Shop!

I got out again today!  I had been given a lift into the kirk yesterday, a great help, and this morning I wandered around Sainsburys before visiting the excellent Beaumont's butchers shop in Bank Street.   I needed to fill the freezer with sausages and this shop actually puts meat as well as herbs and honey into them.  In short they actually feed you!  Expensive, but well worth it in the end.  A friendly couple run it, most other shoppers were friendly also, and stocked up for a week or two with most things means I now have to check what money is left.  oops, that's not good...

Sad to say I have spent far too much time on Twitter 'liking' and 'retweeting' posts regarding England's welcome humiliation in Berlin.  The reaction of the English fans has encouraged an outpouring of joy in Scotland, Wales and the whole of Ireland, not counting Belfast obviously.  

Great relief in knowing we will hot have another 60 years of 'We won this,' from the English media, always ignoring the 'The ball did not cross the line,' response.  Cheating is OK it appears if you are English.

The Welsh in particular enjoyed the honorary president of the English Football Association, 'the 'Prince of Wales,' as he and his son suffered the defeat with due care and attention.  You may grin here...

Having continued this morning to Tweet voraciously for an hour or so I then began to attend to other chores.  First the shopping, then chatting to the landlords man, then back to checking the 'We always loved Spain,' tweets. 

I noticed only one lass on duty in Sainsburys, and not the usual one.  Staff appeared missing.  They say many have not arrived home or attended work, though traffic is moving around.  Indeed there were no obvious sirens to be heard last night, it appears even 'Weatherspoon's' folk did not destroy the town.  I saw no evidence of that this morning.  

Isn't it funny how a game can have an affect on us all?

In ancient Rome it was chariot races that got people going, in particular the sides of 'Blue' or 'Green.'  These could lead to mass rioting in cities and much destruction.  Was it in Milan that one governor locked rioters in a stadium and set the army to slaughter 5000 of them with the sword?  I think Bishop Ambrose was irked by this if memory is correct.

We need a side to belong to, and this can build us up and support us.  It can also divide, as Trump and Nigel prove to our cost.  It is very easy to say 'They are your problem.'  Many will believe.  The tribal support can be good of course.  A small or large town which ahs a team playing in a cup final will find almost the entire town is up for the cup!  Grannies and disinterested will take note and support.  The whole town then suffers despair or joy at the result.  Each one sharing the emotional response of all others.  This is good.  On occasion it can be bad, riots occur in many nations at football results, and often domestic abuse results in the home.  Of course what the media ignores is the fact that a third of such abuse comes from females on men, but that does not sell papers nor fit the story feminists wish to force upon us. 

It is of course better wars are decided by playing football rather than bombing one another, but this is not always possible.  Wars have indeed been begun by football but maybe this is a better way to deal with oppressors?  

Anyway, now I have many friends on Twitter, many Welsh, Irish and Scots friends I never knew before.  Football does indeed bring us together.

Having seen an opportunity  a chance to escape his busy work in Clacton Nigel has rushed to the USA to succour his friend Trump.  Obviously he is not seeking instructions as to what to do next in destroying democracy, this is a mere chance to meet a friend, and find out what is in this for him.  The people of Clacton will not be surprised surely?  They did not vote for an MP, they voted for a charlatan because they liked the ide he proposed.  Surely they did not expect this to work?  Surely they did not expect him to work, he has never done this before?  No, they just followed an ideology with no foundation because it spoke to them.  There is no reason to believe they expected Nigel to actually work for them.

Freezer Foods

 

I've never had a freezer like this before, packed to the gunnels (whatever they are) with meat!  The ageing freezer has been full but usually with routine things, often not doing what they say they will do on the packet.  I especially like the lie 'Serves Two,' when there is barely enough for one.  Possibly the £50,000 a year marketing junior who scribbles this is a 6 stone lassie who considers a fish finger 'filling.'  Such 'meals' I have tried and remain convinced they would feed people if they added food to them.  However, for me the next few days feeding looks quite good, if I remember to take things from the freezer of course.

Early this morning I joined the queue at the butchers, one of the few shops open and very busy, where the minted lamb chops and the Xmas chicken, the far to many sausages, were joined by a pack of bacon bought to avoid disruption after December 31st when the Danish bacon no longer arrives.

Then she asks for the cash!

I fainted!

However, Now I have cut it up, bagged it all, filled the freezer and feel guilty in having all this when others have so little.  I know what it is like to have nothing in the freezer bar a bag of chips and some mince, so guilt at my enormous chow wagon upsets me.   

I might get more guilt from that bottle of rum later...

 

Christmas is going to be hard this year for many.  Numbers see their family only at Yuletide and naturally this will not happen for the majority now, though some will break the rules.  A lot of older types who cannot make use of a laptop and who fail to comprehend 'Zoom' for instance (Good on them I say) along with many who understand such things but cannot afford to possess one may well find Christmas Day hard with little means of contact.  

In fact the local Salvation Army used to do Christmas Day dinners for such as wanted them but that will not be possible now.  No way they can get together, I suspect some will be sorry about that.  

