Reality Check at the Reality Check-out..........

Jackie was hard at work editing in London on Saturday, so I mustered the entire crew (me) and spent the day washing, sweeping, cleaning, getting in coal, wood and water, doing the re-cycling, the gash, the ash-can and the compost bin.

All in all, a day of such proper 21st Century Man right-on-ness that the smug-o-meter was right up in the red 'danger-do-not-exceed' level of the dial.

Then I went to Tresco.

Ah, the joys of The Scilly Isles Supermarket.

I even had a list:

Clumping cat litter.............. shelf empty

Sparkling water.................. ditto

China's favourite kitten biccies..likewise

red finger chillies...............sod all available in the Milton branch

I actually felt really annoyed.

For about three minutes.

Then a thought percolated through my brain... (like making good coffee, it takes some time, and can go very wrong if rushed....)

I had instead filled my trolley with all manner of good (and, need I add, substantially reduced) provender, including a whole free range chicken......

My Dad ate his first steak in Tokyo in the early 1950's when he was in the navy.

He was born in 1928.......

We so soon forget how lucky we are. We live in times of the most astonishing plenty.

My getting annoyed at the absence of a few comestibles actually rather shamed me, when I consider the privations my parents' generation endured before, during and after The Second World War.......

I popped back the following day and purchased all the missing items on my list.

And not a queue nor a spiv in sight.

Hmmmmmmmmm.