Supermarket shopping

So we head off tomorrow, just me and The Husband for 10 lovely days in Vietnam and with the in-laws arriving, Smith and I headed off for The Grocery Shop. The one where you put as much as humanly possible in the trolley to cover any contingency. Our trolley was so full that a rogue packet of frozen veg kept falling off dodging the trolley wheels every couple of minutes and the bumper 18 pack of loo paper was balanced precariously on top, limiting all vision to a slither. All the checkouts were full with queues, so thinking, I'm a 21st century girl, I'll do it myself. I've always had a thing about pushing buttons and wanted to work in a bank (s) or library and in the last 10 years or so, those swipe things have been more my passion. So I rolled up to the Self Service checkout and proceeded to get underway, swiping my groceries and packing them myself. A couple of swipes into it, I started to think "what was I thinking? Why am I doing this? This is going to be a disaster!". And so it was. For what seemed like 30 very long minutes and one super sized overfull shopping trolley, I proceeded to swipe and pack my way through The Grocery Shop. And lets not forget I had a increasingly bored 3 year old with me. I know, what was I thinking? But once you start, you can't abort. there's only one outcome and that's an empty shopping trolley. Now these self service machines aren't completely error free and if you hold your tongue the wrong way or are a smidge quick you get the "Item removed from bag" message that can only be erased by a staff member. The Self Service Assistant who had started off ok with me became quickly frustrated and extremely unhelpful. I was in a state. I cried out to her, "why didn't you tell me it wasn't a good idea to bring a full trolley through, I thought I was helping you guys by doing this" (cleverly apportioning blame and covering my wee fetish for button pushing and swiping). She came back slickly with a "well, I thought you knew what you were doing". Point taken.

And only 2 days later, there I was again at the Self Service checkout at Big W with slippers, big lego boxes, jersey caramels, and undies. I had managed my trolley and everything went well, until the time came to put things in a bag. Because there were no bags in the shop at all. And I had a heap of stuff. So I wandered off through the malls with everything sticking out of my handbag sort of. Next year I'm going to buy decent slippers (and not the cheap $12 Big W kind), you never know who you might bump into when you have a pair of slippers in your handbag.

Off tomorrow folks, back on the 18th. Take care y'all!