The Parental Home and Waitrose Supermarket

After a great two days at Boy and Nic´s I have returned to the parental home – with no parents in sight. Sensibly Ma and Pa started wintering in Nice a few years back.

It was bought for GBP12000 in 1967, the year I was born and therefore my home for my first 18 years.

This is suburbia – one of the last stations on the London Underground.

Physically not much has changed, but there is now a sizeable Indian and West African community. Much excitement arrived in the local centre with the introduction of a Starbucks.

For the first time in my living memory the house is bereft of sustenance. I head up to the local Waitrose supermarket.

A car stops me in the street and the elderly woman asks me if I speak English. “I try” I tell her and I am even able to offer directions to Bishop´s Avenue.

I have clearly been in India for a long time because it is like walking into a gastronomic paradise.

It would be so tempting to go nuts, but this cat is on the tightest of budgets. I select the following items: -
2 x cherry juice
1 x bottle of Dr Pepper
1 x loaf of fresh wholegrain loaf
1 x ripe brie
1 x Scottish raspberry yoghurt
1 x ready to eat lamb rogan josh

An interesting reflection on what i have missed the most - although the rogan josh will hopefully take me back to the mountains of The Ganj. Gotta try and make it last as long as possible. I am pleased with my purchases but cost almost a week´s living expenses in The Ganj. GA just thinks i´m a tight-ass.

I realize that navigating around the house is fraught with danger. I have been issued a list of rules and recommendations which include:

No parties
No shoes to be worn in the house
No eating in the dining room
No smoking in the house

Double check locks, refrigerator door, freezer door, gas taps on the hob, put a towel in front of the dishwasher. Classic stuff indeed!

I can´t operate almost all the electrical appliances including the thermostat, and whilst i know i am meant to separate the rubbish in to plastics, paper and aluminum into separate coloured bins, i have no idea what colours are for which waste.