Living Dangerously

Been a while since I did a post about the weekly shop...

It's a strange thing, that we're now at the point where the most dangerous thing I do is to go for the weekly shop each Friday. Honestly, there was never much risk - just the commute to and from work, but now the trip to Tesco means risking exposure to the virus. It's not likely, but unfortunately it is possible - and it's also the one vector for infection I have left.

As a consequence of the lockdown, we've taken steps to minimise contact, and that has included avoiding takeaway food. Which sucks - the local Dominos are still delivering, and I'd really quite like to order... but really don't think I can justify it. And likewise, we're trying really hard to only go shopping once for the week. The upshot is that we're both having to be quite careful in putting together the list, and also having to order more, both than we usually ordered, and also than we perhaps think we need. That has meant, of course, that the cost is higher than it has generally been. But since it's now our only big expenditure, it works out well.

The other thing that has been noticeable is a big win. It has been my practice when putting the list together to write everything down and then carefully re-order it to match the order of items in the store. (Naturally, I have the store layout memorised. Doesn't everyone?) This has occasioned a certain amount of bemusement on the part of LC, for reasons that I'm sure are obvious.

But in light of the virus, Tesco have now introduced a one-way system. This is intended to minimise contact between customers, of course - if everyone moves through in a fixed order, that will aid with that.

And, of course, that suits me perfectly - I was already following the system anyway, so the upshot is that now pretty much everyone else was already. Basically, I had pre-optimised for these days. Huzzah!

The only remaining downside is that my preference now is to hit Tesco just after opening on Friday (8am), but they can't start selling alcohol until 10am. Under the circumstances, it would be really useful if the government would relax the relevant licensing laws accordingly. In the absence of that, my pattern is to go at 10am once every few weeks, and to buy a fairly considerable amount of wine at that time. We won't be consuming any more than previously - just combining the purchases for several weeks into one bigger shop. But that's all just a minor quibble.

#19: "I, Strahd: The War Against Azalin", by P.N. Elrod (unfortunately, a likely candidate for the weakest book of the year.)