for those of you who expect, and indeed as far as they can enjoy, regular updates here, please allow this opening to act as the expression of an apology for the inactivity here of late. hope and interest have not been abandoned by your humble if not nimble narrator; i have just had a lack of time and indeed a lack of content for you.
let me try and fix that here, then, with a few images and words that will i hope be of interest to someone somewhere!!
i went off on a shopping adventure today, as indeed the title of this post suggests, but not all of these pictures are from the actual trip of today. some, indeed most, are, but this first image is not. so let me not be accused of trying to claim that it is or was.
here, for the benefit of my dear friends and family over in South Africa (yes, beloved mother-in-law, if you have clocked how to get to this page i do include you), is what (at time of writing) R50 gets you in respect of sweetcorn.
erm, yeah.if you went into a store in Johannesburg, or pretty much anywhere in SA (except the infamously overpriced Cape Town of course) and they tried to charge you "about" R50 for that, you would in all likelihood punch the proprietor of the store in the face. this, however, of course is not a land where the magnificence of sweetcorn grows all free and wild, so one needs to pay for the costs of import and that.
i say about R50, but it could of course be R60 or more by the time you read this sentence. the exchange rate is not a pleasant thing at all to look at. as a point of fact, i think The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, probably has his people looking at it right now in advance of his gig in Johannesburg on Saturday and is watching as a break even-slight profit margin is turning into a whopping loss.
the currency is in freefall, and whilst some are trying to blame it on Turkey and Argentina (the latter always being an ace thing to blame stuff on), i suspect it has rather more to do with that useless big bald f#@* opening his mouth in public. the world would be a better place if he would just be so kind as to p!ss off to the massive shed he had everyone build for him and stayed there.
moving on, and i drove to the shops today. but not in the car that you would normally associate with my travels. that car, the beast of the road, remains in the sunnier region of Africa, as this picture will reveal to your satisfaction.
many, many thanks indeed to Sinbad and Maria for taking the above somewhat voyeuristic image! good to see the wheels running about in the hands of Jayson, the new custodian of the dream machine. Jayson is probably unaware of the above picture being taken; i can only hope you are enjoying driving it about mate, and call yourself as and when something goes awry with it, as i used to call your good self!
so what did i drive around in today? the new wheels, which came about by chance, a quirk of fate, an amicable arrangement and, most importantly, by me having and knowing some very, very good people that i am proud to be able to call friends.
want to see the wheels? of course you do.
well, that's an element of the wheels, i suppose. a very nice little car it is; one that i can drive with relative ease and have neither crashed nor blown up as of yet. and am hoping not to, since my (considerably) better half uses it too and will get quite cross with me if i did.
as for how i came to take ownership, well, a sensational story that is not my tale to tell mostly, but what i can say is that a deal was done with a good friend. i am unsure if Andrew wants his name stating here on my blog so i will not say it was Andrew, instead just show a picture off of him with me. i am the ugly one in the picture.
fantastic to see him, and i certainly hope to see him as frequently as our calendars allow!
on that note i have not gotten around to seeing all that many of the dear friends i have here at home. my new mobility should allow this a great deal more than it has thus far.
and cruising around to see people is very much what i hope to be doing, despite all being true about the somewhat close to astronomical costs of fuel here. they seem to frown upon you taking pictures in stores and of places here somewhat, but never mind, i did it anyway - for the benefit mostly of the aforementioned dear friends and family in SA, check out these fuel prices!
yep, that is around about R25 per litre. ouch, my wallet says i tell you, ouch. however, all things in balance. here the roads are, of course, well built and well managed, and good management is certainly behind the flow of traffic. no sitting burning up fuel for 90 minutes to travel 30kms as was the case in Johannesburg, to be honest!
my chums here are, of course, all always welcome to visit me too in our new home! i mean, i have travelled some 7,000 miles to get back, so i am sure a few will decide to "meet me half way" and travel a handful of miles to see me.
but enough of my exciting and slightly exotic social life, you want the details of my shopping. well, pictures more than my words perhaps, but here comes both. and first off, some exciting foot cream for you, which seems to carry a premium price here.
i am assuming that it is due to it being some Norwegian formula that this footcream was of an eye-watering price to your humble narrator, but my (considerably) better half expressed a wish, if not need, to have some for her toes and that. or whatever elements of the feet this stuff goes on. i do not begrudge her it at all, of course, but methinks i need to look for people selling it for less. i recall from my days and nights growing up that there was and perhaps is a store called Super Drug, let me find the locale of one of their branches if they are still on the go!
yes, i know you can see something that excites you in the background of that picture; i will get to them in a bit. promise.
to put the price, which i have not revealed, of the above foot cream into some sort of perspective for you, it cost more than the combined price of these two items. these two sensational and excellent items, if i say so myfes. and you will say when you see them.
yes. mugs that feature The Who. two of them. well, they were marked half price, so it seemed rude not to get both kinds.
