A dry run - starring the man with no brain

Here is a tragic tale which reflects life in Britain in the 21st century and the falling level of ability and intelligence in staff at our supermarkets.

Last weekend we celebrated my daughters 19th birthday and, she decided she would have a barbecue in the garden. With this in mind she went to our local supermarket, a branch of Morrisons. Because there was a lot of shopping she was accompanied by her boyfriend (aged 19) and her sister and cousin (both 17). As they began to place cases of beer in their trolley they were approached by the security guard who told them that they could not purchase alcohol and must take it out of the trolley. Both my daughter and her boyfriend showed proof of their age but were told that they could be buying alcohol for the under age people with them. To save argument my daughter asked if it would be ok if her dad came down and bought the beer and was told that this would be fine. I arrived and we began to re-load the trolley watched by the security man who then decided to tell me that I would not, in fact, be able to buy the booze. He began to speak to my daughter's boyfriend in a confrontative and belittling manner and I asked him to stop, explaining that to refer to an adult male as 'boy' was not good customer relations. A manager approached and explained that he couldn't serve me as I was associated with my daughter who might have been buying alcohol for under age drinkers. I explained that I was indeed buying alcohol for my daughter as it was her 19th birthday and that I was quite prepared to admit to being associated with all my children, 3 of whom are currently 'under age'
We left having told them that we would shop elsewhere. As we left we were told that two other people had just been refused service because they had been seen talking to people who looked under 18.


A supermarket has the right to refuse to serve anyone but they should also have the right to employ people with brains and should provide adequate training regarding retail law. A shop can be prosecuted for selling alcohol to someone under 18 and to this end many challenge anyone who looks under 25. If I buy alcohol on behalf of someone under 18 I  can be prosecuted not  the supermarket.  Further to this, if I buy alcohol I can legally allow my 17 year old daughter or niece to drink within my property.
Morrisons supermarket wants to take control where they have none and where they may well end up having fewer customers

Forget me errrrrrr thingy

I've never been good with my memory but just lately it seems worse and I'm acutely aware that I get midway through saying something and then realise I've forgotten a key point which is a bit embarrassing. My conversation is full of errrrs and thingies and awkward moments and it must seem so insulting when I can never remember someone's name.

I'm sure there was a reason for me bringing this up but it seems to have eluded me but it was something about the value of memories and how, as a person who lives in the past, I hate the idea of forgetting. I would like to record as much of my memory and my thoughts and feelings but sadly I suffer from terminal laziness and anyway, whenever I make a decision to do something about it I forget to get started.

Thought for the day: errrrrrr, hold on, it's on the tip of my tongue

rare friends

Today, being the first Monday of May, was the May bank holiday and so I headed off to check out the May day celebrations. Where I live we have a pleasant enough day with a small fairground, dancing (traditional and modern) and displays of country craft etc. Amongst the stalls this year was one from a local farm promoting and selling their meat products, I tasted some samples and they were rather splendid but reading the info and ingredients raised some questions which led to me musing deeply on and off throughout the day.
'Made from our own rare breed pigs'  ok, does this taste better\different and why, if the poor pigs are already rare, are we eating them? Is this what happened to the dodo? did some entrepreneur see a gap in the game market and fill it? did this mystery business guru increase the price as the breed got rarer and retire on the fabulous price he\she got for the last of breed? We may never know.
'All our animals are hand reared' This conjured up visions of orphan lambs and children's pets, of petting zoos and lifelong friendship. I love my friends but I wouldn't eat most of them.
The labels also had a 'killed on' date to ensure freshness so all in all the only bit of information missing was the name of my sausage\burger and perhaps it's star sign and favourite flower