Saturday. 5.40 a.m. I thought that today was Sunday! Don't ask me why, but it felt like it was. How does it FEEL like a day? I have no idea, but I soon realised that it wasn't. I am on the refreshment rota and it's also a café church. I could easily have gone there and found the place deserted! Oh, well.
11.15 a.m. As mentioned above, it's café church tomorrow. There will be live music as well as food, including a barbecue. I am hoping to be relieved of my duties behind the tea and coffee urn to be able to eat some of the barbecued food, so, as a result, I had to withdraw some cash from an A.T.M. machine as well as fuel the car at the ESSO filling station in Childs Way. So, I drove there, filled the car and paid and then went to the A.T.M. I put my card in the slot and then found I would have to pay £1.99 for the privilege of using the machine, but then the machine wouldn't present me with any cash! I drove away and as I did so, I had to think hard for an alternative A.T.M. and decided on Morrison's and drove there but then found there was a one-way system at the parking area and went round several times, and eventually came in from the road opposite the entrance into the railway station. Hence, having parked, I was able to withdraw the cash from the machine. So, about half an hour was spent driving around to find an A.T.M. On the way back home I then did another detour, so I could go to Lidl on Oldbrook Boulevard. There is a large poster up on the boarding which surrounds the building work for the new store, informing all and sundry that the store will close on the 2nd June, which is tomorrow, and the new store will open in January 2025. Tesco's Express store which used to be on that site used to have an A.T.M. and was incredibly convenient for me when I needed to have cash, so all the driving around to get to a working A.T.M. is the result of the A.T.M. at Tesco's no longer being there.
Monday. 7.55 a.m. I mentioned that yesterday (Sunday) we had another café church session at The Oaktree Centre. I was on refreshment duty, and as a result, I got there in very good time to set things up. It was a really fine and sunny day and a great many people turned up, and many were new faces. Compared with last year, when the weather was really awful, with rain and wind and the entire gazebo which the musicians used, was moved onto the paved area and the sliding doors were opened to allow people to sit inside the café area to watch and listen.
Tuesday. 7.05 a.m. It's another mild day, but the sun is yet to shine. The current temperature in the flat, according to my digital thermometer, is 26ºc. I have my electric fan on.
Thursday. 5.40 a.m. Mild and pleasant on the weather front. The temperature reading on the digital thermometer is currently 23ºc.
My family tree currently has over 2000 people on it, and it is still growing!
Friday. 4.45 p.m. I had to go shopping in Sainsbury's. I went as usual after I'd done my washing. I picked up everything I needed for at least a week, including a pack of slow-cooked beef. I've had these sorts of joints on many occasions, particularly lamb shanks, which come in a double pack, so I put one in the freezer and have the other for my Sunday meal. They come complete with gravy and are really tasty. So I was not exactly over the moon when I got home, having unpacked my shopping, to discover that this pack of slow-cooked beef had a 'best before' date of March stamped on the front of the package. That meant it was around three months out of date! I was certainly not risking eating it, for fear of food poisoning or something worse. So I reluctantly decided to take it back, hoping to get a replacement. I wasn't sure where the customer service counter was, but, when I eventually found it, about a dozen people were queueing. There was only one woman behind the desk, and she was spending a great deal of time with a customer who had bought back a dress, presumably for a refund. A second staff member then got involved and time was ticking by. A young man behind me lost patience and put down a can of drink he was presumably going to buy and then stormed off. I really couldn't blame him, because there was only one woman on the desk. There should be far more staff. I think it's Sainsbury's getting rid of staff so that they can cut prices. The customer service generally has deteriorated, particularly when they have replaced manned checkouts with self-service tills.
I eventually got to the lady on the desk and explained about the product being around three months out of date. A member of staff should have spotted it and taken it off the shelf, but, again, I think with so few staff available, that might explain how it came to be left where it was, for me to pick up and put in my trolley. Another member of staff was sent to get me a replacement, but when she came back, she said there were none left, at which point I left and went home.
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