Weekend Shopping and Completion Of Third Chemo Cycle

I've been out extra early this morning to do some shopping. I went all the way over to Westcroft to go to Aldi. Last week I went into the main shopping centre to buy Carol a diary as well as a calendar to mark in all her hospital appointments. I then went to Aldi at Bradwell Common and got there too later, so the place was heaving with customers and it was all but impossible to move around the store. Not entirely helped by the fact that there were no end of pallets and boxes being used to stock the place. All this was why I decided to go so early this morning and it worth worth it as I was in and out within about half an hour. We'd made a list which also helped. The one thing we like about Aldi, apart from everything being a good deal cheaper (around a third, I reckon.) their stores are smaller than the average supermarket so you can get around quicker and there's less to choose from. Why have so many versions of the same product, such as tomato ketchup? Just confusing and makes choosing more difficult. Mind you, we don't particularly like their tomato ketchup, so we have to go to Sainsbury's for Heinz ketchup. There are some products which you can't compromise on, such as tea (has to be P.G. Tips every time) as well as toothpaste (Has to be Colgate.) But Aldi's meat fruit and vegetables can't be bettered. They have a faster system at the checkout. You make sure your trolley is in place and they whizz your shopping through the scanner and then you have to pack it on the shelf which saves time.  They've managed to place the bar codes on the packaging in such a way that  the operator doesn't have to search for them and they're large enough, unlike on most products where you spend time looking for the bar code so it can be scanned, so wasting time and energy. It was relatively easy to park as well and it's not far to push the trolley when the shopping is done.

Carol had to go into the hospital to have the pump disconnected. We had to go to ward 22, which is over the Endoscopy department, and not the Oncology Suite. Fortunately I knew where it was as I noticed the signage for it when I walked through the hospital the other day. The chemotherapy makes Carol feel really awful, mostly dizzy. It was quite difficult for her to walk from the car into the hospital.

We didn't have to wait long when we eventually reached Ward 22. Carol was taken into a side-room and a nurse removed the pump. Unfortunately Carol was even more dizzy when she came out and sat on a chair in the corridor. We began to walk out, but the dizziness got worse, so she had to sit down again. A nurse rang for a porter to come with a wheelchair. I couldn't push a wheelchair because of my heart condition. After about 20 minutes or so the porter arrived with the wheelchair and we began the journey back to the entrance at Cardiology, where we had come into the hospital. The porter couldn't wheel Carol outside, so I was left with Carol to slowly return to the car. Fortunately, when we drove out of the carpark, the barrier was raised, so we didn't have to pay. At the weekend you have to pay and can't get your ticket stamped at Macmillan's unit as it's closed, so it was a relief to find we didn't have to pay.

More of Life's Little Niggles

I have written something on this subject in one of my earlier posts, but there is quite a bit more mileage to be had on the subject. You know what I mean by 'niggle' I presume? My electronic dictionary has this definition 'cause slight but persistent annoyance, discomfort, or anxiety.' Further down it says, 'criticise in a petty way.' In this house, which is rented, there are a couple of definite niggles. For a start, the light switches at the bottom of the stairs are the wrong way round. Logic would tell me that the one which operates the downstairs, hallway, light, was at the bottom or right-hand side of the double switch, and the one which operates the upstairs, landing, light, was on the left. But no, for some unfathomable reason they are the wrong way round. Why didn't whoever wired them make sure they were wired the correct way round? The same goes for the taps in the kitchen sink and upstairs in the bathroom. The ho (red)t taps should be left and the cold right (blue.) I didn't realise this until we had to have a plumber come in to sort out the leak which came from the pipes behind the kitchen sink. It's supposed to be the same in all houses; it's just always supposed to be that way round. So why not in this house? Because our dear landlord is a cheapskate and doesn't get a decent plumber in to do the work. I know you're asking, why bother over such trivial matters? Well, why not? Why not do a job properly in the first place? I was bought up on the saying'If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well.' The kitchen sink taps also turn on the wrong way, it seems odd, but they are just awkward for some reason, which is because they are the wrong way round! 

