{"id":2927,"date":"2021-08-19T18:55:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T18:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/?p=2927"},"modified":"2021-08-19T22:14:10","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T22:14:10","slug":"thursday-19th-august-2021-day-521","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/2021\/08\/19\/thursday-19th-august-2021-day-521\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, 19th August, 2021 [Day 521]"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week we thought we would try a new pattern of shopping. We have got used over the last year and a bit to\u00a0getting our provisions delivered for us by\u00a0<\/span>Waitrose<\/em> – this\u00a0evidently means that we had to get our online shopping organised and we needed to get used to the system of online shopping. This has,\u00a0though, worked very well over the past few months. We have to make sure that we have a slot booked and this generally has to be done 2-3 weeks in advance to get the day and the time slot that you want. The Waitrose<\/em> system works (and I suppose all of the others are the same) by ‘reserving’ a slot and then you have to have a basket full of goods which you go through the process of paying for and which would be delivered at the appointed time. But then, not later than the day before, you have to go though the order and order what you actually want and so this has become part of my weekly routine – revising the list on a\u00a0Wednesday and\u00a0having it delivered the following day, on a Thursday. Occasionally,\u00a0you forget to take things off the list and you add to your supply of \u00a0biscuits or what-have-you. Conversely, occasionally things get left off the list which is no\u00a0great disaster – and it is always possible\u00a0that you didn’t read the number of grams correctly and you tend to get a much smaller item than you were expecting. However, Waitrose<\/em> has given me excellent quality and \u00a0good service over the past year and a bit and I am grateful to them for it. Now though I thought I\u00a0would\u00a0experiment, now that the worst of the pandemic is over. So as soon as I got up I threw some\u00a0clothes on so that I could go\u00a0shopping in person at the Waitrose<\/em> store in Droitwich the minute it opened at 8.00 am in the morning. Shopping was almost like\u00a0<\/span>heaven – there can only have\u00a0been 2-3 people in the store and the only people you encountered were the shop\u00a0staff as they were restocking the shelves. A few days ago I made a very\u00a0comprehensive ‘master list’ of everything that we might normally buy – then, last night I made a sub-list of only those items that I\u00a0definitely knew that we needed. As I shopped, I stuck to this rigidly, not allowing myself to be tempted by other items that caught my fancy. What was so amazing was when I cane to the checkout where the bill was about \u00a330.00 less than I was spending online. There must be a logical explanation for this –\u00a0perhaps\u00a0some of it is that I am better able to judge quantities e.g. of fruit. But I must say I am delighted by the result. As a result, I may adapt my habits again slightly and shop once a fortnight in the large store at Droitwich and in the\u00a0intervening weeks ‘make do’ with the quite adequate little Waitrose at the end of\u00a0Kidderminster Road.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Every week, we see if we can have a little venture out somewhere to help break the normal routine. Our\u00a0favourite little venture out is to the neighbouring town of Droitwich and\u00a0although I had been there already this morning, we decided to undertake our Droitwich day out routine. First we frequent a rather little cafe which is a little\u00a0<\/span>Wetherspoon-ish in\u00a0appliance but does the\u00a0magnificent toasted teacakes. From here we progressed on to our\u00a0favourite hardware store – Wilko. Meg was\u00a0despatched to buy cosmetic type things whilst I indulged myself getting round the gardening and hardware sections where I bought a few useful things like\u00a0wire brushes. Then we made way to our favourite cafe-bar restaurant where we had\u00a0already reserved a table. I had a\u00a0salad type meal (trying to avoid too much\u00a0carbohydrate) whilst Meg had a wonderful dish of chicken, leek and penne pasta in a creamy sauce. We exchanged halves of each other’s dishes so that we could both enjoy what the\u00a0other had ordered.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The news story is still dominated by the plight of the Americans, British and particularly Afghanis who are\u00a0desperate to escape the clutches of the Taliban – at one point even handing over a toddler to am American marine so that the child would be saved and have a better life even if the parents cannot escape. With a bit of careful planning and imaginative thinking on the part of the\u00a0British amabassador,I am sure this could have been handled much better. First get one’s own\u00a0military to put a\u00a0ring of steel around the embassy. Then\u00a0encourage\u00a0those who can to get to the embassy by what ever transport you can. Then ‘process’ the applicants within the embassy grounds. Finally organise helicopter\u00a0journeys to straight\u00a0<\/span>inside the perimeter fence of the airport. Simple, innit?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week we thought we would try a new pattern of shopping. We have got used over the last year and a bit to\u00a0getting our provisions delivered for us by\u00a0Waitrose – this\u00a0evidently means that we had to get our online shopping organised and we needed to get used to the system of online shopping. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2927"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2930,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions\/2930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}