40th Birthday

An Ozzie friend of ours had his 40th birthday.

We went to the pub for lunch in Wimbledon.

Happy Birthday

It was Michael's birthday so we bought a cake and sang happy birthday.

BBQ!!!!!!!!

Our oldest English friend (both in age and length of time known) invited us up to his place for a BBQ.

Luckily the English weather didn't come along as well.  We were fortunate enough to have 27C and sun shine for the afternoon.

We had to wear hats and sunscreen.

We left about 8pm; just when the thunderstorm began.

Though we forgot to take pictures.

St George's Day Parade

As we were leaving the house the cars in the street started blowing their horns.  Then we heard screams and shouting. 


Mum and dad were a little worried at first and confused and then they realised that it was a street parade.  There were approximately a dozen float type vehicles in the parade - army, red double decker bus, etc.

There were lots of St George's flags on the floats and people were cheering and waving by the people in the street.


We stood outside our house and waved. 


It was a sight.

Stupidest Thing To Do On Good Friday!

So on the first day of the Easter long weekend we popped into the supermarket as I needed to get me some swimming nappies for Zachary.


BIG MISTAKE!

I should've realised when there was a queue to get into the supermarket that it was a tad busy. Despite this I hopped out of the car and wandered in whilst Mike looked for a parking spot.


Inside it was chaotic to say the least. People were everywhere!!!

All their trolleys were overflowing!

The queue to the till stretched all the way up the isle and this made it impossible for those trying to shop to get to the items they wanted.

I could see people getting angrier and angrier. Several times people almost erupted with trolley rage.

So, my quick nip into the supermarket to get the one item I didn't have turned into an epic wait.
Finally, I got to the head of the check out queue. There at the till was a 'jobs worth'.


For starters, this guy would open up six carrier bags for someone with only a dozen items.

Then he would wait 30 seconds and say 'Ok, are we ready?' The person with the shopping would look at him as if he was a moron.


Each item then had to be precisely scanned, looked at, and commented on, before being slowly placed on the conveyor belt to the awaiting recipient. Once the recipient had picked it up, bagged it and then look at the guy would he scan the next item.

This began to infuriate not only the recipient but also the massive queue watching this display of utter lunacy.


If there were more than 4 items on the conveyor belt at the end of the scanning the guy would wait until they were all bagged up before asking 'How would you like to pay for that?’ This is despite the recipient holding nay, I should say waving a credit card and pre-emptively stating that they would pay by card.

He would then look at the cash register and ask 'Would you like cash with that?', whilst purposefully not keying in.


Eventually, he would state 'Please put in your PIN.' even though the recipient had already done this and the transaction was being processed.

The analogies I could use would be:

- watching grass grow

- waiting for a kettle to boil

- pulling fingernails out (my favourite as this was excruciating to watch much less be a participant in).


Then it was my turn and it began all over again!

The queues in the tills either side were diminishing fast despite the large quantities of items which each person was buying. Yet, this check out guy had only processed 2 people with minimal items.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Finally, I emerged with my one item and began looking for the car.


When I reached it I was greeted by a bemused Michael.

Apparently, whilst I was enduring the inner sanctum of the supermarket Mike had the pleasure of watching the chaos that ensured in the car park.


At one point two women began to fight (verbally and almost physically) over a car space. It was a sight to see!

We managed to exit the supermarket car park without another incident and calmly make our way home.

Now it must be pointed out that the supermarkets are now open all day on Good Friday (until 10 pm in most cases), normal trading on Saturday and again open on Easter Monday (9am till 9pm in most cases). So over the long weekend the supermarkets are only closed on Easter Sunday.

Despite this people were buying like there had been an announcement along the lines of 'there is no more food, ever again'.

Very scary!!!!!

Freaky Fish

Walking around our local area you get to see some sights; some nicer than others.

One particular one that sticks out is the metal fish sculpture at the local marina.

Moroccan

We continued our dinning out experience as one of our friends recently had a dinner party which he cooked three courses and the menu theme was Moroccan.

In total there were 10 adults (5 couples), 2 babies and 2 on the way.  The last four didn't eat the meal.

We all had a great time, lovely food and lovely company.