13.04.2025 Ripped off by SuperBrugsen!

 ~o~

  Sunday 13th 45F/7C. Early bright sunshine becoming cloudy after 10am. Peaking at around 15C/59F this afternoon. Increasingly windy from the SE going southerly. Some rain later this afternoon. It has been very dry. Increasing the risk of wildfires. The farmers have been spraying their fields too. Where a water supply was available.

 Up at 7am after a busy night at the fire bucket. Though I slept well enough in between.

 No immediate plans but I really ought to have a ride. Particularly with some rain forecast every day for the next week.

 10.30 Returning from a 36km ride to town. It was unpleasantly windy but the cloud was slow to obscure the sun. I saw a couple of hares doing zoomies. On a vast field devoid of crops. Just smooth dry soil. I took a scenic, wandering, coastal route I hadn't traveled for years. Last time it was on my trike. 

 There was a cheap little house for sale. On a picturesque, narrow lane overlooking a pretty lake. So I would ride that way regularly. Just to see what progress was made in repairs. The house was in a very poor state but beautifully situated. Alas it remains largely unchanged all these years later. With a cement mixer parked in front of the entrance door.

 I called in at SuperBrugsen. The Danish equivalent of the British Co-op. A supermarket chain in rapid decline. With many branches closing. Where they were once the standard town and village supermarket. It seems their desperation for money has caused a serious drop in standards. They tried to rip me off to the tune of 6 kroner. 3 kroner difference between the shelf price and the checkout on two items. 

 It took all of ten minutes for the pre-pubescent teenager on the checkout to understand. Then repeatedly attempt to correct the mistake. While a long and impatient queue soon built up. As he failed to call another member of staff to open another till. Sadly Denmark has no consumer protection. So the supermarkets can easily get away with this sort of thing. 

 They have the perfect money printing system. Since they don't automatically provide a till receipt. Then there is the national standard shortage of staff on the checkouts. So fast loading and leaving by the customer is absolutely required. Just to keep the queues short and tempers subdued. 

 How is the customer supposed to check if the supermarket is thieving from them? How can they check if the price on the checkout is different from the price on the shelf? They can't. I remember from 40 years ago in the UK. Where massive fines were imposed on retail cheats for this sort of illegal behaviour. But then, the UK had proper consumer protection. Even all those years ago. 

 13.00 I started removing floorboards from the toppled observatory. None of the Torx screws would undo. So I tried levering the boards up with my modest crowbars. Slow and hard work. So I jumped in the car and went to three local flea markets. To see if they had any larger crowbars. They hadn't. There were spots of rain on the windscreen. 

 So I had lunch while I considered my options. They sell crowbars at the big shed outlets for quite modest sums. I don't want a huge example or its weight will be more of a handicap. My longest crowbar is 60cm or 2'. I can get one 910mm or 3' long in town. The extra foot or 30cm of leverage should [hopefully] make all the difference. 

 13.40 Raining hard! Off we go gain. 

 14.45 Back from town. Where I bought a 310mm crowbar for very little money. The rain came to nothing. I tried the bar on the flooring and it worked far better than my 60cm model. All the lower flooring is now gone. Along with a short joist. [See image above] The whole pier could drop on my head. If that single, last piece of flooring was removed. So I am being very careful. 

 Dinner will be chicken, mushrooms, boiled potatoes, peas, carrots and some artificial gravy. Using Danish browning powder to make a Sunday dinner. The gravy usually looks like coffee with a dash of milk. 

 It was like adding hot water. So I have finally ordered a pack of Bisto Original powder. From a business selling British products in Denmark. There were no usable carrots left. They had to be recycled.

  ~o~