Caesaromagus

As part of the Christmas shop I joined the happy throng in Caesaromagus this lunchtime.  I had intended to go to the wee town of Great Dunmow and search the Oxfam shop there, rich town rich pickings, but the bus for Caesaromagus came in and I hopped on.  I was going to go there on Monday anyway as Waterstone's Bookshop was my aim.  
So sitting in the sun drenched, not quite zimmer, bus we toddled along through the Essex countryside, green and pleasant, with a mass of greenery to be seen all around from the top deck.  How lovely to get out of town and see distant woods and fields resting for the winter, some of course were still producing green things of various shapes and other the green that comes form having been harvested and prepared for the next round of farming.
The city was crowded, the stalls in the centre joined by a Frank Sinatra imitator sitting on a pedestal accompanied by his big band produced by a tape deck and a loud speaker, not too shabby was he.  At the far end a chap was playing a steel drum kit extremely well also and I wondered if they had licensed the music offerings in the town centre, there were no Bob Dylan clones to be seen.
One or two of what we now must call 'homeless' were to be seen, one sat Muslim prayer style before his empty coffee cup, another had laid out lots of kids toys for sale, though where he got them from is unknown.  
It was almost a summer like scene the day very warm and winter still only threatened for later in the week.  I worked my way through the disappearing number of charity shops and trudged all the way to the far end of the centre to find a one time cheap charity shop now charged huge prices for old goods.  We have become used to some doing that but it is a sad day when they all turn out this way.

The Waterstone's staff were as efficient and cheery as always happily letting me buy three grossly expensive book vouchers while smiling all the time.  I bet she is on a bonus!  The staff were helpful and I found the other day when shopping that was the case in many places in town so I did something about it.  On the local facebook page I put up a post suggesting folks spoke f the good service in various shops and many people jumped in to do just that.  Far too many spend their time miserable and moaning about things but here there was a good response to those who gave good service.  Grasping my vouchers, neatly placed in small envelopes for me along with the myriads of paper bits I made my way through the town.
I had been looking for the charity shops for items relating to our Tuesday show day where we have to dress up.  This appears easy for the women as they have an abundance of offerings at home,  I however as a mere man have to work at this.  One item only I bought, a maroon bow tie, on a stretchy cord, for £2:99 was a bargain from the Caesaromagus Oxfam shop, a place with more bargains than their expensive Bookshop round the corner!  Again the service was pleasant.
Having done all I could I ventured into the cathedral where the bell ringers were giving it laldy high above.  Either they were practising or they were drunk on communion wine, I was not sure which but the sound was continuous for a very long time.  Amazingly the place was deserted, in the middle, possibly to drown out the noise from the bells, a lass was heaving a hoover across the huge empty floor while a man began carrying chairs ready for the next day.  It looked tiring work so I made my way out again.

My last task in the ever warming day was another trip through the indoor market.  On the way there I passed the Essex County Council building which features one block that was built between 1919 and 1939.  Interestingly just above the doorway we find these swastika features.  Part of the decoration that runs around the building.  It was queried a couple of years ago why these were created at that time, Hitler having come to power in 1933, yet no answer has been forthcoming.  It may be a coincidence, possibly a mason had a Moseley like tendency but we may never know.  Nothing has been done about removing them and so far no-one else has complained.  Boris probably admires them...
In the market I collected my chicken bits from the butcher, his vegetarian sausages (he says they contain meat) and then I bought three huge chunks of cheese as I was tempted by the sight of so much on offer.  The nurse did say that time I miss drop cheese but really she is trying to kill me, I must have cheese or I die!  So I bought some including some black 'carob' filled cheese.  The woman said no-one had died from eating it, yet if they had would she know...?

On my way to the bus early this morning I met a lady saying "Excuse me."  Normally I would answer but I know this woman.  Sadly she is mentally ill and once before stopped to ask for 'a penny.'  It took a moment to realise all was not well.  Recently the facebook page has had a long tale of her knocking on doors late at night asking directions or for money.  This has worried some women who were alone at the time.  It worried one mum who discovered she offered to 'toss off her 15 year old  son for £5' an offer we are sadly not able to conform or deny nor to know whether he accepted the offer or not. A later post claimed she wanted £15, a 15 would find it cheaper elsewhere.  Today I made use of a passing mum with pushchair to avoid answering this oriental lady and hastened towards the bus ashamed both of my cowardice and inability to know what to say or do for her.  She is known to the police, probably has some sort of care somewhere but this leaves me guilty about doing nothing and having no idea how to handle the situation.
Helpfully have spent all my money and was seated on top of the bus for the return journey my steaming debit card smouldering in my pocket only one other passenger came upstairs. He sat on the other front seat and proceeded to talk to himself all the way home.  He also had clear problems, possibly from birth but somehow I suspected brain damage from an accident, and I thought it might be a sign of some sort.  I was very wary when once home and piling my new debts on the desk I opened my e-mail very carefully indeed.  You never know what some loon might send me...
Christmas shop almost done...