Shopping Is Awful Hard Work...

I loved all the replies about the mouses and the stories you told about your own experiences...

Now then...grocery shopping is way up high on the list of stuff I'd rather avoid doing...having blood gases being taken is another...especially by young Doctors who ask would I mind if I'm the very ever patient they've experimented on...I did ask could the students not practise on each other first...but he gave me a funny look.

We could get the shopping delivered...but then that'd be another something I've given up through not breathing properly...so I still trundle round Tesco's, muttering under my breath about the prices and goods on high shelves I can't reach 'cos I'm only little...and there's never anyone taller about either.

And I'm totally useless when it comes to numbers and such like, so I haven't the faintest idea whether buying two small bottles is cheaper than the one bottle on Special Offer...sometimes it is and other times it isn't, so I get bewildered and stand there looking gormless and trying to avoid counting on my fingers.

Then there are goodies that we don't need and can't really afford, but I'd like them...first pressed olive oil in gorgeous bottles...artisan breads and cartons of stuffed black olives...so I bought an Aloe Vera plant instead.

Himself is a pain in the neck when we are shopping...he gets in the way and wants to push the trolley, quite forgetting my oxygen bottle is in it and there's only so far the tubing will stretch before it drags me along by my nostrils...and packing the bags at the checkout is quite dreadful...he'll put a bag of carrots straight on top of the crisps, doesn't answer when the checkout girl speaks to him...not 'cos he's being rude, but because he's as deaf as a post and simply doesn't hear her...and I do say about keeping frozen food all together, but when we come home there'll be a bag of frozen peas right on top of the washing powder...

I usually persuade him to go and look at the electrical stuff and try to get through the checkout before he wanders back again...

It's a lovely drive actually...to the little town where Tesco's is...The Ox mountain range is to one side and then there is Crough Patrick straight in front...Crough is pro.Crow...it's a pointy mountain which used to be Pagan until St Patrick came here and announced it was Christian...he threw a bell down from the summit...like you do if you're a Saintly person. On the last Sunday of July, thousands of people turn up to climb to the top...the proper sort of pilgrims do it in bare feet.

There was a beautiful rainbow on the way home...right across the sky.

[Hidden]

I just love your stories

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thank you ever so much eyes...I do love to talk and can't do much of that now...what with the coughing...so I write instead and if it brings someone pleasure for a brief while then that is good!

[Hidden]

Have to agree with eyes, I love ur stories it's the way u tell it, it makes me chuckle as Im reading it , as I can picture each bit I as go through the store with you, brilliant, x Sonia x

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thank you Sonia...I'm pleased you enjoyed reading...we'd be a funny lot if we all went shopping together...they'd have to close the store to the general public!

[Hidden]

hate shopping full stop e shopping is my thing these days and dont get me going about blood tests with me it is better getting it out of a stone

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

It's when they poke and prod and leave you with huge bruises...after cheerfully saying...this won't take a minute...just a sharp scratch...lol

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Don't mind normal blood tests it's the ABG one I can't stand it's so painful, these doctors need one on themselves so they know how it hurts. X Sonia x

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I know...I yelped! And had a huge black bruise for days afterwards...

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

too true Yashti they attacked both hands and arms first then my feet before they realized I needed to go to the Phlebotomy clinic from now on and thankfully I have my card marked that way

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You'll be alright now Ant...love and a squashy hug to you...not too squashy of course...lol

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

ty vashti love your dog mine was a sheltie and he has similar looks

[hufferpuffer]

Hello Vashti, I so enjoyed your posts and answers, thank you so much, you're making think of catching the ferry! huff xxx

[Hidden in reply to hufferpuffer]

And you'd be welcome of course you would...I'd buy you a glass of the black stuff and we could while away the evening listening to a fiddler...

[hufferpuffer in reply to Hidden]

Yes please!!!! xxx

[Suz01]

Another delightful tale Vashti....keep them coming please. Suz xx

[Hidden in reply to Suz01]

Thank you Suz...

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Lovely story Vashti. I hate all needles and several years ago I even yelped at my flu jab. The nurse laughed and said I was only one that day who found it painful! Now I feel it is a badge of honour to protest every time coughalot x

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Get away with you...those don't hurt! Did you get a sweetie for being a brave soldier?

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I will ask next time coughalot x

[Hidden]

Great story,as usual Vashti,I did have a good chuckle!

Quite agree about the shopping,could do it online,but still need to get out there & feel normal?

The way you write,really makes one feel that they are there with you,keep it up!!

Love & hugs xxx

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

It's the feeling normal isn't it? If I stop doing the weekly shop, no matter how much I grumble, it'll be one less thing I do...

