CAN SHOPPING BE AS FUN AS SUPERMARKET SWEEP AND AS DELIGHTFUL AS TODAYS SNOW. DIDNT THINK SO....
Afternoon on this cold and snow-fuelled day, writing at 5pm.
You have just got to love this country. A few flakes of snow fall for the first time in many a moon and the country goes to pot. I love it. There I have been acting the complete kid today marching down main roads throwing snow missiles at my unsuspecting friends and everyone else is stuck at work and moaning.If you look at any other country they seem to be prepared for such onslaughts. The Scandinavians just get in another few packets of biscuits and a fresh bottle of vodka and get prepared for the onslaught. Next day every car, bus, train, aeroplane and any other form of mechanical transport is moving swimmingly and everyone just laughs if off.In Germany, they actually believe their weather forecasters because the Germans are a very paranoid people. Therefore, when the German version of Sian Lloyd stands in front of the television and tells them it is going to snow like crazy on Thursday, it may be surprising news to you all, but the Germans are ready for it. In Switzerland, Austria, France and even Spain- their preparations are better than ours.In America, they are sending sozzled Homer Simpson's up and down every State snowplowing roads and De-freezing rail tracks and runways whenever a snowstorm is expected.Here in the U.K though, we can't even find it in ourselves to believe our weather forecasts to get prepared. Nowadays, the forecasts are pretty accurate compared to the Michael Fish forecasts of the 1980;s. So why are we so surprised to wake up today and see 6 ft of snow in our back gardens.As I write Radio 2 Traffic Girl Sally is on reporting of "travel chaos" and by goodness if I hear one more prat moaning about the elements on TV or radio I will swing for someone. We were warned: we should have been prepared.Anyhow, not letting the elements fail me I went shopping this morning. Now that really was torture. I mean, I cannot think of any task anymore boring, frustrating and damn right annoying than supermarket shopping. It takes an age to find exactly what is on your list, meaning you waste a whole 90 minutes of your life just wandering around like an ostrich. Hands and everything else is flapping as you just want to finish..You always spend more than you really want to. Always. I popped in for eggs, bread and milk today and then decided to do my "main" shop. Now this was Co-op which is one of the most expensive supermarkets around. But I didn't care did I as I went into the "zone"- one where you rush around like you are on Dale Winton's 'Supermarket Sweep', putting everything that is anything on your trolley. Now, fortunately, I do check what I have chucked in my trolley before I approach the checkout- so approx half of the trolley goes back on the shelves. Yet trust me... you always get home with 5-10 goods that you have no reason for having. Today, I bought a pair of gloves- but I already had gloves on at the time. You get the gist.Just when you think that the hell is over you get to the checkout, have to wait a day for the checkout girl to finish her chat with Sue who happens to be the checkout supervisor but never seems to supervise anybody. She just gossips. Shopping in supermarkets is just a real nightmare: worse than watching Pearl Harbour on DVD, or having to spend a day with the Grandmother.No, no, no. Give me the pub. Any day, anytime, anywhere.
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2 comments:
I'll wrap my comments for the last two posts into one.
Why is it the government's fault you aren't allowed to take outside popcorn into the cinema? To blame them and then claim HUMAN RIGHTS when they are the government who finally signed the act into law is bizarre. I'm no lawyer but I'm sure your human rights are not affected by a cinema's restraint of trade, which is what you could possibly sue them for. Although I'm sure it says they don't allow outside food on the ticket and they are allowed to refuse admittance to anyone for any reason they like. Stop blaming the government when something happens you don't like, it makes you sound silly and pathetic.
On the weather, I sort of agree with you but you put your finger on the problem: it snows here (especially like today) once in a blue moon. In fact I think this is the most snow over this area for over 10 years. Its simply a problem of economics. The economic cost of today's disruption was estimated by the British Chamber of Commerce as up to £400m. I'm not sure why they bothered but they did, and it was reported. Its just whether the investment required justifies the cost.
Lets say the £400m happens once every ten years (which I think is an over estimate) and there is less significant disruption amounting to £100m every other year. Over ten years the cost to the economy would be £1300m. Not actually very much. The cost on the other hand of the increased investment to help mitigate (not prevent) the disruption would be colossal.
In places where they have much more snow this is obviously not the case. In Scandinavia and the northern States of the USA, it snows every year, every day in some places. Here life (economic and otherwise) would come to a stand-still without (expensive) measures to prevent it.
By the way Mike if you are going to advocate a Scandinavian type system of social provision and the large increase in taxes this involves I'd love to hear about it.
The other factor to bear in mind (and I know I sound like British Rail here) but it is a fact that our snow is wetter. Because it is always right on the edge of rain/snow, after only a few hours the snow melts and then can start to refreeze etc. This causes all sorts of problems.
For what its worth, at my place of work we made plans on Wednesday for what would happen today, including a colleague to stay at our house which is closer so she could walk in.
Oh crikey.
"Stop blaming the government when something happens you don't like, it makes you sound silly and pathetic".
I made an ironic and sarcastic quip about how Human Rights is overused in today's society (led by the government who actually introduced the legislation) and one cannot seem to find either the argument or indeed the joke. Well get a sense of humour is what I say to you squire.
I certainly do not blame the government everytime that there is something in society that I do not like.
But on the issue of Human Rights then no I make no apology, because in many many cases common sense goes out of the window. Yes people have rights, but the whole issue can be (and has) been taken too far.
As for the weather, yes of course I concede that foreign countries both in Europe and North America, get more snow and at regular intervals than we do.
However, this country has very sophisticated state of the art MET offices, with some of the best equipment in the world for weather forecasting. The weather that hit us last week really should have been detected earlier, and national warnings been given.
It was good that you were able to sort out local measures to deal with the weather, but sadly due to last week's wrong forecast for Friday, I am afraid most had to do so on an ad hoc basis.
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