Day 4

Today I learned a lesson in the art of shopping. I need bags with zips on top. I visited my local butcher. I could smell my chicken in the oven cooking as I neared his stall. No we do not sell whole free-range chickens only if ordered he informed me. Well I stated, I would like to order one please. He had to phone a man about a chicken. I could have one next Thursday from West Wales. Ok I said I will have one every Thursday but what do I do for the next week. The smell of that stuffing receded from the memory from whence it had escaped and I looked at the chicken breasts IN PLASTIC. Have you any chicken breasts without plastic I asked in vain. If that had been me I would have been getting the scissors out pronto. No he said as that memory slipped even further into the recesses of my chicken hungry stomach. Do they come in in the plastic I asked, I do not give in easy. Oh no, he said, we do that. Could you not do it to a few please I asked. They come in this afternoon he said, in a big box sealed and with nitrous oxide inside to keep them fresh. Ok I cried, never mind the nitrous oxide. I am making a statement not starving myself to death I will be back tomorrow morning with my container. I floundered then. I passed on to the delicatessen stall and bought 3 slices of turkey breast. They did not taste like the turkey breast of a turkey when I cook it but I was not starving after I had eaten it with a huge salad made from my fresh lettuce and tomatoes from the vegetable stall opposite and the new potatoes were lovely. I bought beetroot and huge mushrooms, spring onions, marrow and tiny carrots, swede and cauliflower from the Gower. My apples this week are cox’s pippins and the jaffas are huge, the satsumas juicy and the bananas the best around. Four plums again for a treat and four steps to the fish stall. Fish I cried elated after the chicken disappointment, I can have fish wrapped in paper. Haddock please that big bit there and no plastic bag. No plastic bag he repeated. No plastic bag I said. He put the haddock on a piece of paper and wrapped it perfectly, then in another piece then another piece and then he looked straight into my eyes as I shook my head and uttered again, no, no plastic bag. I put the fish into my container that should have held the chicken, it was a not quite the same but was lovely and fresh. The container joined the fruit in my brown leather bag which holds loads and fitted on my shoulder. I got it comfortable and bent down to retrieve my two bulging canvas bags of fruit and vegetables. As I lifted up so the lemons and tangerines and plums spilled out of my bag on my shoulder onto the flagstones. Hence bags with zips have to be a priority. I wanted to look as though this was normal as I chased my treasure between people’s legs and the man on the fish stall shook his head muttering, no plastic bag. I escaped grabbed a paper bag stuffed with liquorice from Holland & Barrett and I was on my way to the bus. My journeys today were the first journeys out of my village since I started my experiment on October 1st. I travelled to a funeral in a car with 3 other people this morning and back to Neath the same way. I caught the bus back to the village. Today I ate the turkey, tomorrow I will remove the haddock from the paper and feast like a queen again.