This country is going mad !!!!!!

[sejintenej]

Apologies if this has been one of the links on this thread, and I missed it. In 'The Week' today, there is a report of a Postman who happened to be delivering to a frail elderly lady, at the same time as a courier was trying to deliver a parcel. The old lady was not at home. Wishing to avoid making her trek to the Sorting Office to collect her parcel, the postman signed for the delivery on her behalf and then delivered it to her himself later, when she was at home. She telephoned his superiors to say how grateful she was... but he lost his job and is now signed off sick with stress.

By contrast I was amazed at the patience of my postwoman in France.
A recorded delivery package arrived which I had to forward by recorded delivery. She waited whilst I repackaged it, weighed it (she was in her delivery van), helped me fill in the correct form, went through my disparate collection of stamps, converting the old franc and cent stamps into eurocent equivalents and finally we found I was a little bit short. I think all this took about 15 minutes; I gave her the parcel and a euro coin to cover the cost of the extra stamps and she returned the change with my post the next day.
Excellent service

[icomefromalanddownunder]

I find Tesco expensive; within about a mile of Tesco recently I got pineapples at 2 for 50p, excellent apples at 50p a kilo, mushrooms - a kilo for the same price ........ spuds are a problem; Maris Piper are 5.95 a bag but it is 50 kilos which would last us at least a few months, milk at £1.09 for 2.268 litres which is cheaper than Tesco's advertised price (itself not available in out local Tesco). At least my dividends were high

I should probably move this to Philip's view from abroad thread, but can't be bothered ........................

for anyone who is remotely interested, here are some comparative prices from Adelaide:

I don't think that I have ever seen a pineapple for less than $3

apples range from $2 - $4 per kilo at the supermarket. The cheaper ones aren't worth the effort of putting them into the car to take home. However, the lovely lady who runs a local orchard and sells her produce at our local market usually has a 10 kg box of horse apples/windfalls for $5, and the quality of these is superior to the supermarket produce.

Mushies are usually about $10 for a kg of anaemic little white buttons with no flavour. Swiss browns more expensive.

Potatoes range from $1+ per kilo for washed lumps with almost transparent skin that go green within days of purchase to over $5 per kilo for the better varieties. I'm particularly fond of Kiplers, little sort of, well, faeces shaped spuds which don't turn to mush on cooking and have a good flavour. The only spuds that I have managed to store without spoilage for more than a fortnight are organically grown and range from $6 per kilo up.

Swedes and parsnips, which I love, have been over $7 per kilo. For cattle food?????????????????????????????????

And don't get me started on the fact that I could buy South Australian wines in UK supermarkets for less than we pay at the cellar doors