What's on my mind? Irrational human behaviour…
This morning I went for my usual Saturday shop — planning the usual essentials. Nothing much… cat food, a bag of cat litter, peanut butter some eggs etc… and yet… and yet… as I walked into Waitrose and saw the empty shelves — loo rolls — gone; Soap and cleaner — gone; flour — gone; Eggs — gone; milk and dairy — if not all gone, definitely running low… I caught myself in a rising panic.
As the saying goes, I "talked myself down off the ledge" and went about my business as usual. But I was struck by that flash of irrational fear that, OMG! we're running out… gotta do something.
Imagine the response if this was something akin to an airborne Ebola? A true Black Death.
Anyway. Strange times we live in.
This morning, I headed in to the farmers' market, unusually early (by my normally tardy standards). Thus, I was there shortly after 10.00, mainly to replenish fruit, vegetables and organic, free range, eggs.
Standing at the organic meat stall/ethical, environmentally aware butcher's, I was stupefied by the order of a woman nearby, being served; firstly, she requested 5 kg of mince, (thereby, completely cleaning the stall out of mince - I had had it in mind to purchase one bag of around 500g of mince, to replace the one I have in the freezer which I intended, nay, still intend, to use in the next week or so), and asked that it be broken down into packs of sound 500g.
She then proceeded to order more than twenty chicken legs/thighs.....at which point, struggling with emotions torn between hilarity and horror, I switched off.
However, there are bright notes in all of this: My cheesemonger, who is a good friend, phoned me to check that I am okay, and offered to drop out some cheese and wine to me; an absolute gent; two of his staff are ill, and he is running around ensuring that their families have ample supplies of food and whatever other necessities are required.
@arkitect: I have found that small, local stores - and specialist shops, such as delis, cheesemongers, butchers, are more than amply stocked, with stuff such as loo paper, soap, tissue, and so on.
