Yesterday I stumbled the long way round to Tesco. On the way I passed an Arab stall selling bread and cakes of a Mediterranean persuasion which I like. So, having clambered about Tesco's upstairs dept looking for a small frying pan so I can avoid using the big one all the time, I found one for £3:50, and handing over my money to a nice young lass at the counter I then sped towards the Arab.
Naturally, she was not an Arab but an Albanian! This she explained warily half expecting me to be a right wing thug I expect. I explained that in Israel I took to the sweet cakes found in that area, hence the weight, and loved the bread on offer.
Pleasantly she bagged up the bread, cakes and other bread stuff who's name I forget, and cheerfully asked for £11. I love this stuff but it is pricey. I will be back Saturday to see if she has returned.
The Albanian cakes were of the heavy type, but I managed, but the bread had a hard crust. So hard that I struggled to get the knife through it and you can imagine what my teeth thought about this. This means I must check to see if the other types of bread are there Saturday, I will try them and please what is left of my teeth.
I was confused by her hijab wearing, that's what made me think she was Arabic, and I was left wondering what the local Englishman would know about Albania? Those now doing time for rioting would know of France, Spain and the USA but I wonder if they understand the Balkans?
Do you remember this book about that? Alev travelled around the Balkans, Greece and Turkey discovering how history, war and family had been affected by life over a few hundred years. Maybe she missed Albania but the idea is the same. I suspect most here would only consider gangsters as coming from Albania, not sweet cakes.
It is difficult to see the Albanian cakes as expensive while shopping at a supermarket that has seen 30% increase in profits in recent years. I read somewhere the details of all supermarkets raising the price on the 'shops own' stuff as they knew the poorest would go for them. I remember that in 2008 while Gordon Brown fought Rishi Sunak and others killing banks to make a killing tins of beans, costing 9p were raised to 20p in both Tesco and Sainsburys. Clearly working together to rip us off.
This continues today.
