Just a glimpse...

[kerrensimmonds]

At the risk of taking this off topic again (sorry, Phil!) I can only agree with Jo. Supermarket checkouts have opportunities for people with less than 10 items to progress through in an accelerated way, but according to my observation, most people in those queues have more than 10 items.
As a disabled person who takes a trolley (so I can lean on it) even though my few purchases would otherwise fit into a basket, I do not queue up at the 'basket only' or '10 items or less' channels, Iand I do feel aggrieved by those who do abuse the system.
Let's get back to the beaches in Thailand. They are so much more interesting than UK Supermarkets!

[jhopgood]

Why do shops employ staff with no common sense?

Because they pay minimum wage?

One of my gripes is people with laden baskets going through the "10 items or less" (sic) checkouts and the staff doing nothing about it. I complained one time and they more or less said they didn't care, and they seemed to think it was very odd that I did

Not quite the same but having queued for ages with the trolley, I get miffed when people with a few items come up and ask if they can go in front. They universally think I am a s**t when I point out that the less than 10 items is specifically for them.

[englishangel]

Thank you Jo for the (sic)

fewer, FEWER,FEWER

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

When I was at CH (Quite a good School, I understand) Mr Malins taught us that one must not end the sentence with "Of"
Consequently ---" Of which to say nothing " --- I think I have also lost the thread of the argument !

I brought back 5 cases of Vin de Fleur --- red wine , served chilled, and 1 case of white, for Philistines !

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

When I was at CH (Quite a good School, I understand) Mr Malins taught us that one must not end the sentence with "Of"
Consequently ---" Of which to say nothing " --- I think I have also lost the thread of the argument !

I brought back 5 cases of Vin de Fleur --- red wine , served chilled, and 1 case of white, for Philistines !

And when did "Being fair to Neill "creep in ???

[Ajarn Philip]

Goodness me, long time no glimpse. Well, let's put that right, shall we?

It's jolly chilly here at the moment. Phase 1, switch off aircon and open windows. Phase 2, put on T-shirt. Phase 3, close windows, as it's too cold. Not sure what the temperature is, but it's definitely under 30 C... brrrr...

Let me share with you one of the worst times of my life. The whole of January last year was spent in hospital in Bangkok, while they found out what was wrong with me and started treatment. Not only was I physically weak, but I became quite feeble-minded while there. Here are some of the nasty little fantasies that seemed very real to me at the time:

i. an Underwood ancestor was an explorer in Thailand in the 17th century, and I now owned half of Hua Hin…

ii. the hospital was on a boat that travelled back and forth between Hua Hin and a ‘shopping island’ about a couple of hours away. There was a restaurant near my little 3-bed ward – I often heard people I knew…

iii. some drunken Brit squaddies on holiday in Thailand broke in to the ward and started threatening patients and stealing money. They were arrested by some Dutch police on detachment to Bangkok to help with the student protests, two of whom were stationed at the foot of my bed every night…

iv. I woke up one night convinced the place was on fire and tried to convince everyone to get out – that one didn’t make me popular…

v. I woke up another morning in a complete duplicate of the hospital on the other side of Thailand.

vi. my daughter was kidnapped by Thai student protesters (whose leaders were to be heard conspiring in the curtained off area next to mine) who wanted me to support them. I even had a threatening text message and phoned various colleagues to ask how the protesters could have got my phone number…

There were more, but you get the general idea. Fortunately, Mrs Ajarn stayed with me the whole time and managed to provide some kind of link to reality.

The academic year is now officially over, and I won't see any students until the beginning of June. So I may be able to give you a few more glimpses in the meantime.

[Chris Blewett]

that all sounds really horrid - having been pushed from pillar to post by a 'caring' manager 10 days ago, my gp has decided that I shouldn't work for another 6 weeks whilst I get my feeble mind together so I commiserate!! I am hoping to actually do some work and earn my salary this year!!!

[Katharine]

Good to hear from you Phil, even if it is such awful fantasies. Did they give you a sustificate to say you were sane* when they let you out? Hope that your health if OK now and that you will be able to recoup your energies over the vacation and give us further glimpses of life.

I know just what you mean about it being cold at somewhere below 30º, when you are used to far more. It is many years now since we had our various postings to Borneo but the memory lives on.

