The Courgette Saga

Have you ever used online shopping for your groceries?  I’ve tried it in the past but when half the stuff is missing or they have substituted a veggie quiche for a meat one in a house where 2 of us are non meat eaters, it gets to be very trying! Not only that we had eggs that were broken and a bottle of wine that arrived smashed! I decided at that point it was better to go shopping myself and that at least if I broke a bottle of wine it would be my own fault.

Anyway times change and progress happens, so I decided to brave the service again. The app was very easy to follow and everything went smoothly. When the goods arrived they were just as ordered except I thought I had ordered 1 bunch of bananas 🍌 and was a a bit surprised there was literally one banana! A learning curve I thought and since then things have worked well until this week! 

Some ingredients are in weight and some are numbered per items i.e. 3 peppers or a bag of mixed peppers for instance! A funny thing happened last week because I ordered 4 baking potatoes 🥔 and couldn’t believe the massive sized potatoes 🥔 that arrived.  One potato 🥔 was big enough for a Jack and the Beanstalk Giant! We had to divide them into 2 and that was still plenty.

The saga this week involved ordering 4 individual courgettes as well as the usual groceries. This morning everything  arrived and we started to unpack pleased again with the quality and the fact everything we had ordered was there. But then…….. I looked and there was not one courgette, not two or even the four I ordered but instead I picked up 4 packs of 3 courgettes in each pack making a total of 12,   I’m not sure I will ever live it down and it will be remembered as the defining moment of my online food shopping experience as having a courgette moment! 

So I am now left with a need to deliver courgette based meals to my family – roasted, stringy, stewed, curried, baked- my daughter has already informed me that courgettes are not a favourite so the next week will be interesting and the tortoise Gwin will receive a courgette feast! 

Well I have learnt if you don’t want an overdose of any one item check whether it’s per bag or per item and don’t be like me and have a courgette moment! 

The Boots that got Stuck

Amy went to Primark a few weeks ago which is always a dangerous move! If I go with her which I didn’t on that occasion I can at least keep the damage to a minimum.  Unfortunately Amy went into Primark while I was in another shop and by the time I saw her it was too late, the damage had been done.

Anyway Amy produced a pair of  brown boots with elastic bits at the top. My first comment apparently was  ” They’ll  tear in a few weeks!”  To be fair they looked quite nice and were very comfortable apparently (Amy’s thoughts); mine were less generous being more bothered about cost, quality and whether they are hard wearing; to be fair, looking nice is also important!

Anyway today we were in M&S where they had a sale on. Amy announced that her brown boots from Primark had broken. The elastic part had torn!  I believe I was very generous spirited and didn’t say “I told you so!” Then Amy found a pair she liked in M&S which were in the 50% off sale.  She produced them when I was at the food part of the shop checkout, and it was at this point I persuaded her to try them on before she handed over her hard earned money. Amy disappeared and I found her in the shoe section pulling rather tightly fitted boots onto her feet. Once on they did indeed look nice and were very comfortable,  and I suggested we went and paid for them.

Amy managed with a little struggle to get the right boot off, but then the problem started! The left boot was not amenable to leaving her foot. Due to her stroke Amy’s left side is less moveable and her foot was not being cooperative! Slowly Amy’s face went more and more red and I could see the panic appearing on her face. The struggle between Amy, her foot and the boot increased and it hit me as being funny that we might have to buy the boots because one couldn’t be removed and I started to laugh as I decided to help pull them off! After much effort they came off and I left Amy who was still saying that she liked them.  When I got to the door Amy caught up and I asked if she had got them?

The response was that the boot had made her panic and I hadn’t helped by laughing which meant she couldn’t take it off!!  So I hate to say it but Primark seems to have won the day as the boots from there have not made me laugh or Amy panic and can still just about be worn.  Better still we had a mum and daughter laugh about it all! One last thought  at least if Amy has a similar problem with a Primark boot there will be no panic as she can easily tear it off! 

The Robin

(I wrote this this after talking to a few bereaved clients, who found great comfort in seeing Robins and taking them as a sign that their loved ones had “sent” them.)

Little Robin brown and red

Looks at me as he tips his head,

If what people say is true

Perhaps he brings a message too.

