My New Best Friend

It used to take me an hour and a half, from leaving the flat, to getting back in again to do the weekly grocery shopping. This involved insisting that my helpers wear shoes and coats, that they don't drop their shoes and coats on the floor as we are wheeling around the store, that they don't stand up in the moving trolley and that they don't snatch the list from my hand, chew on it or rip it or drop it in the dairy aisle. It would also involve pushing the heavy trolley all around the megastore, trying not to grunt and groan and grimace, especially when I realised I'd forgotten something in aisle 2 and am now in aisle 687. Then there was loading into and out of the car, and the tricky issue of getting a toddler and the bags from the car to the flat, which is a distance of about 150 metres, and up a flight of stairs. Normally this would take 4-5 separate trips.

Well, the Tesco delivery van man is my new best friend. I make a cup of tea and sit down at my computer for about 45 minutes clicking on pictures of food. The next evening, as if by magic, he brings all my groceries in the door and sets them down on my kitchen table!! And he keeps his shoes on the whole time.