Hi Everyone
I think the first part of my blog this week is perhaps mainly of interest to my male Rubbish readers. For those of us approaching middle age shopping is way below football, Amazon, sleeping in the afternoon, and almost anything else I can think of is more interesting than shopping. I have as many shirts, even though I cannot fasten the top button on many of them any more, anoraks, trousers, assuming they do not pose the same problem as the shirts, shoes, bodywarmers etc. to last me into the next century. The only possible things I need are socks and underpants but at this stage in my life they seem to get replenished on my birthday or at Christmas. On the other hand wives, partners and Main Contractors have this compulsive desire to shop or perhaps a more suitable word is browse. How often do you see a bored looking man dutifully trailing behind a browser? This week the Main Contractor had a wonderful day browsing in at least ten shops. At least I clocked up the step count on my smart watch as none of these shops provide a seat for the weary partner except a shoe shop where they have to provide seats so that you can try your shoes on. One shop however was a rare exception when a savvy shop owner directed me to a comfortable chair as soon as I walked through the door. I am not sure if she felt sorry for me or not but it guaranteed The Main Contractor a longer browsing opportunity. The good news is that the result of our exciting day browsing was that we arrived home safely with a pie and two lamb chops.
There is no chance of browsing in the Fruit, Vegetable, Flower, Game and Lolly shop. If a small queue formed in the shop the Senior Partner would make sure that every customer had potatoes in their hessian bag so that however long they had to wait, there was no escape. If I was dragged into action together with the future Main Contractor who was expected to help free of charge, of course, we were the reluctant potato staff. We were both expected to serve potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and turnips but when it came to green vegetables and fruit, the Senior Partner would insist on taking over. My thinking was that if I could serve some items, I could serve them all so I would tell the Senior Partner in front of a full shop that she could carry on with her customers and that I would carry on with mine. For the next half hour, you could cut the atmosphere with a knife until the shop emptied when I would be in serious trouble. Unfortunately for the Senior Partner, I was not prepared to compromise, while the Junior Partner, as usual, did not take sides which frustrated the Senior Partner even more. Happy days.
One of the last events in the Olympic games is the women's marathon. To just get there you have to be one of the nation's best at any of the sports. Because of the mainly African runners, the chances of a medal are slim but it is still probably the pinnacle of their sporting life. One of our ladies suffered a stress fracture in her leg in the first two miles but carried on to complete the 26+ miles in considerable pain. As she said, under normal circumstances she would have stopped but this was the Olympics and there was no way she was not going to finish. Even then she finished in less than three hours. So no medal for this brave lady, but she deserved one.
Just a Thought:
I see it, I like it, I want it, I check the price, I put it back.
Shopping is cheaper than therapy.
Running is for people who aren't intelligent enough to watch television. (Sorry son).
Brian
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