Yes I have often ranted about the awefullity of supermarkets but in Norn Iron smaller shops can have their bad moments too. Perhaps people are so traumitised by the speedy efficiency of the Tesco or the Safeways that they enjoy a leisurely shop in the smaller establishments. But do they need to do it immediately in front of Huttonian?. Exhausted after battling my way through the easterly gales on the golf course (A hen- free round incidentally although I did see a few scratching around at a safe distance) I was bidden by the wife to get a loaf of wheaten, unsliced, at the Cookie Jar. I made a bad start by joining the wrong queue: there are usually three: one for those who want to buy and go away; the second for those who want to buy eventually but who would like to linger, gossip and hear the headlines again; and the third for those who are not bothered about buying but want to hear the news in detail-and buy as an afterthought. I hit the fourth line-the shortest-her and me. This was for those who are there to buy but have no idea what and do so after much thought and deliberation and item by item-the one suggesting the other-a scone, half a wheaten sliced, another scone, another wheaten but unsliced, a fruit cake, a non-fruit cake. And so on. And everytime I twitched with bearly controlled impatience the lady thought of something else and something more to say on unrelated topic. All aided and abetted by the sales assistant who had all the time in the world and had a ready contribution to make to all subjects aired including the new blue bins, the lack of a suitable bus to Downpatrick, the impending/current/past light rain, the East wind and week end plans (its Monday for good ness sake) . They are also the ones who fumble in the purse for hours pulling out p after p, find its not quite enough (£3.19 in this case) and then pay by credit card, clucking all the time. I nearly gave up in despair but feared the wrath of the wife so held out-I got my wheaten eventually but was so intent in avoiding any attempts to prolong the conversation that I forget to ask her not to slice the bread; which of course she did thus earning a Yellow card on my return home.
