Solve One Problem to Find Another!

So the new 'garden' is finished!
We only have a very small piece of garden across from our house and it was one of the only ones that had earth remaining as most of the other residents in the terrace of 10 houses have concreted over their land to provide hard standing for cars or garages.
So the 8 cats on the terrace have been using our earth as a toilet! We have tried chilli powder, turning the earth bright orange, but the cats were not deterred!
So, we have put slabs down the centre and now have a bit of a patio with a couple of chairs and a table. We have put stones to either side around the remaining plants and shrubs covering up every vestige of earth. 
As the garden progressed the cats were squeezed onto smaller and smaller pieces of earth to complete their ablutions and they now seem to have got the massage and have sought alternative places.
Hooray!
But now we have a mole who is determinedly digging up piles of earth around the borders of stones and slabs!
Aghhhhhhhhhhhh!
I've read that sticking a child's windmill in the earth will send moles away as they don't like the vibrations caused as the wind blows! So, Pound Shop here we come!
Looking on the bright side, these piles don't smell!

Try Something New....

I have shopped at ********* (big supermarket) for years, well over 23 because I was shopping there before Harry was born and I have always thought that even though they were a bit more expensive it was worth it because the quality, especially of fresh produce, was better.
We have been getting increasingly frustrated with supermarket shopping in general and have been slowly coming around to the view that the "one big shop" is not a good idea. I always spend much more than I have intended and the 2 for 1 'bargains' seem such a good idea until you realise that 'buy one get one' is actually, more accurately, 'buy one chuck one!'
Over the past weeks we have been disappointed with the short life of most fruit and veg, the tastelessness of meat (even the 'Taste the Difference'/ 'Best quality' products) and the general experience of the supermarket shop.
Last week we went to said supermarket for a few odds and ends and were very surprised at the bill, so we checked all the items, not our usual practice, and found we had been over charged for 2 items.
A lengthy wait at customer services led to a scurrying round the shop to locate the said items by the young assistant. 
Result - Oh it was OUR mistake. The 'offer' product was not, in fac,t the product I had selected but the one next to it! (Millimetres away from it and very easily mistaken. Or is this the point?!). 
OK, so we won't take this product. "Oh I can easily deduct it from your bill, no problem!"
Next product, same explanation given. 
No, I insist, I took it from a promotional display and it was definitely the price I had quoted, not the price on the receipt. 
More scurrying ensued.
"Well I don't know how that could have happened, it was wrongly displayed and we've changed it now but you can have it at the lower price. No problem!" (Or words to that effect.)
So what if I hadn't checked my receipt? 
Am I wrong to assume that most people don't check each item on their receipt? Isn't the speed of the shop what we go to supermarkets for?
I explained my concern and that I was not happy. 
As only one till appeared to be working, I had been kept waiting an inordinately long time as the assistant had let another colleague who was serving another customer 'push in' saying sure, no problem, go ahead", obviously not realising that her kindness was OUR delay and wasted time! Or how many 'No problems' there had been!
So she told me I could make a complaint to the manager. No problem.
Nice! She even offered me a form to do it on! No problem.
She began explaining that I would have to direct my complaint to the two assistant managers as the manager had just jetted off to Florida!! 
Was this meant to make me feel better?
Oh I know, I'm moaning on and there doesn't seem to be any point as supermarkets have got us where they want us, haven't they?
Well, no, we do still have a choice and while we keep shopping at the supermarkets we see the small businesses and the farmers who produce the products being driven out of their livelihoods and dictated to about what and how they produce their goods to serve the big supermarket concerns. 
So, even though it is more inconvenient we have made a decision to buy all of our meat and fresh fruit and veg from a local farm shop while it is still in business! We will be able to afford less but what we do eat will actually taste of something.
There will be some things, tinned goods, washing powders etc., which we will use our supermarkets for, stress on we will use them for, but we seriously will be endeavouring to avoid them whenever there is a possible alternative. 
Going round the farm shop is a delightful experience. And the food is yummy!


(PS the Farm Stall on the photo is the one we shopped at while we were on holiday and it was this that began to convince us that we should stop shopping at supermarkets!)