* My Papa had a then unheard of reaction to a drug for pneumonia, which resulted in his being transferred to a padded cell (yes, literally a padded cell), his sanity sustificate when they released him was one of his proudest possessions, none of the us had one, how did we know we were sane? - I do love OB logic!

[sejintenej]

Why do shops employ staff with no common sense? ' Eventually I leaned over and looked at the receipt still in the machine and noticed my Tesco Value smoked mackerel was £185.10!!! I told her that's where the mistake was and she said 'oh yeah'. It should have been £1.85. Maybe if I'd been buying shoes or handbags she might have had more of an idea of how much things cost, but surely anyone with an ounce of common sense would know that unless I'd bought copious amounts of caviar, 8 bags of shopping doesn't come to nearly £250!

We use Tesco and another major supermarket and usually have to complain at customer disservice. For example there were prepacked bags of fruit at £1,85 but a long way away the same bags were on twofers at £2 so we got two. The till charged us £3,70 with no rebate at the bottom. Of course customer disservice tried to show us that the goods were at the higher price and almost refused to be shown the twofer display. They got angry and I simply got sarcastic. As for the misleading "price per 100gm" on the shelf edges; I'm into a "save money" thread elsewhere on that subject.
I think I have already mentioned the Waitrose section head who refused to accept that salmon priced at at (say) £2,20 per 100 gm is actually £22 per kilo.He couldn't tell me the "per kilo" price because he didn't have a calculator.

Given the intelligence of many of the staff I suspect that they would be happy to get £100 wages for 35 hours work at £7 per hour.

[Ajarn Philip]

Buy her a computer program for doing the conversion. It will also give the code numbers of the threads needed.!!

Bless your daintily embroidered cotton socks, midge - 18 months on and I've only just seen this post. And the lady has a birthday coming up in May. You're a genius!

[Ajarn Philip]

Good to hear from you Phil, even if it is such awful fantasies. Did they give you a sustificate to say you were sane* when they let you out?

A sanity certificate? Are you 'avin a larf??? How do you think I managed to get early retirement when I was 40?
Woof, woof!

[kerrensimmonds]

Well, Phil, I am really glad that whatever happened to you in January last year, it was not a sense-of-humour transplant!

[Chris Blewett]

Why do shops employ staff with no common sense? ' Eventually I leaned over and looked at the receipt still in the machine and noticed my Tesco Value smoked mackerel was £185.10!!! I told her that's where the mistake was and she said 'oh yeah'. It should have been £1.85. Maybe if I'd been buying shoes or handbags she might have had more of an idea of how much things cost, but surely anyone with an ounce of common sense would know that unless I'd bought copious amounts of caviar, 8 bags of shopping doesn't come to nearly £250!

We use Tesco and another major supermarket and usually have to complain at customer disservice. For example there were prepacked bags of fruit at £1,85 but a long way away the same bags were on twofers at £2 so we got two. The till charged us £3,70 with no rebate at the bottom. Of course customer disservice tried to show us that the goods were at the higher price and almost refused to be shown the twofer display. They got angry and I simply got sarcastic. As for the misleading "price per 100gm" on the shelf edges; I'm into a "save money" thread elsewhere on that subject.
I think I have already mentioned the Waitrose section head who refused to accept that salmon priced at at (say) £2,20 per 100 gm is actually £22 per kilo.He couldn't tell me the "per kilo" price because he didn't have a calculator.

Given the intelligence of many of the staff I suspect that they would be happy to get £100 wages for 35 hours work at £7 per hour.

The other ploy Tesco use is to sell double packs of biscuits at £2.85 when the single pack is £1.10!!!! They dont seem to see the point when they ask me when I have bought 2 packs when the double is on special!!

I'm doing my hardest to change to the co-op - staff seem to be a little friendlier!!

[Mid A 15]

Good to see you back Phil

[sejintenej]

The other ploy Tesco use is to sell double packs of biscuits at £2.85 when the single pack is £1.10!!!! They dont seem to see the point when they ask me when I have bought 2 packs when the double is on special!!

I'm doing my hardest to change to the co-op - staff seem to be a little friendlier!!

Ordinary "cheap" button mushrooms in pre-packs (sensible size - not even half a kilo! and full price, undiscounted) at about £1,80 per kilo but the same mushrooms loose were about £6 per kilo.