Then, what about packaging? It's not necessarily the amount of packaging that products come in. These days, with talk of waste, recycling and so on, I think companies have managed to cut down on over-packaging to some extent. There are some products which still come in too much packaging. But why do some products come with cellophane wrapping over them? Particularly, teabags? Why do P.G. Tips teabags come in a lovely box, without having cellophane over the box? What on earth is the point? You're supposed to strip off the cellophane by pulling a clever little tag which is fixed to a magic strip which is meant to mean, when you pull on it, the cellophane comes away and you gain entrance to the package. Not always, and virtually never, in my experience. So you spend ages attempting to get this cellophane wrapping off and using your teeth and if that doesn't work, resorting to using a kitchen knife or scissors. By which time you are simply gasping for the cup of tea you've been desperate for for the past half-hour or so. AND THEN, you have to break in to the box which is even more difficult. You're expected to use a perforated section which you're meant to press with a finger but this never works so, again, scissors or knife are required to make the final assault on the package.

Toilet rolls are another case in point. You go to the toilet and then discover that you've run out of loo roll. You eventually find the newly-purchased stock of loo rolls which come in a nine-roll package. It takes what seems like a month of Sundays to get the outer packaging open and remove one roll and then spend a further ten minutes trying to get the end of the roll of paper to seperate from the roll without it disintegrating completely. The roll is conveniently perforated so you can remove one or two pieces of loo roll but it's next to impossible to get a completely clean tear. The end of the roll of loo paper becomes no more than an untidy, jagged mess.

One of the worst things to open are those bottles that hand soap come in.  Y0u know, Palmolive do them. Carex if probably the brand leader. They seem to have replaced what I'd call 'traditional' cake soap. In Sainsbury's at least they have a wide selection of brands, including their own.They are locked to prevent them accidentally selling their contents when in transit. I presume. It can't be for any other reason. You have to turn the spouty sort of pouring tap-arrangement and this is supposed to open the bottle. But it never seems to work. Well, at least, not for me. Then, once it works, you just press downwards on this tap thing and the liquid soap inside the bottle is squeezed out onto your hand. Then, biggest niggle of all, towards the end of the life of the product, you get a little bit at the bottom of the bottle which you can never get out. It seems such a waste.Why can't the manufacturer make the clear tube within the bottle just that bit longer so it sucks up the little bit at the bottom of the bottle? It almost refuses to be removed when you squeeze down on the pump-thing.

Shower gel bottles can also be difficult to open. There you are, standing stark naked under the shower. It's taken you a while to set the temperature (yet another niggle this. I could write a few pages on this on it's own.) You decide to use the new bottle of shower gel. You reach for it, trying not to scald yourself in the process, or, if the temperature isn't right, freeze yourself in the cold water. They put a neat little hook on one end of the bottle, which is there so you can hang the bottle over a tap or other fitting on your shower. The other end is where the opening is, and it's so arranged that you have to get a bit of plastic to pull up with your finger or thumb. It's made to be so tight, so the liquid within the bottle doesn't leak out, but it's so difficult you just can't get it to open. Then, when you manage to get it open, you squeeze the contained fluid onto your sponge or flannel, and too much comes out and when you lather the gel over your body, you get left with so much foam it looks like a scene from one of those 1950's science fiction movies such as 'Quatermass.'

Biscuit packets are another bugbear. ('A cause of obsessive fear, anxiety or irritation.') Or niggle. They come in a packet with another innovation, which is supposed to make it easier to open said packet. A little tab which you pull and tears open the paper with a strip of material like string or plastic. Great if it works, but 99 out of 100 attempts and it fails miserably. Why not just go back to the old fashioned method of opening the packet? Then there's the innovation that has been bought in on such packets as for rice and other cooking ingredients. You open the packet and then there's a sticky sort of label which you use to reseal the packet. But it doesn't always stick to the surface of the packet once you've opened the packet. So, like the biscuit packet, somewhat redundant. And attempting to peel the sticky label off the packet in the first place is also very difficult because (as with Sellotape when you can't find the end.) it's next to impossible to find the edge to peel.

Going back to the subject of cellophane as I mentioned earlier on, how about such things as DVDs and CDs which come, fresh from the factory, but covered in cellophane and then you have the ordeal of opening the thing, finding the corner to get your finger nail under to start the peeling process or even finding the little tab that is meant to make the process easier. 

