Even though we are still moving and sorting boxes and bags of property, we also need to perform the usual Sunday shopping run.

Cloudy skies over Baron Street

Even though Storm Eunice has gone on its merry way, conditions are still windy. During the storm, I wore a close-fitting cap instead of my hat which would have risked being carried off by the wind. Today, I wore my hat but attached it to my coat collar with a hat retainer, though I very much doubt whether those little plastic clips would resist today’s stronger gusts (predicted to blow at 30+ mph). In addition to the wind, it was raining though not very heavily.

In Cafe Sizzles

Once again, we visited Cafe Sizzles in Chapel Market for brunch. I was surprised to find the cafe almost empty. By this time on a Sunday it’s usually quite busy. Not today, though: perhaps the weather was keeping people at home.

The Farmers’ Market

The Farmers’s Market was present but still with fewer stalls than in the halcyon summer days before the pandemic. Will it ever recover its former vivacity?

Taped down
Photo by Tigger

In Sainsbury’s car park, we saw this litter bin. It has been securely attached to a post with adhesive tape, presumably in preparation for the arrival of Storm Eunice.

In Sainsbury’s

In Sainsbury’s, we each had a list of products to collect. We cannot hang the new shopping trolley on the supermarket trolley as we used to do with the old one, so I took our trolley with a basket balanced on top of it while Tigger took the supermarket trolley. We then combined our respective harvests at the checkout.

A glimpse into our shopping trolley
Photo by Tigger

Above is a view into our shopping trolley, showing the top level of our purchases. How exciting is that? 🙂

Fruit ‘n’ veg in Chapel Market

In the main market, where I took this photo on my way to Mercer’s for coffee, the usual stalwarts were present, including this fruit and vegetable stall. As with the Farmers’ Market, though, there were a lot of empty stall emplacements.

Entering via the shutter
Photo by Tigger

In the afternoon, we hauled a few more items to the store and spent some time in the familiar game of Dump-Recycle-Donate. We can enter the premises via the office or via an entrance closed by a shutter that rises and descends. We have an electronic fob to open this. It’s the best way to go if you have stuff to deliver.

Special edition stamps
Photo by Tigger

During sorting, a few treasures come to light. For example, we found a book of special edition postage stamps. These will go into the “donate” bag for the charity shop and will no doubt be gratefully bought by a philately buff.

1977 Crown
Photo by Tigger

Another treasure was this commemorative coin, a Crown (face value 25 pence) issued in 1977 for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. (The name “crown” originally denoted a coin of face value five shillings, of which there were four to the pound sterling. Crowns were minted only to commemorate special occasions. Many people, though, will remember the pre-decimal “half-crowns”, worth 2 shillings and 6 pence which were in general circulation.) A crown exchanged at a bank will net you 25 pence but rarer crowns habitually circulate among enthusiasts for many times that amount.

As Safestore closes at 4 pm on Sundays, we could do only a small amount of work today. So here is the now traditional state of play photo for today:

State of play at day’s end
Photo by Tigger