 

Again he sits upon a hedge

Another time a window ledge,

Another time I hear him sing

Peace to my hurting heart he brings.

 

For people say he is a sign

Sent by my husband to say he’s fine,

But whether it’s true or an empty hope

His frequent appearances help me cope.

 

So little Robin brown and red

Come once more and tip your head,

You’ve helped me live now off you fly

It’s time for us to say goodbye.

 

My pain is less you’ve helped me see

Though griefs still there I’m breaking free,

The future beckons me to come

Thank you Robin your work is done.

Adventure In the Car Park

What an evening! Amy and I leave work from doing telephone support at about 9:20pm having arranged to meet Ben at a local shopping centre so that the 3 of us can go to Nando’s to eat quickly before going home. RIchard missed out on this adventure being in Glasgow on business.

We arrive and having sat down wait for Ben to come, when suddenly  the door bursts open and Ben rushes in speaking incredibly fast; something about his car, locks and keys. Leaving Amy to order I rush with him to the car all the while trying to make sense of what he is repeating each time faster than before! Eventually I could see that he could only open the door manually and then the key wouldn’t fit into the ignition. We tried everything and in the end Ben left to go home and get his spare key in case that might be the solution!

Can’t say by now I was very impressed putting it mildly, but decided that hopefully this will be a learning experience for him and he will go for the cheaper option next time of buying roadside assistance before he actually needs it.  Anyway I go back to Nando’s and we wait for both the food and Ben. The food arrives first and I look down at the least amount of chips I have ever seen! When I query this I’m told that “yes it is very poor” and the man goes off smiling! When Ben eventually arrives to eat they bring his food with a huge pile of chips! What was that about? 

The keys didn’t make a difference so I returned Amy home while Ben contacted Tesco to sort out road assistance.  I got back to Ben’s car to find him still on the phone with Tesco giving him a number who then said they had nothing to do with Tesco! Then they gave him another number which turned out to be another Tesco number and so the saga continued! Eventually we gave up and Ben phoned the RAC and joined them with no issues except for it costing him 3x the amount it would have cost if he had joined at his leisure.   The only reason we went to Tesco was because when he got his car insurance they said they could do roadside assistance, but I don’t think we will ever know whether they do or don’t.

We now had to wait for the RAC who said it would take 80 minutes for them to come. The next part of this drama was going to Macdonalds to buy a coffee and apple pie at the drive through,  in my car.  I guess nothing was going to be straightforward but when we pulled up and tried to order we were told that the machines were re-calibrating and we would have to wait ten minutes. I have never heard someone sound so disappointed when I said we would wait as after all 10 minutes was nothing compared to 80 minutes! In the end we went in and waited for the machines to finish! At least we were in the warm.

Back in the car park next to Ben’s car we settled down for a long wait, but were very impressed to see the van arrive and within 10 minutes the RAC man raised his arms gave a big smile and shouted “We have lift off!”   I did wonder for a fleeting moment if Ben’s car was about to fly into the sky and at about 1 in the morning nothing would have surprised me! 

I must admit I was very pleased to get home as this was supposed to have been a quick cheapish meal at Nando’s to save time, but instead turned out to be a very long expensive occasion! I only gained a little comfort from the fact the expense wasn’t mine. 

An Acrostic Brief Reflection on Anglesey

Awesome Anglesey peaceful and calm

Never been touched by pressures and rush

Green fields full of sheep and cows sandy beaches and those with stones

Loads of colour many different shades burial grounds and Roman remains

Each day something new to discover

Special memories to keep for ever

Everyone friendly most with time to chat

Yes Anglesey’s a favourite I will be back 

Night Walk

There is something very special about going out for a walk at night. Tonight was no exception . The night was warm, and apart from a few fishermen there was no one around just Richard, Richie and myself!

No moon and so it was a bit difficult to see in places, but with the aid of a torch app on a phone we managed! A little frog jumped across the path infront of us and another jumped on my foot on its journey towards the lake! I have to admit it made me jump as well.  Unfortunately Richie took a liking to a fisherman’s tent and was breathing heavily just outside with his nose touching the tent. There was obviously some poor unsuspecting fisherman inside as when I went to get Richie I could hear a person  moving around! I hope he didn’t think there was some sort of lake monster or some other creature like the MK Panther waiting to pounce! I took the precaution of attaching Richie’s lead when we came across any other tent like structures.

