i am at home now and saw a newspaper article saying victoria station is closed today… in that no trains are running there due to a power cut in streatham. but i was there only this morning, at about 12pm. i did not notice anything was wrong, because there were people about, it was not deserted… and i did not bother to look at the destination board. otherwise i would be able to see whatever.

london 1.01pm 28C sunny thursday 2018

i can be very unobservant actually. i mean imagine going through there and not be aware of any disruption.  but there was no crowds, that is what i meant to say… usually when trains are cancelled or whatever, there will be masses of people hanging about. i guess by the time i went there, they will have told people no point hanging around here. no trains are running so u might as well go elsewhere.  added. this link shows that not all trains are cancelled or delayed. only the gatwick and southeastern line. southern line is as normal. so that explains why there were still quite a lot of people about. 

even so there were quite a lot of people about so much so that i thought everything was running.

i went to the eating food court, to see if kfc got their double down burger… i heard they have introduced it only for this month, till 22nd. it is a double chicken portion that acts like two buns. i saw they have only a combined meal on the menu board , you get it with fries, and a soft drink for £6.29p. i asked them if they will do one without the fries and drink, and they said it will be £5.49. though no mention of it on the notice board. so not much difference in price. in other words, anyone wanting one might as well go the whole hog and get the fries and drink. which must be the intention with the way it is priced. it looks rather good.

in this link they were charging £4.79p when they introduced it last year (though i did not notice it last year. again shows how unobservant i can be).

now it is £5.49… pity that. if it were the old price i might buy one. but unfortunately my innate sense of value for money makes me compare it with what i can get for £4. in sainsburys,a frozen pack of 2.5kg chicken pieces which i can cook any method.

in fact, i returned home and got cooking a curry with half of that bag of frozen chicken. and to make it even better value, i used a pack of creamed coconut which i got 50g for less than 5p…so i was not tempted to buy that double down burger. 

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

kfc running out of chicken in uk

london 7.17pm cloudy 6C wednesday 2018

here in uk, we have kfc (kentucky fried chicken) running out of chicken and forced to close its franchise shops and sending their workers home without pay. it is a real bad cockup, all because they moved their supplier to dhl. maybe they wanted to save money, by going to a cheaper company. but this event must have made their franchees lose money and workers lose pay. i wonder whether the kfc company will compensate their franchees. it seems it will continue for weeks, so not something that is solved quickly.

their previous company that had been handling all this without any incident in the past must be grimly smiling… you cant blame them if they are thinking it serves them right for moving to another company. kfc never realise that the previous company were good at their job, and because there have been no trouble of this kind before, kfc thinks it is an easy thing to do, supplying chicken to all their franchises and anyone can do it. so they move to a cheaper supplier and this hits them.

the losses must be in the millions. tough shit for the franchisees.

all the other independant chicken outlets will benefit that is for sure, and maybe new customers who have been ex kfc customers may even like the other independant chicken shops and not go back to kfc even after they get normal again.

i myself have not eaten kfc, nor the others , so cannot really say which is better. so does kfc really taste better than the other independant fried chicken places?

there is no shortage of chicken you can buy in the supermarkets, and that is what i do, buy frozen chicken pieces from sainsbury 2.5kg for £4. in fact, a few weeks ago they even reduced it to £3.50. i got half of that cooked in a curry now , whilst the other half is in the freezer.

i think fried chicken is very fat loaded. it is better to roast it. but of course to those who like fried chicken nothing can compare. 

i am looking at this tv food program, comparing squeezy jars with those in glass bottles. and they cost more when sold in squeezy jars. people like the convenience, they can just squeeze the jar, and it is stored upside down so easy to push out. and people dont seem to mind paying more for it. i mind, but then, i seldom buy these things… mayonnaise, ketchup, things like that i hardly use. to me they are just salt and suger and vinegar; i can use the real thing, salt and suger or vinegar rather than buy those sauces with their coloring agents.

but interestingly enough i buy black soya sauce. and light soya sauce when it was sold cheap.  there is definitely something in soya sauce that adds flavour to the food that is not possible to replicate with just salt and suger. in that same program, they showed that aldi is copying the m&S sandwiches and wraps. there is no copyright on salads and these ready made foods it seems so aldi could do it, even with the same packaging… and because they copy only a limited selection and buy in bulk, they can undercut the prices and sell it cheaper. and they taste just as good it seems. aldi has very few branches in london, i know only one , in the old kent road, (added. 5.3.18 found out aldi got a tooting high st branch), and so may be they wont be making such a big effect on M&S in london. but maybe up north where they have more branches, they might be a serious competitor… though i cannot imagine any M&S customer abandoning it for aldi. haha.

i think if u really want to save money you should make the sandwiches yourself, and bring it from home. so i should think anyone who buys their sandwiches will be those who are not cost conscious. and so they will continue to buy M&S.