder people shop online …

hello dear – did you get the things we needed? (an occasional series)

We sallied forth to the Eye Hospididdle this afternoon for perlmonger‘s occasional checkup. No doubt he will tell you himself at some point, but they don’t want to see him any more unless he has another attack of something MSish, and they say his sight is improving steadily in the afflicted eye. Which is nice (this is an understatement).

The EH is convenient located smack in the middle of Broadmead, the main shopping area in Bristol; a place we never go if it can be avoided, because it is vile. However, we took the opportunity to purchase such exciting things as bath creme, and shower gel, and underpants for Pete (lets not go *there*, ok?), and some face flannels.

And four DVDS (The Queen, V for Vendetta, Goodfellas and Children of Men), two books* (Making Money, the new Discworld, and Double Vision by Tricia Sullivan). And a really nice moss green Per Una top from M&S.

Lunch was a nice steak pasty from the Specialist Pasty Shop, or whatever they’re called, which I shall now go and record on Photocena. And supper is sossidge, which is always good, followed by home made strawberry cheesecake.

*only 2 books? Well, yes – as I currently have 12 books on the actual, physical, to-read heap, and loads more marked in our database that I want to get to.

oh yes …

I forgot. There was also Jarlsberg cheese (in slices, which is very nearly an Abomination, but is good in sandwiches nonetheless), and 473ml of Madagasgan Vanilla Extract for the stonking price of £3.99. Given that Lakeland, to take an example, charges £4.99 for 118ml, this is what I term A Bargain!

In other news, I have a hurty little toe on my left foot. *Really* hurty – is it possible to get arthritis in a toe? I bet it is 🙁

did you get the things we needed? (an occasional series)

I popped (or nipped) down to Costco to purchase the huge hunk of cured pig that I always do for Friday night at Team Waste Summer Camp, our annual gathering at geoffcampbell‘s gaff (10 years this year – I can’t believe it). Here’s the recipe – it has no business working, but it does.

I came home with

the aforementioned dead pig
a 4Gb USB U3 memory stick, to try running Ameol as a portable application (see previous posts re server crashes etc)
2 large smoked Austrian cheese “sausages”
2 kgs of chicken thighs
1 kg of French unsalted butter
a new dressing gown
6 bottles of wine
the new Freya North paperback
a pack of various smoked meats – chicken, duck, etc – will be nice for lunches this week, and
48 cans of cat food
16 part baked baguettes

Ho hum …

BabyUnique.co.uk

as many of you know, perlmonger and I are about to become grandparents. Well, step grandparent, in his case. But I digress.

as part of this process, we volunteered to purchase The Pushchair. Much research was done. Decisions were made. The Mother To Be settled on a particular model. We Googled, and went “eek” a lot, and clutched our credit card in panic.

the best deal to be found seemed to be at www.babyunique.co.uk. I read their site, particularly the bit that said “next day delivery”, and ordered it on Monday.

on Tuesday, no sign. On Wednesday, no sign – so in the afternoon, I got a bit twitchy and mailed them. Then phoned them – an answering machine, with no opportunity to leave a message. I repeated the mailing (to different addresses, and via their web site) and phoning.

on Thursday morning, fairly rattled (because I’m going to Norwich tomorrow and want to take it with me), I phoned again. A rather dozy girl answered the phone, and went off to check, and informed me that:

they were *closed* on a Wednesday [boggle – this is an internet business]
they had tried to phone me several times on Monday, but “the phone cut off”. Why didn’t they e-mail me? (and the phone is fine anyway).
“very few e-mails get through to us” – boggle once more. Why the fsck don’t they get that sorted out forthwith! Apparently “their internet chap is trying to sort it out”.

the perambulating conveyance has, thankfully, turned up this morning, but I do most strongly suggest that – in the unlikely event of any of you who read this wanting to purchase baby equipment – that you avoid this outfit.

weekend

so that was the weekend – bit of domestic shopping on Saturday, brunch in the yuppie caff, lazy afternoon and Woodspring LibDem dinner in the evening. Guest speaker was Jeremy Brown, whom I had never realised was the LibDem candidate on that memorable 1997 evening in Enfield South (were you up for Portillo?).

I just had two things I wanted to do in the city on Sunday (where we were going only because it was the monthly decent food fair) – new bedlinen, and get the phones put on a business account. Sadly neither was achieved – the chap in the Orange shop (whose name badge informed us his name was Igor – MORE POWER, Igor) could do more than read bits out of the catalogue and witter on about purchase orders, so I shall buy the bloody phones online. And nowhere that I can find does unbleached cotton bedlinen of the sort that Ikeal used to do and that we love, and ours are all full of holes. Wah.

we managed to buy New Shoes – perlmonger bought new shoes, which is something of a historic occasion. He wears Docs most of the time, or black lace-up shoes for formal, and that’s it. He is now in possession of a pair of “Fly London ” shoes, much to my astonishment. I bought a pair of Doc Marten shoes which looked – and have proven to be – exceeding comfy. The girl in the shoe shop was about a size 6, and looked as though she was both catatonic and drugged to the eyeballs; stockroom visits took about 10 minutes a time …

we also popped into Waterstones to look at the Designing Interfaces book that marypcb blogged the other day; they didn’t have it. They *did* have lots of other books, and we now have another seven to add to the shelves, which will be the subject of another post.

Sunday lunch (belated) was roast duck, carrots in star anise, broccoli, and spuds roasted in duck fat, followed by a rhubarb and sponge made with ground almonds instead of flour. With custard, for those who like it (i.e. Pete). I bought a jar of orange and chili jelly at the market, and lobbed a couple of teaspoonfuls on the duck while it was cooking – that worked well. And I think it would work in a chocolate moooooooooose too; I suppose I’ll have to try [sits back and waits for gmul to arrive].

made a pot of lentil, tomato and tarragon soup for the week, watched episodes 8 & 9 of f West Wing so set BitTorrent running to fetch the last three (got ’em now).

that’s it – there is no more. Off now to make some spicy basmati rice to go with the crab cakes from the market.

“Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” |Eye to the Telescope | KT Tunstall

weekend

elephant bookmark
Originally uploaded by ramtops.

very quiet really. Saturday, did shopping in Bedminster:

greengrocer: spinach, hispi cabbage, four ruby grapefruit, mushrooms, baby sweetcorn, chillis, cauliflower, potatoes, pineapple. Forgot carrots, and we are out of lemons. Arse.
little gift shop: clary sage essential oil, satanic rubber duck, elephant bookmark as displayed here, card to send to kalunina, who seems to have forgotten we exist
health food shop: organic milk and cream, kidney beans, blackcurrant juice
Aldi: (or possibly Lidl – I always get the muddled up) waffer thin turkey for the Tribe, some stilton

brunch in the yuppie café. Home for slumpage. Chilli from the freezer for supper. Too much wine. Lots of West Wing.

Sunday: up to the Mall to return a top to John Lewis because it went all baggy when washed according to the instructions. Accidentally bought a DAB clock radio – thankfully, this works upstairs, where it was wanted, but it does look as though downstairs in the kitchen (where I want another one) is not going to work without an external aerial.

could someone move that hill, please?

cooked roast chicken, spuds, cauliflower, carrots. No wine today, after yesterday. However, drank tea and consumed plain chocolate digestives. More West Wing.

big pot of soup made for the week: carrots, onions, potatoes, lentils, passata, veg stock, spices (cumin, coriander, fenugreek) – smells gorgeous. Want some now.

bed now. Monday tomorrow. Bah.