Scrappy Bits of Paper
Buy a paper in some places like W H Smith and they give you all sorts of scraps of paper for things as varied as an on-line shopping voucher or a free bar of non-gluten-free chocolate. Because, I try to travel light and only have one good hand for holding things, I usually refuse the receipt as well.
So why do they not get the point, that they actually annoy the customers with these pointless offers. I’ve got to leaving them on the counter.
I thought it was just me until I saw a cartoon in Private Eye, this week.
It shows a supermarket checkout labelled “5 Irritations Questions or Less”.
We could be so lucky!
John Lewis’s Wedding List
A friend’s daughter is getting married on Saturday. The wedding list is on-line at John Lewis. It was so simple to use and saved a lot of hassle for me, as how does a sixty year old widower choose something for a twenty-year-old or so woman and her new husband? I took the easy route and gave gift vouchers.
Is Good Service A Benefit Of The Recession?
Yesterday, I got exceptional service from Vision Express, but this is becoming part of a pattern. O2, Homebase, PC-World and other companies have all given me excellent service in the last week. Have companies increased their staff training in this area because they find that good service means increased sales, even in a recession? Perhaps and in some places I’ve dealt with in the past, it’s about time! But then the most often-quoted example of bad service, Woolworths, went bust!
Back in My Own Home
I arrived at my house at about eleven this morning.
It’s good to be back! Except for my left side and possibly a bit of vision, I’m not too bad either. I managed a trip to Waitrose with just a driver.
Cynicism About Organic Foods
I should say before I continue, that I do buy organic foods.
But!
I am always suspicious that they don’t live up to the hype.
Take my supper yesterday. I ate several Jersey Royal potatoes, which were not organic. But they are produced by farmers who care about the quality of their product. They were exquisite.
Take just before Christmas. A farmer brought me some washed supermarket parsnips round, as a favour for his wife using a stable for a pony. They were much better than those you get from Waitrose or Sainbury’s, but that is where they would have ended up. However, that takes a couple of days, whereas they arrived from his field in a couple of hours.
So it seems that how the product is handled after picking is perhaps as important than what goes on before.
I suspect that it is more true with something like meat. After all I’ve kept animals for years and know that the better you treat them the better they perform. Or in the case of food animals, does that mean taste?
So where you know about the provenance of the animal and can trust the farmer are you getting a better and perhaps a more humanely kept product. After all organic means that some drugs used for medicinal purposes are banned. Is that humane?
So when I read this report in The Times yesterday, my cynicism was increased.
This says that a study by Professor Benton of Leeds University has shown that organic farms are not necessarily the best for wildlife.
The research found that organic farms had, on average, 12 per cent more biodiversity in terms of the number and variety of plants, birds, earthworms and insects. But the yield from organic fields was 55 per cent lower than from conventional fields growing similar crops in the same areas. While there were more plants and butterflies on organic farms, there was no difference in the number of bees and there were 30 per cent more hoverflies on conventional farms.
Organic fields contained more magpies and jays but 10 per cent fewer small birds such as yellowhammers, corn buntings, linnets, skylarks and lapwings. The researchers found that the larger birds, which were attracted to organic farms by their denser patches of woodland, were scaring away the smaller birds and preying on their nests.
It is all very interesting.
One point Professor Benton said was that greater benefits were detected where there were clusters of organic farms. That I would understand as in the studlands of Newmarket, there appears to be a much greater diversity than on ordinary agricultural land. That is also because horses are such inefficient grazers and leave lots for hares and deer.
Hideous Underwear
My late wife discovered expensive underwear late in life and I often bought her bras and knickers from the web. I also buy all my pants that way, usually from Figleaves, as I can never find anything that fits me properly in the average shop. They’re either too big, uncomfortable or the wrong colour. If they’re not what I want I can always change them.
I had an e-mail a couple of days ago, announcing a new range called Lascivious. Not for me I hasten to add.
But!
I’ve never seen anything that looks so ugly, impractical and very expensive for a long time. It even looks bad on the attractive model.
If a lady undressed in front of me in the Milla contraptions, I would go into uncontrolled laughter.
What Elans are for!
Although the Elan limped home from Holland on Sunday, it is now fit and very well. Should it be he, she or it? Incidentally, the refitting of the gear-box cable, replacement of two instrument panel lights, a quick check on all wearable parts and a very good valet cost just £84. Perhaps a very good reason to buy an old Lotus Elan.
Last night, I wanted to go to London to do some shopping and have supper with my middle son. My youngest son, wanted a car, so he needed the Jaguar, so despite the forecast of rain, I took the Elan and parked it in Blackhorse Road for the Underground. As an aside here, if they want to encourage people to use public transport, why do they still charge £3.50 to use the car-park at the station at all times of the day? That applies even if you park at five in the afternoon, when the car-park is half-empty.
I was raining hard, but the M11 wasn’t that busy, so I did push it a bit. But there wasn’t really any standing water, so the journey was safe. But does every car handle as nimbly and well in the rain? Visibility is very good and the wipers create a clear screen, although perhaps not quite as clear on the Jaguar. But then the car is a twenty-year-old design! An hour after leaving home and I was in the car park at Blackhorse Road.
The return journey was clear and without incident. I was also listening to the football on the radio in the car. Not the original, I should say, that wasn’t the best because of the plastic body, but a new SONY, that seems to work well in all conditions. I can even get BBC Radio 5 on the other side of the North Sea in Holland.
I may have had my problems in the last year, but if I want to feel really alive and get a lift, I just get in the Elan and drive.
That’s Elans they are for!
Two Lemons for Asda
This must be one of the silliest health and safety stories in recent years.
Chris Pether, a retired oil-worker from Aberdeen, was refused permission to buy two loose lemons, because it was felt that he might throw them at others.
In the end he made two separate purchases.
Queues in Sainsburys
I went to Sainsburys last night to get a few things, so that I could experiment for my party on Sunday. Now, this is nothing against Sainsburys in particular and I know they have the system in some of their stores, but it is so much easier shopping with the QwikCheck system, that I use in Waitrose.
The queues at the check-out were to be avoided. The girl at the check-out I had could have been a clone for “Computer Says No!”
I was also worried that their gluten-free offerings were worse and fewer in number than the last time I went.
But is this because there has been so much publicity lately about how to cook without gluten and now that a lot of food is so much better labelled?
A Freezer from John Lewis
Eighteen months ago I bought a new freezer from John Lewis. It had a few moments, probably caused because I didn’t shut it properly, but everything inside was ruined.
The service man called and was charming, even though he knew that it was probably my fault.
But the best thing about the response from John Lewis was that they paid out for the food inside and the cheque arrived within five days of submitting the claim!
We hear so many stories of bad service, I think that sometimes we ought to post when it’s good! No very good!
Guess where I’ll be buying any appliances I need. In fact, since I bought the freezer, I’ve bought a bread maker, a microwave, a digital camera and a toaster from the same group.
The Anonymous Widower 