I did have the thought that Apple are missing out on making their Apple phones with a bright enough torch and then creating a hat that you could place a torch into it. They could even create a cycle helmet with space for the phone and torch.  Another thing would be to have a moving beam light so you could aim it where you were going! You see the possibilities are endless! Apple if you read this please contact me as I have many other ideas and could keep you in novelty features for your phones for a long time to come! 

Now we are back home having managed to creep very quickly down the alleyway, so as to avoid a small dog which rushes out the cat flap and proceeds to bark somewhat territorially so that Richie being a big brave Shepherd moves faster and starts to bark in a rather nervous manner! He is a little wary around some small dogs! Anyway I heard the cat flap so we sped as quietly as we could before the barking started, and on this occasion we won and managed to move to safer ground.

Anyway  enough of my adventures for tonight. So Good night all especially that poor fisherman in his little tent!

In To #or not to #, that is the question?

The # hashtag I gather has been around for a while but I have only really used it during the last few months!   The name for a start, I have to admit I don’t understand! The tag part is straight forward and I fully understand that you are tagging and connecting people to the tagged person or subject!  But as for the hash part…..?  Apparently the technical term for a hashtag is “octothorp,”  eight points in the figure, and Thorpe, comes from the surname Thorpe.  So unless Thorpe was the person who created the octothorp that name is equally random! 

Anyway after that study I am still totally confused, and will now talk about the hashtag’s purpose! This is actually quite difficult when you don’t really understand the subject you are talking about.  So in my mind, for many years I have happily survived without needing to use it.  It is a bit like quadratic equations, which as far as I know once I had completed my O level maths (vaguely equivalent to GCSE Maths), I have never used since.  I never understood them, but you didn’t need to as long as you learnt the formula and remembered it for long enough to answer the exam question.  My theory about this obviously worked because I got the grade I needed and in the meantime had completely forgotten how to do them! 

Apparently if I were to throw a ball and enter all the measurements for the height, speed etc into a quadratic equation, I have been told, that the  person who was going to catch the ball would know exactly where they should stand at exactly what time and exactly at what speed the ball would land in their hand!  Wouldn’t a cricket match be boring?  Realistically of course you wouldn’t have time to work it out. In the future though one can imagine that the computer would be used on your wrist or in your brain to work this out so that the game could continue to be played! It would certainly be the perfect game!  In this age of competition where no one can lose as they will develop a complex it would be the perfect answer with everyone winning! The league tables etc would be totally……..boring!

Anyway back to the importance and use of the hashtag.  Well, I was encouraged to put photos on Instagram by my children and a friend called Lena.  I really liked the fact that you could put as little or as much as you wanted to, and this meant your privacy was respected.  The trouble was I did want people to see my photos otherwise I might as well not bother, but how did you get that to happen.  “The  hashtag is the answer” my 3 teachers cried and proceeded to all speak at once explaining how to use it!  I really didn’t get it and then they confused me even more by bringing into the equation the @ sign!  My two children continued the lessons later and I still don’t think I’ve fully got it yet. But, like a quadratic equation there seems to be a formula that works……..     #Hashtag as many categories as possible and you seem to get more views or likes – so one gets the result without fully understanding the formula, apart from the fact I know that a hashtag attracts people who like the subject or have tagged it or something like that.   The @ sign I think is to do with groups and individuals who were with you but are also used if you want them to see it directly.  I have to confess it is rarely used by me as I can’t really see the point and certainly am not sure of the difference.

So Instagram is becoming more successful now I am hashtagging more topics or groups, but there quickly occurs another problem, apparently I should use them in this blog and they can be used in the middle as well as using tags at the end.  Facebook is another situation you see them and I’m sure they are used all over the place.

Finally, if you are not confused enough with what I’ve written, the hashtag makes a nice noughts and crosses board; a page full of them makes interesting patterns when coloured, and one can also use them like pointillism, instead calling it hashtagillism. Long before there were hashtags there was music and the wonderful if not so unique hashtag makes a great #sharp when composing music. If you have any more uses, then please let me know, and I will add them to my blog #thanks.