Every once in a while I do need to be reminded why it is I who does the grocery shopping for the household every week.  Given how often I frequent Spinneys (the equivalent of Waitrose in the UK), it is not wonder I consider it my second home.. I am always popping in for midweek supplies that have been exhausted; milk, bananas, Gatorade and the like. Come the weekend grocery shop, I truly am tired of the sight of the place…..

Last week lovely DH offered to do the shop for me.  This kind of offer usually follows a bad night for me, i.e., one of the munchkins was unwell and sleeping/fidgeting/snoring/grinding teeth/burping/farting in the bed beside me.  5 hours’ broken sleep over a period of 8 hours is enough to make me cry.  Contemplating a full grocery shop in this condition makes me want to bawl and crawl back under my duvet and not surface for a week….at the very minimum.

Thank you DH.

I pack him off with his reusable bags, freezer bags (a must in the desert) and the all important shopping list.  To make his life easier, I break down the groceries into categories, so he is not running back and forth; freezer, fridge, vegetables, fruit, bakery, tinned food, meat. Gosh…..now that I think of it, I am not all that disorganised afterall!

Despite all, and against much hope from me, within 8 minutes and 42 seconds of departing the house, I received it….’it’ being the ‘first of usually many shopping phonecalls’.

‘Where can I park?’

Me: Try the car park adjacent to the shop.  If you have to walk 100m to the entrance, such is life.

Call 2 – I can’t find the blue Persil Gel….is the green one the same?

Me: Raise my eyes to the heavens.

Call 3 – How many chicken breasts  do you want?

Me: Please refer to the list.

Call 4 – What’s the difference between wholemeal and French bread?

Me: Huh?  Apparently there is French baguette and French village bread in Spinneys.

Call 5 – Do we need eggs?

Me: Rule of thumb – if in doubt, buy.

Working blind, I try to navigate DH around the store.  At this stage I am muttering about how much easier it would have been if I had just gone myself; even bleary eyed, I would be quicker and use far less phone credit.

And still when he arrives back home, there is always one or more things missing….’they didn’t have any’ is the practised, standard response.

Sigh!