Oh rose ...

I wonder if you go on, as I do, with the end of that sentence - "Oh rose, thou art sick..." - but it's not appropriate, because this rose is far from sick; it's a new shoot on an old climbing sort of rose bush at the far end of my garden, just where the steps go down from the drive-in. I've always found it a bit disappointing because the flowers fade so rapidly, and it's liable to grow over the path every summer, but this year I got our gardener to cut it right back and it's gone crazy as a result. This lovely cluster is at the top of a branch that's grown way above my head ...

By the time I took the photo, on my way in after a walk, I'd already more or less finished my day. It was raining slightly when I left to go shopping at 8.30am, sunny enough and warm enough to sit outside and fall asleep after lunch, and windy and raining slightly when we arrived at Ardyne in the later part of the afternoon, only for the clouds to clear and give us a lovely, sunny - if blowy - walk up the road between the farms as far as Knockdow house, still owned, as far as I know, by an Russian, looking a tad neglected but lovely, with the artificial lake covered in white water-lilies. 

However, it's the shopping I want to share with you. Having been necking Ibuprofen for the last few evenings because of a sore back, I thought I'd buy a couple of packets to replenish the medicine box. I've done this countless times before - and you know how long I've been shopping before 10am - and have never tried to buy more than the two packs allowed (there's a wee sign telling you this, just in case you didn't know.) I was nearing the end of packing my shopping into bags, chatting to the woman behind the till who happened to be a former pupil, when she stopped in the act of checking out the Ibuprofen. "You can't buy this before 10 o'clock," she announced. Was there a note of triumph in her voice? "But it's not booze," I pointed out. "I've been doing it for years." I tried cajoling, but to no end. Apparently her till wouldn't let her do it. The woman at the next till agreed - they were all the same. I checked - you can still buy paracetamol at this time, just not ibuprofen. I had to go without.

Has anyone else come across this recently? This was in Morrison's - is it happening in other stores? When I got home I sent an open message, an exasperated-sounding message, to Morrison's on Twitter (@Morrisons, if you're interested) asking what new hell this was. They asked me to DM them, and tempted as I was to conduct the crazy conversation in public, I did so. They seemed as bemused as I was. Maybe it's a local decision ...

Did you ever hear anything more ridiculous? Would anyone be specially likely to try to OD on Ibuprofen? Before breakfast?

I ask you ...