Restores Your Faith In Humanity

[ClareA]

OH and me, on a bus, gong home. A young lad gets on, asking how far the bus goes. It turns out it terminates before where he has arrranged to meet his sister. A middle aged lady passenger pipes up that she is being met from the bus by her husband, and that they will take the young man to where he's to meet his sister, along the route.
These people didn't know each other.
That's the kind of thing that happens here.

[Buenchico]

That was the longest day that I worked as a trade plater, ClareA, but 18 to 20 hours (often without food or drink) was fairly common. Because the company I worked for got us to sign that we were self-employed (so we had to pay all of our own expenses getting from a 'drop' to a 'pick up', often well over a hundred miles way) I was working for just over half of the National Minimum Wage! Oh, fun days!

[Buenchico]

PS: On that day I've told you about, I gave up bothering about food. When I was still a couple of hours away from home, a friend phoned me to ask if I'd like to go round to her flat to share a bottle of wine. I asked her if she'd still be up at a quarter to one. She said that she'd be happy to wait for me so, when I finally got back to my home town (after nearly 24 full hours 'on the road') I went straight round to her place for the most welcoming glass of wine that I'd ever had!

[welshlibranr]

Oh Chris, my OH is self employed now!...........not as bad as your rate, but hard work!.........and not much time off!........hardly ever see him!.................

[ClareA]

Talking of wine, and sidetracking a bit, I've just realised that walking brain-numbed round Tesco on the usual Friday night trek, I came away with a hideous bottle (no, two) of under-strength (8%) muck. That'll put paid to my more surreal posts then, won't it?

[Buenchico]

What the hell do Tesco sell that's only 8%? (Remind me to avoid it!).
A decent grape (e.g. Albariño) should produce ABV's of at least 11% (and often closer to 13%)

[welshlibranr]

Oh Chris, they sell tht 'light' stuff these days!.......you really need to look at the label!.......otherwise you could easily end up buying it!.............it's terrible stuff!........haven't bought it myself, always check labels!.............my friend bought 3 bottles!............2 went into a raffle!..............shame for the winners!......

[ClareA]

This abomination, Buenchco, is called Silver Bay Point. And heaping horror upon horror, in looking at the label to give you more information, I've noticed that it's 'British wine' - in other words, shipped over from wherever as a concentrate and made up on the quayside with water. Oh, yuck - why wasn't I paying more attention?

[Buenchico]

I suspect that you were paying too much attention to the price, ClareA!

Forget Tesco. For a decent (reasonably priced) red, simply head to your local Co-op and purchase a bottle of 'Long Slim' (from Chile). It's not the best wine in the world but it's excellent value for the price.

[ClareA]

The thing that I'm kicking myself about, Buenchico, is that I'm usually well aware of the presence of this horror on the shelves, and, alerted by the price among other things, avoid it. I can only think that I'd about had enough and had switched off my rational faculties. I'm now thinking whether I can persuade them to take the unopened bottle back and put the credit toward something proper.