[memah]

Do and what I do and carry a calculator around with me, very helpful tool .

[frose]

Wonderful

[nanaber]

I'm with u on hubby being as defe as a post my hubby has hearing aids he puts them every where except in his ears. I found them in the little space where the hand-break is in the car the other day what is it with men????

Beautiful part of the country u live in visited there a few years back climbed the first part of the mt just as far as the statue of st Patrick.

[Hidden in reply to nanaber]

We live within sight of the mountain and have never been there! Hope you enjoyed your visit to Ireland...

Men are different...I'll say no more...lol

[eightyplus]

Great little story vashti, felt I was along there with you. At the very least I felt that I had been out of the house for a while. Bless you.

Allan.

[Hidden in reply to eightyplus]

Oh thank you eightyplus...you've have liked the drive through the little fields with donkeys and cows in them...and the tiny cottages set way back from the road down long grassy lanes...I like to wonder who lives in them and do they have a good turf fire and a kettle on the boil...

[katieoxo60]

That was a good story vashti, made me chuckle but its not funny when your less able and having to do it. My elderly mother won't wear her hearing aid then moans she can't hear(smiles) I guess at her age she has the right to choose to not hear. She is 96 after all.

[Hidden in reply to katieoxo60]

And doesn't your Mum have every right...!

[katieoxo60 in reply to Hidden]

Yes

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You are a tonic!! So much rings true! My husband has severe COPD - recently got him a little scooter to help when he feels he cant walk so far but he says he feels a cheat in the supermarket when he can rest on the trolley with oxygen in the trolley. My youngest daughter has almost throttled him a couple of times forgetting Daddy is at the end of the tube!!! My oldest daughter went to a local shopping center with him before she went to uni and insisted he used the scooter - when I went to pick them up I knew why - you could just see his head poking out from all the bags she had hung on the scooter! Continue to enjoy your life and keep writing! XXX

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I've just had a vision of a poor chap totally surrounded by bags of shopping...his head sticking out of the top!

[Hidden]

you should put all your stories in a book and get them published......SERIOUSLY x

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I did once write an article for an Irish magazine...they paid me fifty euros!

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

that dosnt surprise me you have a natural flare at descriptive writing

[WestWalesPaul]

I'm still chuckling! My wife also forgets I'm attached to the shopping trolley by the tube, and Its caused quite a few 'incidents' before now. Funny when you look back on them though

Doctors used to have to practice taking blood from each other but I've been told they can now only practice on dummies. I'm reliably told that dummies don't complain when the trainees miss the artery in their wrist. I once told a doctor not to try again after his 5th attempt to get the needle into my wrist went wrong. He went away, quite white-faced and a few minutes later a nurse came and managed to take a sample on her first attempt!

And now I'm thinking of your drive to Tesco. Sounds lovely

[Hidden in reply to WestWalesPaul]

The lad...'cos didn't look more than eighteen...had shaky hands and beads of sweat on his forehead...I just knew it was going to hurt!

[2malinka]

I love your positive outlook. I know what you mean about the oxygen. I am on 1/2 litre for 15 hours daily & I find it such a pain. I do shop now and again but because I don't take oxygen out with me , I have a grocery home delivery every fortnight. Whenever I go the supermarket even just buying a few things nearly kills me. I have a blue badge so I can park right outside but even so, by the time I get to the car I am exhausted. Whenever I want to other shopping I a rent a scooter from the mobility scheme. It is a wonderful charity!

I was in Galway a couple of years ago. The scene

[2malinka in reply to 2malinka]

Sorry, seem to have ended unexpectedly. Galway Bay was incredible.

Thanks again for making me smile.

[Hidden in reply to 2malinka]

It is beautiful certainly...we live close to a bog and the flowers and wildlife are incredible...

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

And you are welcome!

[Suzy6]

I agree re shopping. My answer is let Husband do it on his own. After 40 or more years of me doing it he has discovered he loves it. As I just used to go to one Supermarket and dump it in as I detest shopping even for clothes actually anything, and never looked at the price, he is happy to save money. Don't let on he is a good shopper, knows the prices of everything and he is happy as he has saved money. I'm even happier to be released from it.

[Hidden in reply to Suzy6]

You are so lucky...mine would put chocolate biscuits in first and quite forget to get anything for supper!

[pegbl]

Hi Vashita

I think your story about shopping was so good I chuckled all through reading it. you do truly have a gift with words and I thank you for cheering me up and putting a smile on my face x peg

I look forward to your next story, by the way when in hospital recently a rufused to have the blood test from my wrist, doctors were not very happy with me but then the nurse came along said there was no problem they could do it from my ear which didn't hurt one bit and she assured me gave them the same results !