SUPERMARKETS

Today was meant to be a post on 'books I have enjoyed reading' but starvation and bad weather reports have put that on hold and instead I am off down the mountain to go shopping at Carrefour. I hate supermarket shopping (and most kinds of shopping come to that) and have always been an advocate for on-line purchasing (apart from books!). When I lived in Toulouse I bought my food through an internet site and only shopped for fresh meat and vegetables. Unfortunately it doesn't exist here - the supermarkets will deliver but one still has to go through the hassle of pushing the trolley around, filling it, emptying it on the belt, stacking it into special containers and then giving the delivery man your goods and your address - 9/10ths of the job is done, so one might as well put the stuff in the car and take it home immediately.

So this morning I am off with my daughter to do 'stock-up' shopping - fortunately she loves shopping although my credit card gets pretty hot when I shop with her. And another problem that has reared its head - I now have to put on my glasses to read the labels on the packets - basically I buy the same sort of things, but since living here we have of course had to adapt to Swiss products as there are few French products in the shops at the moment (this is in the course of changing) - and label-reading here takes time! As the country had three official languages everything is written in French, German and Italian with the result that the contents/instructions are so minute that soon I will be off shopping with glasses and a magnifying glass!

The lad finishes school at lunchtime on a Wednesday and has made us promise to do the supermarket shopping before meeting him for lunch. He normally comes home on the train and the 'car postale' but he has to get stuff for his new school which he started this week and, horror of horrors, we have to go to a mobile 'phone shop as his 6 month old mobile 'phone crashed with him on the slopes the other week and the '0' no longer works - difficult when all numbers start with a '0'. Using a mobile 'phone in Switzerland (or Natel as they call them here) is a luxury - the operators charge the most ridiculous prices, so we are off to the 'Sunrise' shop as it would appear to be the cheapest...

And then the struggle back up the hill (8km of hairpin bends - about 15 of them, but I am convinced they keep adding to this number) to unpack the car hopefully before the heavy snowfall - especially as I haven't had my snow tyres put on the car yet.

So for those of you waiting with baited breathe to read about a book, I'm sorry! Today has been turned into a 'Mum's totally boring day when she can't wait to get home, flop down on the sofa with a large drink'posting!