Do Tinned Artichokes Make You Rich?
I’ve just looked up the richest women in the UK.
I was once in Waitrose in Newmarket and one of the top ten was buying lots of tinned artichokes.
Is there a connection?
Problems with Genius Bread
I like the Genius gluten-free bread, as the texture seems to be just right for me. It also makes very good toast, which I like to have with proper jam or marmelade. I suppose, I’ve been eating it for perhaps a year, since it started to be stocked in Waitrose in Newmarket.
But I’ve been having problems with it lately, in that it tends to grow a spotty mould after only a couple of days, so I have to throw it away. This probably started a couple of months ago.
I thought that it might be me, but then I use the same bread bin as I did in Suffolk, I keep the bread properly wrapped, when I’ve cut it for the first time. I also thought it could be the air in London, which hasn’t been of too high a quality since about CHristmas.
But then in Waitrose in Upper Street, Islington, when I was reaching for a new loaf, a lady was doing the same. So I asked her, if she’d had a problem with the bread and she said yes.
I did report it in store at Customer Services to an assistant, who seemed to know the product well as she said she had a wheat intolerance.
So is this a temporary problem or something more serious?
The Duchess Goes Shopping
Waitrose must be laughing their heads off, with all the pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge in their store in Menai Bridge in papers like the Mail. They won’t get an advert like that, for under a seven figure sum.
This country has problems and we won’t solve them without a bit of feel good factor. Let’s hope that the Duke and Duchess can provide it.
Getting Musks Sausages in London
I like my sausages and they have to be gluten-free. But finding my preferred brand of Musks in London is difficult. It used to be that you could buy them in some Waitrose shops and I definitely saw some in Canary Wharf. But after a trip on Friday especially to the shop, they were no longer there.
I could get them mail order, but really I only like to buy a pack occasionally and don’t want to buy a freezer full.
So does anybody know a shop that sells Musks gluten-free sausages in London.
I can get Black Farmer ones in Sainsburys at Upper Street, but although I like them, I prefer the Musks, as they are not so filling.
Update on the 10th March 2011 – I’ve found some in the Brunswick Branch. The only trouble is that that is an expensive Waitrose to visit, as I can’t resist buying a snack or even lunch in the Carluccio’s there.
London Takes Charge of One of its Lost Sons
There are cities, mega-cities and then there is London, a unique blend of people, races, buildings, transport systems and history.
Today the city of my birth and most of ancestors took control and welcomed me back and protected me.
The first thing I did was go and get my copy of The Times and have a coffee in the local Deli. I’ve never been able to do this before at any time of my life. But the Deli was selling smoked salmon from the Butley Oysterage in Suffolk,so my adopted county was making its presence felt. If only the rest of the country had only half as much get up and go as London and Suffolk have we wouldn’t be having a recession.
Also in the morning I registered at my new doctor’s. No problems at all and very different to when registration last happened twenty years ago. I should say that there was one small problem in that I forgot to take the urine sample I’d provided in the morning. But even that was quickly solved by a two-hundred metre walk home from the surgery to collect it and a quick walk back. My short term memory may be suffering, but I’ll get it back, by practice.
I then took a bus to St. Paul’s and took a few pictures on the so-called Wobbly Bridge, which is one of my favourite structures.
I then walked through to Carluccio’s in Smithfield to have some lunch.
And then London sent me an angel in the form of a female oriental banker, who’d just arrived in the UK, who was exploring before starting work in the New Year. We chatted for a minute or so and then she asked if there was anything to see in this part of London on a very cold day. So I showed her the wife market description in the meat market, St. Bartholomew the Great, Bart’s Hospital and then the Museum of London. I can still see my sons performing in the Nativity play at the church and my mother-in-law in the hospital after having her heart valve replaced.
We then walked through the city to Leadenhall market before having a glass of mulled wine in a pub. She then went home from Bank and I walked through the city back to the Barbican and the Waitrose in Whitecross Street. When we lived in Cromwell Tower, there were no supermarkets in the area. But it was a pleasure to be in an area with so many happy memories. Luckily we were away for the weekend when the Moorgate tube crash, which killed nearly fifty, happened.
