Londoners Are Wimps About Shopping!
This morning I needed a few things at Waitrose, so I did what C and I used to do in Suffolk. I went to the store at the Angel early about an hour after it opened. It was very uncrowded. In Suffolk, half the population would have been there, as they all generally getup early.
But obviously they don’t in London. Coming back, the bus had about five passengers.
Cinderella Is My Friend
Most Sundays, I go South and East from where I live to Canary Wharf, the Thames or Greenwich. Today was no exception, as I wanted to see the new roof on Canary Wharf Crossrail station and get a bit of shopping in the excellent Waitrose at Canary Wharf.
Today, I picked up the Docklands Light Railway at Shadwell, as I often do.
I’ve referred to this line as Cinderella before, as in the current vogue for grand railways and other schemes, she seems to get forgotten, as she trundles passengers reliably around the East of London, giving superb views of the canals, docks and buildings, both old and new.
But then she is like me; a London mongrel, with an ancestry from all over the place. The railway was born out of the need for to create a transport system on the cheap. The trouble is, that the engineers and staff, felt that despite the budget, they could create something special.
And they did!
They’ve now even created audio guides to each line, as this poster advertises.
Advertising The DLR Audio Guides
I don’t think they’d work so well for the Underground.
Cinderella just has so much to show you!
And where else can kids of all ages, play at driving the trains? Copenhagen and Turin.
But why oh why, is there not another use of the technology in the UK or the wider world? I just think, Cinderella isn’t sexy enough for the great and good. But then she’ll still be here, when all of the current bunch of idiots are pushing up the daisies.
Only In Waitrose In Islington
I couldn’t help noticing the carrots in the Waitrose in Islington.
Only In Waitrose In Islington
Perhaps, though the idea worked as I bought two!
I’ve seen carrots stacked neatly in places like India and Africa, but never in the UK.
Searching For A Genius Loaf
I generally have a soft brown, Genius loaf in the bread bin and today, I threw the remains of the last one out, as all I had left was the wrapping and two rather battered crusts.
So as I wanted to get a paper, I thought I’d get a new one at the littleWaitrose at Highbury Corner. But they only had the soft white bread, which would not be my first choice.
I know I can usually get the desired bread at Sainsburys at the Angel, but that would have meant coming back from there in the scrum of the rush hour. so I took the Overground to Dalston Junction, to try to buy the bread at the Co-Operative store at the station.
They did have a loaf, but the sell-by date was not very far away and the loaf felt, as though it was not that fresh.
So I took the bus home.
It’ll teach me not to do all my shopping at a bigger Waitrose like Canary Wharf or Bloomsbury. I don’t think I’ll bother with buying food at that Co-operative again.
My New Shopping Bag
For some years, I’ve used some shopping bags, that were free with Waitrose’s Quick Check system. I no longer use the system and I don’t think it is available, in any of the branches near me. My last bag is on its last legs, but they do seem to work on the dreadful self-service tills at the Angel.They also are an easy one hand carry for my left hand and can generally cope with the biggest daily shop I do.
Yesterday, I was doing some shopping at their Canary Wharf branch and needed to carry it home on the Underground. As I didn’t have a bag with me, I didn’t fancy using a plastic carrier, as they aren’t good when they are full and I’m always frightened, that I’ll end up with shopping all over the tube or the bus. So I asked if they had any bags like the ones I used to use with Quick Check and they found this one at the back of a store.
My New Shopping Bag
I was charged two pounds, but I did get it home safely.
The trouble is it’s not trendy and modern. But it does have a large capacity and it does work well!
Waitrose And Gluten Free Sausages
If I go to Sainsburys or Marks and Spencer, and stick to their own brands, it is difficult to find sausages with unnecessary gluten.
However in Waitrose you have quite the opposite, as all of their own brand ones, have the unnecessary gluten. I don’t like their Cambridge own brand gluten-free sausages, but it may well be the name, as I lived in the home of Musks Newmarket sausages for nearly twenty years.
