It is Sunday and therefore the day on which we perform our main weekly shopping run. We also need to continue moving stuff from store back to home. But first…

Cafe Sizzles

First, we betook ourselves, plus shopping trolley, to Cafe Sizzles for brunch.

Speciality bread stall, Farmers’ Market

Cafe Sizzles is just within the boundaries of the Farmers’ Market that takes place in the upper end of Chapel Market on Sundays. This bread stall was one of those dedicated to speciality products.

Pigeon jamboree

As we crossed through Sainsbury’s car park, we saw an unusually large gathering of pigeons, probably members of the population inhabiting Culpeper Park on the other side of the street. But why were they here? I can only suppose that someone had been feeding them.

Queueing at Sainsbury’s

We had timed brunch so as to arrive at Sainsbury’s just after they opened but we in fact arrived a couple of minutes early and had to join the queue of waiting customers.

At the checkout

We had soon collected our purchases and made our way to the checkouts. You may observe that the screens erected around the checkouts during the pandemic have now been removed except for a relatively small screen directly in from of each checkout person.

The crockery stall, Chapel Market

As usual, from Sainsbury’s, we passed through Chapel Market on our way to Mercer’s to pick up our coffee. The market seems now to have settled into its post-pandemic configuration. There are many fewer stalls than in the “old days” (before Covid) but the stalls that are present are the same ones from week to week, the crockery stall being one of these. It will be interesting to see whether, as time passes, the absentees will return.

Loading the trolley

Having returned home and put away the shopping, we had a little rest over coffee and then set out for the third phase of today’s business: shifting stuff back from store. Today we were concentrating on smaller items and so we were able to use the shopping trolley, having removed its bag.

As usual, it was Tigger who organised the work (well, to be honest, 99% of the stuff is her property!), and I just lent a hand as appropriate.

The second load ready to go
Photo by Tigger

If you compare the state of the lock-up shown in this photo with previous photos, I think you can see that we have already reduced the heap by a noticeable amount. According to our contract (which we can extend, if necessary), we need to empty the store by end of business next Saturday. Will we succeed?

Last load for today
Photo by Tigger

This is the state of affairs when we moved our last load today. If progress seems slow, you have to realise that each load shifted implies work to be done at home.

As well as shifting stuff from the store to home, we also delivered a large bag of donations to the charity shop. There will be more yet!

Over the coming days, we will be sorting through everything and getting rid of items that can be put out as refuse, recycled or donated to charity. In that sense, the operation has been a useful experience despite the fact that its ostensible reason – the electrical inspection – failed to materialise. Any reduction in the amount of clutter in our tiny flat is to be welcomed!