The Waitrose there though is in some ways more homely and much less crowded than those at the Angel or the Holloway Road, but it had everything I needed and it was only a short walk away from the bus home, which ran on a much less crowded route to a stop just a hundred metres from my home.
So thank you London! Thanks also go to my charming companion for a lovely couple of hours in the afternoon.
The Organised Shopper
I am one of that rare breed, a man who actually likes shopping. But then so did my father! Especially, when he had money. He didn’t always.
As a 10-year-old, I used to trail my mother’s wicker trolley round perhaps a kilometre to Williams Brothers on Cockfosters Road to get the weekly shop. The only item I can remember with a price is a leg of New Zealand lamb at 15 shillings. In those days the shop paid a reward in fake money, which was a bit like a Co-op divi or the reward points offered by most supemarkets these days in one form or another.
When I lived in Suffolk, I always used a store with their Quick Check facility, so that I could be in and out as fast as possible. I also packed the bags so that everything came out in an order, that meant putting things away quicer too. My nightmare was having a recheck as this meant that nothing was in the right place and putting things away took twice the time.
Now that I am in London I have easy access to two Waitrose branches; Angel, Islington and Jones Brothers. I’m afraid that corner site on the Holloway Road will always be Jones Brothers to me, as it was one of first department stores I encountered as a child, along with Pearsons in Enfield. Pearsons had one of those central tills, with wires and cash carriers leading to all the service desks. Well-behaved children were allowed to send the money on its way, by pulling the chain.
But neither of these Waitrose branches has Quick Check, which means I have to endure the queues at the checkout. Yesterday, I was told to go to the checkout in order by one of the store’s staff, only to find, that some oick about thirty-five buying bottles of expensive booze had taken my space. He then accused me of queue jumping. I’ve never done that deliberately and now after the stroke, I always wait to make sure I don’t do it inadvertently. I ended up delaying the whole queue, as it took me a couple of minutes to organise everything.
So you can see why I want a Quick Check store, as not only do I get everything packed up as I go, but I can take my time properly to fulfil the list, I’ve written. There is a small point here, in that I like a trolley with a list holder, as I only have one 100% hand, with the left at about eighty on a good day.
So this morning, I’ve been on Waitrose’s web site, to try to find a branch nearby or on one of the seven or so bus routes that stop within a hundred metres of my house, that has Quick Check. Waitrose’s branch search is bad and won’t even show me which branches are close to my post code. So you have to bring up all the individual London branches and see if they have the facility. There is a link which says it will find those branches with Quick Check, but it just points you to the main search page, which gets me back to the proverbial and useless square one.
There is also one other thing I want from a supermarket. And that is a map of the store, showing what is in each of aisles. Not in great detail, but sufficient so that I casn logically progress round the store without being ambushed, if I write what I need on it. It’s one of the reasons, I only use Tesco, when they are only place I can get something. Every store is disorganised deliberately, so you end up passing many things you don’t need or even want. And to make it worse finding the Free From section in Tescos usually means checking the whole store. I never ask, as that wastes my time.
These maps could be available for printing off the Internet, so that all the shopping is organised before I leave home.
I suppose I could shop on line, but then I don’t get to choose the fish or vegetables I want.
I’m also looking for a square back-pack, so that I can carry things home easier.
Genius at the Angel, Islington
It has been increasingly difficult to buy Genius bread in Suffolk lately. But there was plenty in the small gluten-free section at Waitrose at the Angel. So I brought one back for my breakfast.
A Simple Gluten-Free Lunch
I usually cook myself, but I am rather partial to Waitrose’s Tiffins for one. They come in a box and all you do is pierce the film and put them in the oven for twenty minutes.
Waitrose Tiffin-for-one
They will just about stretch for two people, unless of course the other is Billy Bunter.
I have found that since my last stroke, they also clear out my mouth as well and make it taste fresher.
The only trouble today, was that I had to share my meal with the large number of accursed flies that were around.
Like most proper Indian food, they are gluten-free as wel and suitable for coeliacs like me.
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.
An Inappropriate Delivery from Waitrose?
Because I can’t drive at the moment, I ordered a load of stuff from Waitrose. There was no problem, but they felt that they’d send me a promotion – A new Hovis loaf!
I suppose I have to be grateful for small mercies.
The Anonymous Widower 