i am sorry, but i am finding the angle i have taken the above pic at has a freaky effect. at the side it is Keith Moon with his head slumped on Roger Daltrey's shoulder, but at a glance it looks like a raised head, full on look at John Entwhistle in his facial hair days. don't know if you can see it or not too, or if it is just me.
anyway, they are mugs of The Who, and thus they are mine. will i be allowing my (considerably) better half to use them? probably not. i might reserve them for just me and visiting friends, so long as the visitors are respectful of The Who. which should be anyone who visits, as it is unlikely that i would befriend or allow into the house anyone who i felt did not appreciate and respect The Who to the correct level. which is high. a high number, if you like.
for some bizarre reason quite a few of you like to see pictures of me on here, so if that one above is not quite enough here is another of me. well, if you can spot me; for i am hiding behind some Mars bars.
one or two (well, two) more pictures of me later, but for now back to that thing that a number of you will have spotted and want to see more - a lot more - of.
my days of smoking are, alas, close to an end. that will be a shock to a few who know me, so let this sentence stand to allow for that to sink in a bit. partially they are drawing to a close because it is bad for you and a silly thing to do and all that, but mostly because of the seriously high cost of the silly, bad habit here. and no i cannot give pictorial evidence of it as they seem to keep the fags locked behind steel doors in the shops.
the above did not, however, stop me from investing in items that ignite cigarettes in the mean time. especially as the items are apparently endorsed by one of the finest actors the world has known.
oh yes, Al Pacino cigarette lighters. ace! if we assume that these are an official product, for i see nothing on them telling me that they are unofficial, it is sensational that Mr Pacino, or "Al" as i presume to be able to call him, so much money have i invested in watching his fine films over the years, has chosen to endorse a product of this nature. good for him, i say.
does, you may well ask, a similar ruling exist for use of these lighters by my (considerably) better half as is the case with the mugs of The Who? yes, partially. i mean, i love her and that, but she has a habit of "hiding" lighters, just like her mother. but in this case there is one of them she can do exactly what she likes with. i think you know which one.
if you don't, well, as everyone should know, there were only ever two films made of The Godfather. some try to say "no, they made a third one", and in the eyes of those people i am a denialist or something. if, and only if, they made a third one, it would probably have been total rubbish, and Pacino would probably have looked like he does on one of them lighters in it. so that lighter is something she can do what she wants with.
other shopping? sure. assuming you have no real wish or need to see milk, bread, eggs and things like that, my quest for smells continued today somewhat as i invested in other deodorants that seems reluctant or unwilling to call themselves deodorant. you can refer back to the moaning post i did on that subject earlier in the month if you like, but in short i am baffled as to why sometimes things are no longer called what they are.
anyway, here is the deodorant that does not have deodorant written on it that i bought today, mostly as they were cheap or on special offer.
the two Nivea ones were bought due to them being "buy two for this much lower price" offer; the other one, Sanex, purchased on the basis of it being a quid or so. hopefully they do work out as good ones, as i was less than impressed with the ones i bought before. that i mentioned that i wrote about before too, so for ease of reference, go on then, here is the link to it for your reading pleasure.
of the ones i got before, the blue adidas one was a major disappointment, smelling as it did of some sort of lemon scented ant and bug twatting chemical. fingers crossed, then, that Nivea and Sanex like their customers to smell better.
apologies, by the way, if this blog post has felt disjointed in some small or large way. as i have done it i have been interrupted, but not necessarily disturbed, by a random wandering estate agent, a member of Her Majesty's esteemed postal service, an unsolicited text message soliciting a review of services, the need to tend to the fire that keeps our house warm(ish) and the urges of my (considerably) better half to have speaks with me.
in regards of one of them things, another picture of me? sure, why not as i do the fire.
quite a tricky angle to get, that one was, but i think i did it quite well. also i switched the flash off on the blueberry so if the fire flames feel funny in shade that would be why.
some more images of those class mugs of The Who that i got? certainly, with one showing off the price paid. and yes i have taken the stickers off.
that thing i said about Keith Moon's resting head looking like the bearded Entwhistle looks way more pronounced and obvious in that picture, does it not? or is it just me?
this next picture just leaves Moon out of it so i do not get myself all baffled and confused by it. this next picture also shows off something ace that i did not buy and did not get today, but was very kindly given yesterday.
yes, ladies and gents, that is a rather smart set of JVC headphones right there. given to me by Gramps yesterday, no less. those of you who know Gramps may be baffled by the idea of him either going out to the shops or buying me a set of headphones. the answer is no on both things that might have you baffled.
he was, apparently, for some reason given that "set of cans" over Christmas. he was, as you might expect, puzzled by such a gift, and so simply left them in the packet. when i visited him and Gran yesterday he asked if i would have any use for them, a question which had the answer very much yes. so thanks Gramps!
they are no doubt going to get used to listen to The Who at the correct volume at some point, so that picture has worked out rather well.
and that's just about that to be honest, bar one more selfie of me at the fireplace, doing my best to keep it going and keep warm.
more as and when it happens, i guess, or when i have the time, the pictures and the internet access to do more!
if this post has in some small way helped or inspired your shopping adventures, well then so much the better!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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