"you dont eat chinese do you?" and the decs are up!

There i was doing my thing in the shop, its a busy day and I had already had a few "can you tell me's" from customers and risen to the occasion very well I thought.  However, there are the ones that you don't quite get along with and hey! here comes one now!

Quite distinguished looking lady long blondish hair even longer coat, well spoken, even "posh!" and "In a hurry!".  These types always are "In a hurry" which makes understanding what they want a little more, shall we say, challenging. 

"I need plum sauce and those pancakes to wrap my duck in" she says.  A look of confused amusement crosses my face, she tries again mentioning that the duck is "crispy" with a slightly irritated tone, her by the way not the duck.  Chinese pancakes I assume and wonder why she cant make them herself, anyway I find her the plumb sauce at the second pass as the "name" is hidden by the shelf ready packaging.  Why isn't the name in the middle of the label i think like all the others as her irritation rises to 5/10. 

We still haven't found the pancakes, eventually establishing that we don't do them and she snaps at me "you don't eat Chinese do you!"  I refrain from a really sarcastic comment like "No their flip flops are always a bit chewy!" but let her know I have visited Hong Kong 3 times in recent years and have had my fair share of Chinese food.  She settles on some thin wraps and rushes off to the check outs and probably some board meeting or other without so much of a thank you.  My shift returns to normal!

We have a briefing on a monthly basis which comes from on high and is delivered by "Justin" on a DVD, hes one of the top bods in Sainsbugs.  He tells us how well He/we are doing and has this amusing way of talking with his hands that completely mesmerises me and i don't hear any of his mutterings.  At the end of the briefing we sign a bit of paper to acknowledge our presence and are then told we will be required to "Carol Sing" in the foyer of the shop if we are working on either the 16/17 Dec.

Now I don't mind wearing a particular colour on a special occasion or even the odd silly hat or as i did not long ago a pair of "Panda ears" to advertise a "Kung Fu Panda" DVD.  But "Carol singing"  No, I might have a sore throat that day! 

I see a bloke wandering up and down the isle looking for "Something" so approach him and hes after a 5" Coconut cake by special instructions from "the wife".  I don't remember us having ever done that particular item but you go through the litany of pretending and then offering an alternative.  The only one i can see is a packet of "Weightwatchers Coconut slices"and suggest this.  "Weightwatchers" he says looking at me and says, "I might be foolhardy but I'm not that brave to present "the wife" with weightwatchers cakes!"  A wise man!

Finally then our Christmas decorations are "up" with all the usual wondering where we are going to put 4 trees and a couple of miles of coloured lights.  Its strange isn't it that all the lights work when you put them away but are duds when you take them out of the bag the following Christmas.  Mind you with these natty little bulbs and LED's now that type of thing is a thing of the past. 

A slight tinge of sadness came over the household for a while as we remembered our little "Tesco" cat having never seen the decs before climbed to the top of every tree to see what it was all about.  She then joined her brother "Sainsbury" in denuding the lower branches of most of the red baubles.  So here's a pic of Sainsbury, a "Big Boy" now doing just that a couple of days ago.

Tom the senior cat decided it was all too much and went to sleep on the pile of tinsel. 

Enjoy the day!