Thursday, December 14, 2006
Nine writers blog launches
I've just started a new blog at www.ninewriters.blogspot.com for my MA in creative writing (fiction) class at the Uni of London, Royal Holloway. We'll all be writing a group fiction experiment together there...watch this space!
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Mean woman in Sainsbury's shock!
So, I was tootling around being a freelancer and going to Sainsbury's in the middle of the day today. I walked all over the large Angel, Islington store collecting a single basket of groceries and arrayed them all on the conveyor belt at a checkout. There were two customers in front of me - an elderly lady at the front who was taking ages to count out her money and a man with a basketful of purchases behind her. OK, it was the teensiest bit naughty, but rather than wait I thought 'Why not take the opportunity to dash down the aisle and grab a bottle of sunflower oil and a bottle of sesame oil?' (I'm having an oil deficit at home).
I went triple quick and was back with my two bottles of oil within, I would guess, two minutes. As I approached the checkout the man in front of me was just paying and I sighed with relief not to have anyone waiting for me. An older woman had materialised behind me in the queue and as I rushed back to my place I said to her, in a hearty, friendly voice, 'Sorry'. To which she replied emphatically, 'Fine'.
My groceries were swiped, I bagged them up, paid and walked out of the store. It was only then that I realised my bags weren't stuffed with the two newspapers and magazine I had just purchased. I wasn't quite sure, but looking at the bags I couldn't see those awkward square corners and overspill of goods you normally get when you've got newspapers in your shopping bag. I walked, confused, back to the till and stood there for a moment checking my bags and realising I definitely didn't have my papers before interrupting the checkout guy, now swiping the lady behind me's shopping, to tell him some of my purchases were - well - mysteriously not there!
'Oh,' he said unpeturbed, 'This lady [he nodded at the woman who had been behind me in the queue] told the woman over there [he pointed to a Sainsbury's staff woman in the distance] to take your papers and things off the conveyor belt when you went to get your oil.'
Eh?
The woman who'd been behind me in the queue nodded and confirmed this was what she had done. I noticed now she was one of those people in macs with smug, disapproving looks on their faces.
I found the Sainsbury's staff worker who had removed my papers from the conveyor belt and she showed me she had taken not just my papers and magazine but also some other things I thought I had just bought and put them in a basket to be put back on the shelves. I somehow hadn't noticed at the time I actually paid for the goods that so much was missing - I had just assumed it was all there and let my mind drift, as you do. So I then had to queue up all over again to buy these things.
I just can't believe how mean it was of that woman behind me in the queue to do that! Clearly she was annoyed that I had stretched the queue rule by running to grab something else off a shelf, but I was only gone for two minutes and didn't delay anything as I was back by the time my turn in line had come. And then once I had come back to the queue and even apologised politely to her, why on earth couldn't she have admitted to me that she'd had some of my shopping removed?
By the time I'd paid for my goods, I was fuming, but luckily for the woman she was long gone by that time...
I went triple quick and was back with my two bottles of oil within, I would guess, two minutes. As I approached the checkout the man in front of me was just paying and I sighed with relief not to have anyone waiting for me. An older woman had materialised behind me in the queue and as I rushed back to my place I said to her, in a hearty, friendly voice, 'Sorry'. To which she replied emphatically, 'Fine'.
My groceries were swiped, I bagged them up, paid and walked out of the store. It was only then that I realised my bags weren't stuffed with the two newspapers and magazine I had just purchased. I wasn't quite sure, but looking at the bags I couldn't see those awkward square corners and overspill of goods you normally get when you've got newspapers in your shopping bag. I walked, confused, back to the till and stood there for a moment checking my bags and realising I definitely didn't have my papers before interrupting the checkout guy, now swiping the lady behind me's shopping, to tell him some of my purchases were - well - mysteriously not there!
'Oh,' he said unpeturbed, 'This lady [he nodded at the woman who had been behind me in the queue] told the woman over there [he pointed to a Sainsbury's staff woman in the distance] to take your papers and things off the conveyor belt when you went to get your oil.'
Eh?
The woman who'd been behind me in the queue nodded and confirmed this was what she had done. I noticed now she was one of those people in macs with smug, disapproving looks on their faces.
I found the Sainsbury's staff worker who had removed my papers from the conveyor belt and she showed me she had taken not just my papers and magazine but also some other things I thought I had just bought and put them in a basket to be put back on the shelves. I somehow hadn't noticed at the time I actually paid for the goods that so much was missing - I had just assumed it was all there and let my mind drift, as you do. So I then had to queue up all over again to buy these things.
I just can't believe how mean it was of that woman behind me in the queue to do that! Clearly she was annoyed that I had stretched the queue rule by running to grab something else off a shelf, but I was only gone for two minutes and didn't delay anything as I was back by the time my turn in line had come. And then once I had come back to the queue and even apologised politely to her, why on earth couldn't she have admitted to me that she'd had some of my shopping removed?
By the time I'd paid for my goods, I was fuming, but luckily for the woman she was long gone by that time...
