I’m not quite sure where time goes in the morning. Today, for example, I had set my alarm for a reasonable 8.00. Okay, I did snooze it but then I got up and ran round the village, trying to get back into my routine which has been severely disrupted in recent weeks by weather and by family events going on here and there.
So I got up and ran, stopping at the local co-op to purchase a few things, the idea being to decrease the list of stuff I would need to buy from the supermarket ready to feed the family on Christmas Day. So far, so good! I returned home, had a shower, dressed in normal clothes, organised a few things and eventually had breakfast. Suddenly the morning was half over. But I suppose I had achieved number of things.
My daughter had offered to take me to the supermarket, or at least to meet me there, part of her insistence that I should not carry heavy loads on the bus! So I called her to arrange to do that tomorrow morning. However, she then suggested meeting today and going, not to my local Tesco but to the larger Sainsbury’s near her house. I could hop on a bus to her house. Well, it sounded like a plan!
However, there were a few errands we needed to do on a local retail park, also near her house. But eventually we arrived at Sainsbury’s. Now, I am really averse to huge unfamiliar supermarkets, where it is impossible to locate the stuff you always buy, even when you remember to take your list with you. And I did have my list and I was quite efficient at finding stuff but there were some things they simply did not have! I was growing a little frustrated and grumpy! But how can a large supermarket not have any baking apples? Why is their mincemeat - for my speciality Christmas mincemeat cheesecake - only available with added brandy or whisky?
In the end we did stop at the smaller Tesco supermarket on our way home and there I located the items I had not found in the larger Sainsbury’s!
But that was most of my afternoon slipping away, rather as the morning had done.
I read somewhere long ago that time speeds up as you grow older, or at any rate your perception of it does so. This is why school summer holidays were so much longer when we were pupils than when we were teachers?
Tomorrow I will undoubtedly snooze my alarm again. I shall spend some of the day planning menus, some of it making sure all my parcels are wrapped ready for Santa to leave them under the tree, and a large part of it simply relaxing!
In my organising and tidying today I found a mystery parcel wrapped in newspaper on a window ledge. Without opening it I recognised that this was an item my daughter-in-law has purchased at a local charity shop on Saturday morning, intended as a gift for a friend. She is very good at finding treasure in charity shops, and it seems she is good at putting stuff in a safe place and forgetting it. I texted her. We considered posting it but decided it can wait until next we meet.
A friend of mine, a former colleague, is a great aficionado of craft beer and specialist ales. Here is a disgruntled comment he posted this morning:
“Part time Christmas drinkers in pubs now, clogging up the thoroughfares for all the very fine people who’ve been supporting pubs all year long.”
So it goes. The season of good will calls for tolerance all round.
We could do with some of that all over the world.
Donald Trump is still trying to annex Greenland. He has appointed the governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, as US special envoy to Greenland. Landry, a former state attorney general who took office as Louisiana governor in January 2024, thanked Trump, saying it was “an honour to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the US”.
Greenland is understandably not pleased!
A sink hole has appeared in a canal in Llangollen. People in narrow boats had a narrow escape.
Mayhem continues in Gaza.
The main item on the radio news, though, is the death of singer/songwriter Chris Rea, at the age of 74. No doubt sad for those who knew and loved him but hardly the top item in today’s news!
Hey! Ho!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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