groceries

hi there

sometimes it really does feel like this blog is becoming rather far too top heavy in respect of it being just all of shiny things what i have bought. i suspect i should, with what little time i get spare, go out and do some far more interesting things if, for no other reason, to put something different here. snow shall come soon enough, mind, so i would imagine that a bit of variety will kick in.

anyway, one or two of you have a passing interest in what i purchase, in particular with respect to bought stuff that is done with the intention of wearing, so what the heck, why not.

first off, as some of you will recall from earlier posts, i had hoped to get some new pan...strides over the weekend. this is something that ended in failure, or at least a partial one. i did, however, at the least find some new shirts. these are shirts that, as my Gramps pointed out when i told him what i had bought over the weekend, i probably did not need, but they had that double whammy quality of being smart looking and of a reasonable price.

like, for instance, this one.

yes, that is indeed a bit of a "cheeky" and in no way officially endorsed image of the Jimi of Hendrix right there, on a guitar. or it might be Prince. or him off of that band The Time. not Jerome, the other one. Morris Day, i think. no, there was not much chance at all of me not picking that one up.

a new t-shirt is all well and good, or good and well, but what of my baking requirements? i do not have all that many, in truth, but what ones i do have seem to have been met quite well indeed by these cupcake mix sets i spotted in a store.

cupcakes are smart anyway, and i can only presume to assume that making them with minions off of Despicable Me represented on them will make them even smarter. not that i will be making them as such, of course, my (considerably) better half and the boys can attend to that more practical side of it.

strides? strides. having found none of consequence in stores, i had a look online. i might have found some, but on my browsing adventure i also found this confronting me.

what is it with everyone and polyester? it's not that good a substance that everyone out there looking for something to put over their legs wants such items made 100% out of the stuff. there is an election next year, right, and basically whichever party makes it clear that they intend to "limit, if not remove" polyester from trouser production is getting my vote.

there might be other socio-economic factors that i should introduce into my thinking when i vote, i suppose, but none of them seem as pressing to me as the need for new strides. i would imagine, to be honest, that society as a whole would benefit from me wearing pants too.

my (considerably) better half had no such problems in seeking out some fine new threads, as you can see. she is not entirely unsympathetic to my plight in respect of stride, let it be said, but also she is content, indeed happy, with her finds.

that's a smart jumper, jersey or whatever sort of thing it is. cardie, i suppose. really all purple and fluffy and warm. which, going on the temperatures we are having whilst still in summer, will be very handy indeed when all this winter business kicks off.

would i be happy if i found a pair of strides not too different from this garment? probably, to be honest. one of the first things i noticed about it, as i am sure you did, was that there is very little polyester in it, as point of fact i think none at all.

actually that might be a bit too fluffy and faffing for a pair of strides, now that i think. although them buttons would look really smart on a pair. maybe. if they were buttonfly strides with them all the way down, right, i would imagine it would make things somewhat tricky. or maybe not, really. i have not, in my life, done a great deal of clothes design, so i am not as adept or expert in the subject as to say for certain.

away from clothes, then, and towards a non-clothing item. a new novel to read, no less. one that i had no intention of getting, know pretty much nothing about and was not all that fussed about.

why did i get it, then? to reduce the overall cost of the two items i did want. the WH Smith business model is, look you see, an interesting one.

earlier in the week, or perhaps it was last week, they gave me one of them voucher things, right. it was one that said "get £5 off all books when you spend £15". the two books i selected came to £14. in grabbing this one i pushed the bill over their £15 and as a consequence brought my own bill down to £12. go figure.

why did i grab this one in particular? that it is called Eeny Meeny gives you a bit of a clue as to how it was selected. i just looked at the pile of new releases, or recommended or whatever, and decided i would grab the first one i saw that was not clearly or evidently "book number xyz" in a series of novels. this seems to be one of those rarities these days, namely a "stand alone" novel. it could turn out that the characters in it were in another book, but neither the front nor back suggested that was the case.

a cursory glance inside says that it has short chapters and a decent size font in the print, so it's a win for the bus. also, the Daily Mail seem to like it, so how far wrong can i have gone?

ah, whoops. i was meant to report back to my Aunty (no, the other one) about some sort of antiques fair on the go. i took a picture of it to show her so she could decide if it was worth going. i forgot to send it on, but never mind, here it is, so she can see what either she missed, or what she went to.

i hope, dear Aunty, you either enjoyed it, or you are gratified by what you see above and are of the opinion that you were wise not to have gone.

another shirt? sure. one of them "smart" ones, in as far as it has a collar and buttons, that i really rather like to wear to verk. this one marks something of a departure from the norm for me, or if you like a directional change, for it has anchors on it. a lot of anchors.

actually, looking at that image, it looks like it is a really, really busy shirt. the semi-wooden looking buttons, which might be all real wood for all i know, help give it that rustic, salty sea dog look, i suppose.

have i always wanted a shirt with loads of anchors on it? not really, to be honest. it is not something i have ever thought about, really. the shirt just happened to be really cheap, and looked like it would be a comfortable, good fit, so i just went with it. i, at this stage and as things stand, have every intention of wearing this tomorrow. we can but hope it all works out fine, then. well, i can. and will.

this, ladies and gentlemen, is the scope of the problem i have with the wiles and the ways of WH Smith insisting i purchase more books in order to pay less than the listed price for the ones i wanted.

these are the books that i have either been kindly given or have picked up on my travels to read on the bus. as you can see, there are a fair few.

add to this there are one or two (dozen) on the e-reader to read, in particular this lion or tiger business that Sharpy, when not impersonating celebrated 80s musicians from Australia, is so enthusiastic about me reading.

as i, on average, and as people who follow my reviews here will have clocked, usually do a book a week on the bus. actually, closer to 3 or 4 days, i think. i would seem, i suspect, sorted out for quite some time. although some go quite fast - them Mariani books, for instance, are usually 3 day things; in one case i think one was finished in 2 days, which is 4 bus trips.

i should probably stop picking up books for a few weeks, then. however, others may well feel that they are of a mind to send me more, which is always a very welcome thing, and i might well pick up others too. especially as W H Smith have decided to get rid of vouchers and instead have given me a "20% off of everything" card for pretty much the whole of September. i bet i end up there and i bet i end up with further novels to "get around" to reading on the bus. which i shall.

and that's pretty much that, or at least that's all i could be pestered to take pictures of from whatever i purchased. i am sure there were a couple of other things, but never mind, here, here's another selfie attempt of me in that smart new Heath as the Joker t-shirt. something, if you like, of an apology for the poor quality image of the t-shirt that featured on the recent ice bucket challenge post. not that this one is much better.

well, then, that's that for this post, and possibly for posts for the remainder of the week. back to verk tomorrow, which means long days, little in the way of adventure type stuff to post here and somewhat less time to actually post here anyway. also, i suspect someone else out there is kind of expecting, rather hoping, that i spend more time on their site than mine (hello, Dad, yes we are working on it).

not a lot to add, then, except to say that i trust those of you who for some reason like my shopping and acquisition adventures enjoyed what you saw here, and no doubt more of them will follow over the course of time!

thanks for reading!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!