Life's Little Niggles

There are quite a few little niggles I could mention as I go about my daily activities. What do I mean by a niggle? A fly in the ointment, a stone in your shoe? A minor hiccup? A spanner in the works of life? I'll try and explain a few I have come across. Such as having problems with opening packets, jars and bottles. Why do manufacturers insist on making it so difficult it get into the packets they put their products in? Such as teabags, particularly P.G. Tips. Why is it so hard to get through the cellophane wrap the boxes are covered in? They could put a pull-tag on the cellophane which means the covering comes off easily, but generally, no, there is never such a thing. Why cover the packets in this foul stuff in the first place? What is the point of it? It surely can't be to keep the teabags within dry, or can it? Then, once you actually get inside there is a sort of perforated flat, which you have to break into when you want to extract a teabag. They put a similar perforated section in boxes of paper tissues which are virtually impossible to break into and then you have to extract the tissues through a very thin opening, which means that several tissues get torn to threads in the process, most annoying when you have a cold, with a runny nose and want a tissue in a hurry. Going on from tissues, how about toilet rolls? How easy can it be for manufacturers to make a roll of toilet paper which are easy to start off when the roll is new? You go to the loo and then discover at the vital moment that the loo roll has run out so you hunt far and wide for a new roll and then have trouble getting the end of the roll to start because it so difficult to get hold of the end of the paper and when you do eventually find the end, it just disintegrates and becomes virtually useless. Ink cartridges for printers can be annoying. Not just the fiddly installation process, but the packages they come in can be very difficult to open. There again, they have to be covered in more cellophane and then you break your fingernails trying to open the packet and then the actual ink cartridges are wrapped in more cellophane. Another product which can be annoying to open are CD's which never come with a handy strip to pull which releases the enclosed CD from the confines of it's little plastic box. These boxes can be fiddly when it comes to getting the CD itself out as it's held inside with a weird little central 'hub' which has sort of plastic teeth on it. It can be quite difficult removing the CD from this 'hub' thing to such an extent that if you're not very careful you could damage the CD. And the 'teeth' of this 'hub' thing can break off very easily, because it's made of very fragile plastic which breaks off easily and if that happens it renders the thing useless, meaning the CD won't sit safely on it and so get damaged if the plastic case is dropped. If that's the case the whole case is useless.The same can be said of DVD cases and also trying to extract the confounded thing from a similar 'hub' which is as difficult to remove as a CD. You can break your fingernails if you have to try to open the plastic box the thing comes in which is just as annoying.

Butter and margarine comes in convenient plastic boxes. I know these products are more convenient than having blocks of butter which come in paper or foil which means you have to transfer them into butter dishes (do people do that today? I think my mother would have done that once upon a time, but that would have been in the 1970's.) These products also are handy because they spread easily from the fridge, but the little niggle I have is the horrible bit of paper they insist on inserting under the lid when you open it and sitting directly on top of the spread inside. What's the purpose of that? You just throw it away, or, if it's left inside, you have to lift it off every time you want to take out some of the spread.

Cellophane and plastic wrap seems to cause quite a few problems. Another example which often bugs me is what covers magazines. I have a couple of magazines which I subscribe to and they arrive by post. Getting into them can be difficult, but not necessarily opening them (again, not always come with a handy tag to 'pull' so the cellophane or plastic wrap will open easily, but if you're not careful you can tear the magazine within the packaging. On a couple of occasions the postman has shoved the magazine through our letterbox with such force that the magazine within the packaging is damaged or it may be it got damaged somewhere within the post office's sorting machinery. Then, once you've got inside the packaging and opened the magazine you often find a sheaf of leaflets which are annoying because you end up throwing them away. We recycle wherever possible, but generally these bits of paper are not for things we want to read or offers we need or want, much like the annoying leaflets for such things as pizza delivery services, double glazing or estate agents who insist that your house would sell easily, which I'm sure it wouldn't. All go in the recycling bin and are really a great waste of resources. Even if you buy a magazine in a shop, such as W.H. Smith, most magazines you buy from the newsstand have similar leaflets inside and I notice that Smith's now have a bin in their shops which are there to take these annoying leaflets as they fall out when you open the magazine.

