grocery shopping

I got up bright and early yesterday morning (around eight – that’s almost like getting up at dawn for me!) and spent some time ripping CDs and crocheting squares for a blanket. At around lunchtime we went into town to do the grocery shopping. This may not seem like a big deal, but for me (and hubby) it really is. Since it is such a big deal, I thought I would share some insight.

First of all, the bus. We went out to wait for the bus and it was slightly late as usual. The only other person waiting for the bus (who was already at the stop when we arrived) insisted that we board first so we thanked him. The journey into town, though, was a complete nightmare. The driver wouldn’t wait for older and less able passengers to sit down before pulling away from the stop, was driving too fast and breaking too hard. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he allowed three pushchairs on the bus, when regulations state that any more than two must be folded away neatly. One of the mothers was talking loudly on her mobile phone for a large portion of the journey while her little (three-year-old?) boy screamed and repeatedly pressed the stop button as his father(?) tried frantically to control him. The boy actually jumped off the bus and ran down the road while we were stopped at one stop. I was relieved to get off the bus!

We got off the bus two stops before our usual stop because we had to go to the railway station to pick up some tickets we had booked online for our youngest, who will be travelling to London to go to a concert with her older sister next week. It is a long way up the hill to the train station when you are in pain, which I was, so by the time we got halfway back into town we had to sit down; I just couldn’t walk any further. Fortunately, there was a bench to sit on that the council haven’t removed. We sat for a while before continuing into town and to the bank. We then went on to Smiths to look at the magazines and I found an interesting one (more on that here). I then went into Superdrug to get us a bottle of water each. That is our routine; bank, Smiths, Superdrug.

Then I remembered that I needed to pick up a card, so we went back up to the little card shop next to the bank for that before heading over to Tesco to pick up some lunch. I was quite hungry by this point, so when the fire alarm went I was really quite annoyed. To say I was pissed off would be a huge understatement. We had put most of our lunch in the shopping basket when staff started asking customers to leave. There are offices above Tesco and we had to walk through the office workers outside the library. I overheard a snippet of conversation that displeased me even further; the fire alarm had apparently been set off by a practical joke gone wrong. I was fuming. We both needed to eat desperately and so needed to decide quickly where we were going to do that and get there. I was in a lot of pain and starting to feel faint and hubby was feeling strange since his blood sugar was low and he is diabetic. We decided to save time by splitting up; he went to the health food shop for a health-kick onion bhaji and gluten-free pasty and I went to Reeves for a sausage roll and cheese straw. We met on a bench near reeves and ate too quickly.

Once we had eaten and rested and taken our medications, I had to go over to the doctors surgery/pharmacy to pick up our prescriptions. These were heavy and since hubby had decided to look in a bookshop while I was running (haha) this errand, I had to carry it back to meet him. Then it was time to shop for groceries.We went to Sainsburys first to pick up a few items that we can’t get in Tesco, and then went on to Tesco. The fire alarm had stopped and people were shopping as normal so in we went. They have recently reorganised the fruit and veg section so we spent about fifteen minutes looking around for the veg we wanted for the chilli we had planned. Unable to find the courgettes, we asked for assistance. The lady was very friendly, but talked far too much. They didn’t appear to have any courgettes in stock so we will make do without them. The pain in my legs and back by this point was verging on excruciating, but you can’t exactly sit down in the middle of the supermarket, so we carried on. I said hello to a young man I used to work with who was shopping with his wife and he seemed a bit surprised to see me. Maybe it’s because my weight has increased by approximately sixty per cent since he last saw me. Then again, he always did have a strange manner so maybe he wasn’t surprised at all. Who knows?

Having finished collecting the groceries, we went to the till and paid, but had to engage in small talk with the lady on the till who knows me from when I used to work in her local pub. She and her husband are very nice people, but it annoys me that every time I see her she comments on my walking not improving enough to get rid of the walking stick. I wish people would remember and stop asking/making comments like that. Still, she liked my yarn bombing.

Having packed the bags to the best of my ability, hubby put the rucksack on his back and took the heavier of the two hand-held bags and I took the lighter bag and his books and returned the trolley. I hate this particular task because the trolley return area is sloped from the store towards the pavement and the trolleys are lined up parallel with the store and the pavement. That therefore puts a strain on my legs to turn the trolley out of the door and keep it straight while I plug it into the nearest one to retrieve the pound coin. It hurt.

We then trekked – and I really do mean trekked, since it seems so much further to walk when you’re in pain and have heavy shopping bags to carry – across town to the bus stop to get home. There was a bus waiting when we got there and thankfully the disabled seats hadn’t been taken so we sat. As soon as my bottom hit the seat, the driver pulled out. This driver also wouldn’t wait for older and less able passengers to sit down before pulling away from the stop, and an older lady very nearly fell on hubby’s lap – probably would have done if he hadn’t had the rucksack on his lap and didn’t have such quick reactions that he managed to push her onto the chair in front of us. He apologised for man-handling her and she said it was fine and thanked him for saving her fall. The driver also drove too fast and braked too hard. I was a nervous wreck by the time we got off the bus, and I struggled to walk the short distance from the bus stop to our front door.

Although we were now home, my job was far from over. I still had to unpack the bags and put the shopping away. I started with the groceries in the kitchen, then made a cup of tea and went through to the living room to empty my shoulder bags and put them away before I could sit down. This took me approximately twenty minutes. By the time I sat down I was absolutely exhausted. I really needed to put my feet up for a while, but hubby was sat next to me with his puzzle board on his lap so this was not possible. So I waited forty-five minutes until he was ready to call the kids down for their tea and then put my feet up. It was pure bliss. If it hadn’t been for my magazine and my crochet, I probably would have shut myself in our bedroom for an hour just to cope with the ordeal that our shopping trip had been.

I hope you have found this insight helpful or got from it whatever it is that you had in mind. Thank you for popping along to read this and I do hope you will come back again soon 🙂