July 11th.....

What was that film called with Arnold Schwarzenegger where he has to get to the toy shop on christmas eve and get the toy for his kid, the last one in the shop? Tesco Newtownabbey was kinda like that this evening.... only more cussing.

I decided on one of the busiest shopping days of the year to try out Joanne's parents' new bar-be-que. Today has been good weather and everyone (apart from me) got out of work today at about 3pm.

The following sum explains further:

Good weather +
Short work day followed by 2 days national holiday +
Being Northern Ireland's official bonfire night (for one half of the community) =
BBQ!

Random trivia for international visitors:
The 12th and 13th of july are national holidays in Northern Ireland. For more info click here. Bonfire night is the 11th, a precursor to these holidays for the loyalist side of the divide.

When i got to the supermarket I discovered first of all that they were closing now. Right now. Although normally a 24/7 (ish) supermarket, all concerned shoppers now start to panic.
Everything that is needed for survival is to be bought in the next 5 minutes.

The shelves were as empty as i've ever seen them. There were 3 packets of sausages and no bread at all. I got some beer, which was a miracle in itself as tonight's bonfire extravaganza has over the years descended into a drink-a-thon. I dropped a 4 pack on the floor and had to have another brought to me as there was, in the words of the assistant, "....no time to get another. Stay here!".

I passed by Davy from work who explained that he and his missis had been to 3 supermarkets and were still short of what they were looking for. There was an air of desperation setting in!

I got the checkouts only to be moved on from one line to another because, and I quote: "...sorry sir, I'm closing up now!" OF COURSE YOU"RE CLOSING UP NOW, THE WHOLE BLOODY SHOP IS CLOSING UP NOW! That was in my head, but if you know me you'll know I'll go to say things like that and then just grin insanely and just move on.

The thing about the checkouts is that in this country you can only buy alcohol at a percentage of the open tills at a supermarket. It's a silly licensing thing that i doubt even the management understand. There are signs up showing you which till is ok to buy from and which is not.

I was having the problem that every till i got refused from was an alcohol purchasing till. I kept being referred on to tills that I could not buy alcohol from. I finally cracked up and said: "where can I buy this stuff from then, all the other tills that sell alcohol are closing too!" I was greeted with little sympathy and told to move on.

20 minutes later I got out of the place. I was driving to a petrol station to buy bread when i came across an example of one of the smaller bonfires:

click above image to enlarge

As you can see there is a Irish flag on top, what you may not be able to see is the celtic fooball tops that are arm in arm all around it too. Such silly hatred.

(by the way if you are not from Ireland and you are puzzled about this I'll be happy to explain. Just e-mail me)

Well, off I go. We'll probably take a look about the bonfires later, but stay far enough away from the idiots to be in any danger!

More to follow..... M.