Back home to Retirement Part 2, the real part, everyday at home with Christine - lots of 'we' time. The holiday is over we now need to organise ourselves for the future.


With this in mind 'we' decided to do the supermarket shopping on Saturday morning. It is probably fair to say that I have not done this very often in the past but off we go. With hindsight and a little thought and planning I should have wondered why we were going on a Saturday. 'We' are retired so we could go anytime, Tuesday morning at 6.00am, Wednesday at 8.00pm but no, we go at 10am on Saturday morning and so do the rest of Beverley.


The car park is full so I finish up driving along following trolleys until I find someone who is leaving. Inside, the place is heaving with ladies who are serious shoppers, they know what they want, they know where it is and they know how to push the trollies. They probably have Black Books and have a list of what to collect. 'We' appear to have no idea.


I push the trolley while Christine collects the food sounds like a plan. What I didn't know is that supermarket trolleys only go forward like crabs, you have to push them sideways, why is this only a problem to me, everyone else is happy pushing crabs along but I want mine to go straight. I change it for another, it does the same. I give in and push the crab.


So the food is growing in the trolley, I notice the organic chicken, the fresh salmon, the wallpaper paste and decide that Christine needs some help. I find the six pack of meat pies, the sausage rolls and a large meal sized pork pie: things are looking up. Add some sausage and bacon and we have the meals for a week. Christine in still in the fruit and vegetable department.


I start looking at the wine deciding which offer is the best when Christine walks up collects the wine she wants and proceeds to the queue to get out. I remember when the supermarket opened it boasted of having 24 checkouts, it could have 124 but if you only have 10 people working them what's the point. Why don't we complain? Well, aparently because the queue is a good place to chat and catch up with gossip.


We drive home and unpack the food. Where are the pies and sausage rolls? "Back on the shelf," says Christine "we don't buy them". I look forward to a week of chicken, fish and wall paper paste, LK Today is on the TV, I bet Buster the dog comes on later. Things must change: I go out and buy a new Black Book plans need to be made.