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Tuesday 2nd Feb. 17F/-8C. Hoar frost, with mist clearing to bright sunshine from an almost clear, blue sky. It was all rather beautiful. With a sugar coating to every twig. The mist becoming stratified in places. So that the tops and trunks of the copses were clearly seen above and below a soft, white stripe.
I walked briskly to the lanes. Not because of the cold but because of the lateness of my leaving. I am finding my Ventile, winter jacket superbly warm provided I dress normally beneath it. There is no need for fleece undergarments or even thick jumpers. The GripGrab, medieval, "Aviator" scull cap is also proving itself. In keeping my ears and head pleasantly warm. Without the need for a trapper's fur hat. It just reached freezing point in the afternoon.
The various, Danish supermarkets, home delivery, grocery services get worse and worse regardless of the chain involved. I have come very close to shopping myself because of the pathetic lack of stock elsewhere.
I can walk into the local shop[s] and get everything we could possibly need to last a whole week. All the other branches don't stock these everyday items. Not when the shopper fills our basket at any other branch. It is often a real struggle to put an evening meal together.
We are regularly reduced to having something on toast. Despite using three different services the backlog of failure to supply simply adds to the overall frustration. It is not as if it is a free service and the delivery prices and charges for completely imaginary carrier bags are rising. We are often charged for five bags when the shopping is easily delivered in two!
We are supposed to self-isolate because of our vulnerable age group. Which we have been doing for a full year now. If we ignored the government's very sensible rules we could stock up for the lean times. For when the supermarkets cannot supply the everyday stuff.
What makes it worse is that many of the items they advertise as "special offers" never existed in reality. Though this very obvious scam, to increase foot traffic, has been going on for twenty years! I would often ride for miles around all the nearest branches and never found the items in stock anywhere. The staff used to say they never arrived. And never would in my personal experience.
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