I don’t do barbecues, but the head sausage maker at Musks told me, that gluten-free sausages don’t spit on one.
Unacceptable Food Waste
Tesco are reporting that large quantities of good food is thrown away. The story is covered here on the BBC.
The problem isn’t that we waste food, but that supermarkets gear us up to buy large quantities of everything in a weekly shop.
I live in the city and although, I do have a mid-sized Sainsburys in walking distance, I prefer to take a bus to the Angel, when I need food.
I generally food shop two or three days at a time, planning what I need.
I use a lot of multi-use food, like Rachel’s yoghurt, that goes on my muesli and also acts as the sauce for my pasta.
I also buy what I need, like a single onion, three bananas or a ready prepared pack of potatoes. Only last week, I found a sandwich-sized pack of salami in Waitrose.
We need more small packs, so we can buy what we need.
As for salads, which is one of the biggest sources of food waste, I rarely eat them at home, but regularly I will have a salad for my lunch in a convenient Carluccio’s. As an example, their mozzarella fusa, which is a meal in itself, is £6.75. It probably isn’t much more expensive than buying the ingredients in a supermarket and making one myself, if you count the amount of food that will be wasted.
in some ways my biggest food shopping problem, is that I have a small badly-designed kitchen, with a fridge sized for a bed-sit, It doesn’t have a freezer, which is downstairs in my garage. This state of affairs, is because Jerry felt an enormous cooker was what was needed and much more important. I had hoped by now, that the kitchen would have been properly rebuilt.
And of course, I still throw away two much food.
Sandwich-Sized Salami From Waitrose
I bought this salami on Friday.
Sandwich-Sized Salami From Waitrose
There was just enough for one gluten-free sandwich.
Ten Reasons I Don’t Like Eastfield
I went to Waitrose in Eastfield this evening, to get some bits and pieces for my supper.
1. The Waitrose there is not for me, as some of the staples I like, like Genius bread never seem to be in stock. I also found out tonight, that it doesn’t have all the small packs of microwaveable vegetables I use.
2. The Marks and Spencer isn’t a patch on the ones in Oxford Street or Finsbury Pavement for food. It doesn’t even stock gluten-free sandwiches, which is rare in a their larger stores.
3. Clothes at Marks and Spencer are probably the normal standard, but unless you get in early in the season, small sizes can be difficult to find.
4. Although, I don’t use it often these days, the Starbucks at Eastfield doesn’t use proper china cups.
5. I went into John Lewis today and it really is a bit small and inferior when compared to the flagship store in Oxford Street.
6. Waitrose and John Lewis are a long way from the main Stratford station.
7. With the exception of Marks and Spencer, I’ve bought no clothing in any of the shops there, as they seem to be almost exclusively aimed at women. The few shops that sell men’s clothes are ones I wouldn’t visit.
8. The only restaurant that I know serves gluten-free food is Jamie’s Italian. Why can’t it have a Carluccio’s like Westfield?
9. As I’m very much a guerilla shopper, who comes, buys what he wants and retreats immediately, the centre is usually too crowded for my liking.
10. In some ways my major gripe is that, if say you want to go anywhere from the main Stratford station, you have to walk through the shopping centre. I always go shopping, when I want to, not when I end up in a shopping centre by accident.
You may think that this has all been very negative.
But I do like the toilets, the only Lakeland near me and the large numbers of cash points.
What’s Wrong with This New Genius Bread?
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve got the new formula Genius bread from the littleWaitrose at Highbury Corner.
What’s Wrong with This New Genius Bread?
It never seems to go off and last night, I had two slices with Benecol to go with my supper. It’s even still soft this morning, although I did toast it.
But the sell-by date was the 27th of July.
Bread shouldn’t last that long! But it does!
The only real problem I have is that the Waitrose I use most at the Angel, only sells their own-brand rubbish!
The Anonymous Widower 