Excuse Me?

 

Yesterday, I went to B & M. I loaded my trolley with three large bags of compost, a big bag of cat litter, a sack of sunflower seeds, a jumbo roll of weed suppressing membrane, a bottle of Tomorite and a new water cup with straw thingy for Lord M because his old one is revolting and I’m surprised he hasn’t caught something nasty from it, like dysentery or typhoid. I arranged everything in the trolley so bar codes were easily accessible and I went to the check out. 

The check out lady looked at my admittedly very full trolley, then glanced behind me and said, ‘Shall I serve that gentleman first? He has only two items…’

And before I could offer an indignant reply in the negative, the gentleman behind me said, ‘It’s okay, I’m with her,’ and indicated the woman standing next to him who was holding a shopping basket full to overflowing with way more stuff than I was buying. 

Reader(s), it took less than fifteen seconds for the check out lady to blip through my carefully arranged items. Time was saved because there was no unloading everything onto the conveyor belt, and no loading it back into the trolley. ‘Oh, that didn’t take that long after all, did it?’ said she as I paid.

I wrangled my heavily-loaded trolley back to my car, powered by ‘How DARE she?’ steam. 

The thing is, if I’m in a shopping queue and I notice that the person behind me has only a couple of items compared with, say, my full on weekly shop, then I more often than not say, ‘You go first,’ because it’s a nice thing to do, isn’t it? An exchange of smiles, a couple of ‘Thanks’ and ‘You’re welcome’ and all parties feel nicer for the interaction. Good vibes enter the Universe, and I like to think I’ve triggered a ‘Be Nice To Someone’ chain reaction. 

However, I do not think it is the job of the person on the check out to dictate the order they serve people in the queue. If this one had had her way, it would have caused a lot of faff, with me backing up my trolley, the people behind unloading their basket then packing away their shopping etc etc blah blah blah, and anyway it WOULDN’T have happened because I wouldn’t have let it. I’m just having a moan. 

I’m currently waiting to see what the weather decides to do. Nell the Poo and I managed to get our walk in this morning between showers, but it’s looking distinctly thunderous now, and the wind is up and wild. I want to get into the garden and plant the remaining three honeysuckles I bought last week, and also continue my wrangling of the thicket of undergrowth that grows twixt our fence and the field. It’s a heady mix of nettles, brambles, thistles and bindweed and if I don’t tackle it it’ll turn into The Day of the Triffids. I made a good start on it at the weekend but it needs finishing pronto. 

And now the rain is tipping down. Sigh… BUT on the plus side, I shan’t have to water the garden. And on the other plus side, I shall now have to stay indoors and do something like read, or write, or practise piano. 

Thicket wrangling will have to wait…