The supermarket

The 3 amigos are steadily gaining confidence during their stay with me.

Today they came in the car with me to Newcastle, where I saw the lovely psychiatrist who keeps an eye on my mental health. Then we dashed home in time to give lunch to Mum and set off for Hexham General to see the orthotist. She is helping with the collars Mum wears to support her neck.

Unfortunately there was a drama while I was away parking the car. I had left Mum in her wheelchair in the waiting room. Another patient was leaving on his outdoor motorised scooter - one of those big ones. He backed out of the corridor he was in and came close to backing the machine into Mum. She was shouting "Stop". The orthotist tried to take the brakes off her wheelchair, when it might have been better to stop the driver. He did hear and stopped in time, but it gave Mum a big fright.

We needed to go to Waitrose to pick up a parcel and I decided to do my shopping there. The boys were thrilled to be out of my bag and able to see all the lovely things we could have bought. I think they look really happy in this blip. (Other supermarkets are available.)

It was the first time we tried out one of those trolleys that clips onto the wheelchair and it was fairly easy to manage.

I've heard Lenny Henry on Front Row tonight talking about King Hedley II, the play I saw last week. I hope it has a longer run or transfers to the West End. It's really worth seeing.

Now a mini-rant. I don't expect to rant about John Lewis, but I'm going to. The microwave I bought there has to be returned unused to Samsung because it is faulty. I have had four separate long phone calls to JL and to Samsung about this. Why John Lewis could not deal with it themselves I don't know.


Today I had the longest call of all while a young man, whose language was speckled liberally with superlatives (super, excellent, thank you so much for waiting, fabulous), tried to arrange to remove the microwave and make a new order. I will get my money back  three to five days after they collect the first microwave next week. In the meantime, I had to place a new order for the replacement. I also have to pay for it to be installed. Not happy.


He has arranged two different days and times for the collection and the time slot is between 0700 and 1700.


I began to lose the will to live.


The muzac on the John Lewis line is almost the worst I have ever heard too.