At the petrol station. Why can it be so difficult to fill your car up with petrol? How is it, when you manage to remove the  petrol hose from it's holder on the pump, it can be incredibly difficult to pull the hose out of its housing? Why can't it remain a decent length enabling you to fill your car successfully? Also gripping the trigger-mechanism takes quite a bit of effort as it can be quite stiff and difficult to keep pressed so the petrol flows. This similar thing happens when you go to put air in your tyres, especially at our local Shell station. You need a 20p piece to operate the machine, which s reasonable I suppose price-wise, but attempting to pull the hose out can be tricky as it won't maintain a decent length so you can reach all four tyres. Particularly difficult when you need to get to the side of the car furthest from the air-pump machine. The hose keeps wanting to recoil itself when you let fo of it and you need to put a foot on it to stop it retracting into the machine. This job is difficult if done on your own which is why it's easier with a second person who stays with the machine as you need to be able to read the pressure of each tyre so as to make sure it is correct. Do the owners or manufacturers of this machinery not realise how difficult these operations are and perhaps modify them so as to improve them and make it easier for their users? The answer to that is 'probably not,' because most people never complain about these things.

More little niggles. How about this one? Pink bin bags. Those which are provided by Milton Keynes Council to put your recycled rubbish in. First of all, they come on a roll. A long roll and it can be difficult to find the perforations which you use to separate a single bag from the roll. Tear rather than pull, because if you don't you might rip the bag. The you have to peel the bag open, and because the plastic these bags are made of it's extremely difficult. I find that licking my finger helps so the separate sections allow the bag to open. As I say, these pink bags are very thin and flimsy, which means you have to be extra careful when you place your recyclable rubbish inside because otherwise it will tear and become worthless. Why do they have to be so flimsy and, therefore, easy to tear, allowing rubbish to spill out? Just ask those that provide them at Milton Keynes Council.

Asda Automation and Advertising Gimmickry

I had to go to Asda. The usual things for this evening's meal. It was extremely over-cast and miserable, weather-wise. Almost pushed off the road on the way by a driver in a large flashy car, going through a roundabout. Cut me up, because I wasn't going fast enough, and then caught up with him on a long queue on the roundabout on Watling Street, so all his speed and agression didn't pay off.

Managed to park in Asda's carpark and then walked into the store. A large display in the entrance for Shredded Wheat, a young lady handing out leaflets with '50p-off' voucher inside, and an enormous bowl of mocked-up shredded wheat nearby, with huge spoon in it. Reminded me of having to make props and puppets for various shows I've worked on. Actually don't know whether seeing such a large Shredded Wheat, which looked more like a thatched roof, would have put me off eating them. I remember having these for breakfast at my grandmother's house as a child and thinking they were rather like bed-springs. As for Weetabix, they made me think of bales of straw. Funny how you associate one thing with another. I just wonder what a psychologist would have to say on the matter.

The store was surprisingly busy for 9.30 on a windy and wet May morning. The place is filling up with items for sale aimed at the London Olympics, Euro 2012 or whatever it's called and most of all the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Anyone for a P.G. Tips tin with Union Jacks all over it? Or teatowels, teapots, tin trays and rather horrible looking mugs?

I got all the things on my list, and then went to pay. None of the conventional check-outs were being used, or if they were, there were queues, so I decided to use the automated check-outs. From experience not always such a good idea. I put my Sainsbury's 'bag-for-life' on the shelf area and the machine immediately said something like, 'item in bagging area! Identify!' before I had managed to scan anything. An assistant came and re-set the checkout and I was able to continue, until I came to a packet of paracetemol. So, do they honestly think I am going to stand there and over-dose on pain-relieft medication? Well, no, but I suppose there are those who might, so it is a good measure to prevent such things from happening. Then it wouldn't recognise the Radio Times when I scanned it. I don't think they make the bar codes on some items large enough, or printed in such a way that the scanning mechanism can read it. This often happens if it's under cellophane, or on a pre-printed surface with some logo or pattern on it. At last I completed my transaction and the machine told me to put my cash in the relevant slot. Change given, taken and so on, and the machine graciously thanks me, and reminds me to take my items, and I leave.

On the way back to the car and going through the covered area where the display of Shredded Wheat was, I saw something that made me laugh. Some poor soul, dressed up in the large bowl of Shredded Wheat (with the enormous spoon in it) doing a song and dance with another innocent employee, for the entertainment of a group of school children, who seemed totally overwhelmed by the experience, no doubt. Is this some form of torture, or is it blatant manipulation by the makers of this breakfast cereal, so the children immediately berate their parents or guardians, for not buying them the aforementioned breakfast cereal? Brainwashing of the most outrageous type, I kid you not.