Bedlam

The countdown is truly on. No panic. Just counting down.

First significant task of the morning was to clean the oven. This can be a filthy job, but for us it is quite easy. We just remove the racks and press the right button. The oven then goes into self-clean mode. Two hours later the Gorse Fox can just wipe a fine white ash out of the bottom of the oven. The racks still need cleaning, but a little hot soapy water and an aluminium scourer and they are sparkling in no time.

Cousteau-Cub phoned this morning. It was nice to hear from her and catch up on all her latest news and plans. Hopefully we'll see her in the Spring... but more about that in the fullness of time.

The last bit of shopping that the Gorse Fox needed to consider was the wine and other drinks for the festive period. He decided that today was the day. He assumed that most people would try to get in and out early, so deliberately left it until early afternoon.

He didn't leave it late enough!

Cars were queueing to get into (and out of) the car park and in an effort to get as close to the store as possible they were fighting their way down all of the nearby parking lanes. The Gorse Fox ignored this and went to the last but one lane, drove to the end (as it was full) and then turned back into the last lane. He parked immediately (3 cars away from the store), and smirked as he got out of the car and strode in.

Clearly it was very busy and the aisles were often overrun with trolleys and racks as the staff were trying to keep the shelves stocked. The Gorse Fox wove this way and that, collected his items and headed as far away from the entrance as possible. He walked straight to a check-out and started unloading immediately. He looked around. All the other checkouts were queued back. He felt another smirk flash across his face. As the goods were run through the register, he overheard another shopper saying that it was taking over an hour to get through the tills in Tesco (on the other side of the road). The Gorse Fox reloaded his trolley and paid the bill.

Clearly it is bedlam out there, but the Gorse Fox was leading a charmed existence.