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The shopping spree and a 12-pack prize

There were the experienced women of the blue rinse set all manoeuvring their trolleys with gifted skills. Then there were the men whose driving skills more than made up for their inability to find the elusive prize – the 12 pack.

Arriving late on the grid I would be forced to use all my wily experience if I were to be in the contest. Then it came, the announcement that the prizes had all been distributed.

Putting my disappointment aside and trying not to listen to my wife’s exaggerated and non-stop opining about our lateness for the opening, we got on with our shopping.

“What if we don’t get any?” she asked for the umpteenth time. In turn I reminded her about the “cut in half phone books” that used to suffice when I was a kid.

I always preferred the Pink Pages. My mates always used the White. Anyway, they called me names for which I had no understanding at the time but later when I did I always checked the names on the sheet before using it in case the word Toorak appeared.

Anyway, I digress.

Coles was particularly frantic at 8am in the morning with all manner of folk hustling and bustling for position on every isle. Staff were filling the shelves with gusto. That not a brand, by the way, it’s just a word to describe how enthusiastic the staff were.

The only thing we overstocked on was food for our Ellie. Nothing’s too good for her.

So, with a couple of months supply of premium dog food in the trolley we headed for the deli.

When eventually we got to the wine shop my heart sank. There wasn’t a cask of pensioners’ piss in sight. “You will just have to go without,” my wife sternly said.

I must say there are some rude bastards in this world. Twice I nearly hit the deck after two of the blue-rinse set attacked me with a pincer movement from isles 11 and 12.

Mixed up in my thoughts of reporting them to management something deep down in my conscience was worrying me. Just how the rise of narcissism, inequality and the demise of compassion illustrated the state of the world.

Anyway, just as I was shirt-fronted with charge from isle 5 a mate of mine from the bowling club whispered in my ear:

“The deli, mate, they are in the deli.”

“What are?” I answered.

“The toilet rolls, you silly old bastard.”

All of a sudden things clicked together. I sped off down isle 1, soups, spaghetti and tinned fish, past the bakery and arrived just in time to see a 12 pack hurtling toward me.

Being the fast leading full forward that I once was I took it on my chest way above the pack and quickly put it in its place.

As we were exiting the centre Virginia’s friend from the medical clinic stopped us. I knew this would require time and patience. Now Virginia and Veronica are not ones to judge but they do form their own opinions.

Anyway, it appeared that the clinic was experiencing a run on its services with people wanting tests that were not as yet available, and prescription renewals that were not yet due. On top of that the Chemist Warehouse had a two and a half hour prescription wait.

I swear without exaggeration that this is what our town of Traralgon is going through.

Our behaviour is, I believe, symptomatic of what capitalism and the right-wing media has created.

Conversely, here is a little poem I wrote. I thought it might help:

The Hand

The hand is extended

To those who are but poor

The hand is outstretched

To those who have no more

The hand seeks the ill

Without the means to pay

It is its obligation

When society has a say

The hand is extended

To those unloved anymore

The hand reaches out

Prosperity belongs to all

The hand reaches out

To the hungry one and all

The hand it will feed them

In this we all should share

The hand is stretches out

So the homeless shall not fall

The hand offers a place of sleep

No matter what the cost

The hand is extended

To those who grieve and mourn

The hand offers mercy

Loss it will not ignore

The hand is freely given

To the righteous falsely accused

The hand it offers more than hope

It offers labour too

The hand it should be taken

When through the net they fall

When society sees a need

That was not their fault at all

The hand is the government

For everyone to grasp

Not just for those who have

But for those who have nothing at all.

My Thought For The Day

At some time in the human narrative … in our history, man declared himself superior to women. It must have been an accident, or at least an act of gross stupidity. But that’s men for you.

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19 comments

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  1. Jano from the Gong

    Nice – social Justice Poetry , John ,, It is spot on !

    God bless !

  2. wam

    Wow, lord, I had been sitting for 20 years, lord, before we had a phone book and the tins or long drops had long gone. The coffee shop has had to keep the serviettes behind the counter as customers were stealing them presumably they didn’t have a phone..
    We are driving from Adelaide, to el dorado to see grandis who share an orchard with a family with 4 kids under 8 we are bringing rice, pasta, dogs and cat food and tissues because the Melbourne mobile hoarding set,including by buses, have raided the regional shops
    I Romberg your partial foray into religion, lord, and you must have missed the god made man from scratch and then he had a thought and took a rib to make a woman. It is a difficult transmission into seeing man is god’s image and woman is for the use of.
    ps
    it is funny lord but pink was a man’s colour till the 1920s and lingered till the war. I wear pink socks to golf and at least one rabbottian is so embarrassed he won’t sit a the same table.