At the Car Wash!

We had a very muddy car when we returned from our holiday. We had been staying at a farm and had a muddy farm track to negotiate every time we went out. With all the rain...much mud! So we decided to have a car wash at Sainsburys. We drove into the new, fully automated structure and obeyed the red flashing light that dictated: "STOP!" Then "REVERSE!" Then "STOP!" again until we were perfectly positioned for the soapy squirt! Duncan turned to me as the machinery sprang into life, and said: 

"Do you remember the car wash in Cape Town?"

Oh yes! We had been blessed with the loan of a car for the first few weeks of our 3 month stay and when we were to return it we thought we'd pop in through the car wash first. We filled up with petrol, also a novel experience as 5 men leapt to our service, filling the petrol tank, checking the oil, checking the tyres, wiping the windscreen.... 

As Duncan paid he asked: "Do you have a car wash?"

 "Oh yes, just round the back!"

So we drove round the back and the same man opened a big, wooden gate for us and showed us where to park. Then, the same man donned apron, filled a bucket and grabbed a sponge, and with the widest of smiles began to give the car a really thorough wash and polish. 

The cost? A few rand. 

The service? Excellent.

So we returned a clean and shiny car with grateful thanks. 

I must confess to feeling a bit uncomfortable as I sat in the car and had it so well washed by a man. It doesn't tweak my conscience when the huge whirling strips of rubber do the job as I sit! I know which I preferred though. Service with a smile always wins out in the end. I like the human touch!

Soap Opera?

I kicked Coronation Street into touch a few months ago!
I had watched it since I was a child and had been 'hooked' on the relationships and all the happenings and dramas in The Street, it's melancholy wailing theme tune drawing me to the box at 7.30 each Monday and Wednesday evening. Yes, just Monday and Wednesday and I think that was enough! Perhaps part of the demise of the programme, in my opinion, is that it is stretched far too thin and the writers are making it impossibly unbelievable. It is based on a street in Manchester! Can so many things really happen to the residents on one street? Do we the viewing public, really expect and want these impossibly dramatic things to be screened every other night of the week with a break for another "Holiday?Hotel/Wifeswap-from-hell type programme in between screenings?
The train crashes, murders, deaths, funerals, criminal goings on, men becoming women, homosexual relationships....are they really what the viewers want? I remember the scurrilous tongue of Ena Sharples and Dennis Tanner being wrongly accused of stealing from his mum's purse and Len Fairclough's death being high drama and realism enough for me in yesteryear. It was realistic because, if I remember correctly, Len had actually died in real life and so had to be written out of the script! 
All of human nature is here, but do we really want to explore the deepest depths that man can sink to in a programme that is screened well before the 9pm 'watershed'? Is there something wrong with me longing for the gentle, largely uneventful tracking of the relationships that develop and mature in a neighbourhood? If I were to write a programme based on Ripley Terrace the closest I would get to murder would be the murderous looks I give to the cats, yet the lives of the people on the terrace,and their inter-relationships are still well worth telling. And yes, there would be moments of drama - births, deaths, accidents...but all part of the tapestry of life as it is really lived. A gentle programme that would enrich my life by watching, would mirror some of my own experiences and enhance me rather than remind me of how terrible life can be.
So, 'Coro' be gone.
I continue to watch Emmerdale. Perhaps because it is more rural and although it has had some sensational storylines I have been more tolerant of them as I thought they were stories worth thinking about. But now...why does the impossible 'kidnap' of Jacob have to be the next storyline? It is going the way of all soaps, or perhaps was always so and I was a bit too biased. 
I think the beginning of the end came when they changed the filming of the opening credits. Replacing the aerial shots of the rolling greenery of our beautiful county we now have allusions to dirty dealings and treachery - clothing strewn on the floor and trailing towards the stairs and a woman stroking a man's leg with her foot beneath the table! All far too suggestive for a programme that starts at 7pm. (Even if she does seem to miss the man and stroke the table leg!)
So, Emmerdale, I think your days are numbered!
All part of the process of clearing away the dross. I have a life to live here on the terrace. That'll do for me!