glorious rain, and shopping

london 9.45pm 13C dry night thursday 2019

it may be dry now, but it had been raining practically all day. its fortunate that rain dont seem to affect me. maybe because i am rather pleased that rain means no pollen in the air, and that means no hay fever. haha. and that means no itchy eyes, runny nose, ticklish throat. (rubbing my hands with glee). that surely must make anyone happy like anything.

so i have been going out and about, today, unlike if it was a sunny hot day, when i would instantly regret it, going outdoors, because of the instant discomfort of hay fever. i forgot to mention all that sneezing as well.

i went shopping , first to brixton to buy garlic, because i got a garlic press and i am eager to use it. whilst there i got ginger and some more chilli as well. then i took the bus 35 to clapham junction to the lidl there.

there are, i later found out, two lidl stores near brixton, but i thought the large store in clapham junction would have porridge oats. or rather would have them in store, rather than in the stockwell branch which i discovered had run out of stock.

its been some time since i went to the lidl in clapham junction, and so i was surprised when i got in, to find they have completely refurbish the store, changed the shelves , so that everything is different. it was so different from what i remember it, that i clean forgot the coffee. 

but the biggest change i noticed is the checkout. the self service tills are  card only, none will take cash; and so forced us cash buyers to queue up at the manned tills, and i noticed the chap at the till is now going slow and making conversation with the old customers. and waiting patiently whilst they fumble with the money, and slowly pack their goods. all the time exchanging pleasantries…whilst we in the long queue have to be patient.

sigh, i hear they have complaints about them being so fast, the old customers felt rushed trying to keep up. and so now we see the result of those complaints, they are now going slow. what a bother really. i decided to write  them on their website, when i got back telling them i prefer them to go fast, and to bring back the cash  to the self service tills.

i wonder  maybe no one praised them for going fast as no one will bother to write in and tell them, so they get complaints by a few old people and they think everyone felt that way. so i wrote to them and said why not tell these old people who feel rushed to follow the age old way of doing things … where you put all your shopping back in the trolley and pay up and take the trolley to the counters set up in the front of the store where you can take your time packing and counting the change and checking the prices. and this ensures that the line goes fast and  others can get served quickly.