  3. Pingback: The shopping spree and a 12-pack prize #newsoz.org #auspol – News Oz

  4. Terence Mills

    I noticed in our local Woolies that Tim Tams have been discounted to half-price for the last couple of weeks : nobody stock-piling Tim Tams.

    Our priorities are all wrong folks !

  5. Peter F

    The wonders of living out in the bush!!!!!!! We don’t need to replenish food and household stocks for some time yet, so
    I expect that there might, just might be something left when we do need to do our normal restock.

    I am just pleased that the grocery store is not five minutes walk away 🙂

  6. Glenn K

    What is with the Aussie panicking? and toilet paper?? really??? Here in the south of France we’re ending our first week of lock down – only allowed out to go to the supermarket or pharmacy. I went to the supermarket today and got stopped by a copper at the main intersection in our small village – where was I going? To the supermarket in the next larger town. No problem. I get there and wait in a line for 10 minutes for my turn in the shop. No problem. Get inside and nothing is run out, though some stocks are low…like coffee and kids cereal (schools are shut so all the kids are at home, so that kinda makes sense, and coffee for the parents stuck at home). Oh, and love the French – wine is sold in supermarkets.
    All very calm and controlled. Yet we’re in a lock-down and right NEXT DOOR to the chaos happening in northern Italy. Amazing the impact the Murdoch press can have on a society…….

  7. wam

    Dear Waltz of the cuckoos,
    Funny about Tim tams, they were our Darwin frozen treat for years and in our food parcel jaunt to lord’s country, hope SA doesn’t close the borders, we have 7 pkts in the esky for the young family plus piles of Easter eggs.

  8. Uta Hannemann

    After WW II some Daily Newspapers were available, whereas for a long time there was no supply of toilet paper! I can very well remember the cut pieces of newspaper we had to use for our bums . . . .

  9. Dave G.

    Some of the British newspapers used to produce an airmail copy on lovely light paper,these were considered the Delux of papers for you know what.

  10. Michael Taylor

    Hats off to Woolies. They are introducing home delivery for the aged, disabled, or those with a compromised immune system.

    Well done, guys. I tips my lid.

  11. John Lord

    If only every business thought so creatively.

  12. 3poodles

    @glen k

    murdoch press is pure evil, but not evil enough for politicians around the world to give them the keys to their cities.

  13. king1394

    Pity help us if our sewage systems get clogged with newspaper and bits of telephone book pages

  14. Pilot

    Just to let you guys know, locally we are being invaded by pus loads of city folk raiding our supermarkets up here in Muswellbrook. A pack bloody thieving, hoarding, panic stricken mongrel bred arseholes

  15. Wam

    Ouch, king1394 good thinking!! Certainly newsprint is so ‘cloggy’, the sewage pipes couldn’t cope and would choke. Ah well back to the long drops and night carts.

  16. wam

    If you said ‘free’, Michael I would join lord in praise but delivery has been around for some considerable time, with discounts for seniors, and I think if you spend hundreds delivery is free
    ps colworths have cauliflower and lettuce @ $10 so oldies may be priced out?

  17. Roswell

    wam, Coles and Woolies ceased home deliveries a few weeks ago.

  18. New Engand Cocky

    Uhm … Coles have announced today 220320 that COPS home delivery is operating.

    The post from Steve Cain CEO Coles Group is too big to post in full here.

    “New Coles Online Priority Service (COPS)

    Coles Online is one of the world’s best and largest home delivery services and has been temporarily diverted to the Coles Online Priority Service (COPS), allowing us to focus on delivering food and grocery essentials to elderly and vulnerable members of the community, including retirement and nursing homes. We will shortly announce how customers can access COPS; please check http://www.coles.com.au for more details. We expect this to be available by the end of next week – but will keep you posted if we can do it sooner. “

  19. wam

    Sadly my time in Victoria with grandies is cut because by Tuesday 4pm I have to be over the SA border and home to Darwin in cannot do the latter so home quarantine for us or if qantas stops flying to Darwin what will we do in Adelaide for accommodation??
    It is tragic to see the little coffee shops hotels and restaurants so empty and the workers smiling through what must bea shocking strain.
    My sister struggled with two kids and a drunk she worked 3 part time jobs what a tragedy for her sisters of today.
    What about the FIFOs?

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