Bee Orchid's articles

Finally!

This past week we’ve been beset by zombies. These poor souls wander the aisles, weaving back and forth, trying to find items to add to their trolley, then try to find their way out with their goods. They may be annoying to some, but we must pity them their lack of direction and lucid thinking. Maybe aliens sucked their brains out. Or some mad scientist experimented on them and these husks are the result of his nefarious experiments. Who knows? LMAO There’s been more ‘drama’ in the produce (fr…

This week I have been mostly good and have resisted the urge to zap customers with my scanner. I feel sure they should be zapped to another dimension where they can experience what it’s like to not be able to get to produce that they want, but as mentioned previously, my scanner seems to be broken LMAO. Work has been intense with some quiet moments but other times the aisles are crazy-busy, and you wouldn’t really know we’re in lockdown to be honest. I don’t think that many are taking it se…

With the lockdown for England looming, I’ve noticed certain items in high demand. Toilet rolls and paracetamol are the obvious ones; however, I’ve noticed a huge increase in demand for fizzy drinks, crisps, biscuits, and chocolates. Good to see that people are getting their priorities sorted. I did my usual weekly shop and added one bottle of bleach and 2 packs of paracetamol as these fly off the shelves very quickly. With our GP surgery still closed, I also bought antiseptic wipes, plasters, an…

Whilst I was born in England, in my heart and soul I am Welsh. In my 60-plus years, I have lived in England for only about 5 years, and my birthplace was really an accident of location and me arriving about a month early. Most of my life, I’ve lived in Wales, and I never thought I’d say this, but I’m glad I don’t live there now. Due to rising infections, the whole of Wales is on something called a firebreak lockdown with police allegedly stopping people on the border between England and Wales, a…

Recently, I had a nice Birthday. I’d booked a ‘day’ off work, and a Sunday roast was planned, and successfully executed. I made half a coffee cake which was sandwiched with coffee butter icing and cherry jam. It was good! My friend in Wales, surprisingly, sent me a Birthday text on the day, and even more surprisingly, flowers and truffles were delivered the next day from him. Nice! It was kind of him to remember, and a week on, I still have most of them; yellow roses, yellow freesias – my favour…

At this time of year, my thoughts turn to Birthday’s for obvious reasons. Let’s just say I’m another year closer to getting my state pension. I should have had it already, but changes… I won’t go there. Anyway, when we were kids my Father was often away - various postings due to his military career and he often missed our Birthday’s. Despite not having a lot of money, my Mum always made sure we had a party of some sort and that we had a good time. One particular military house had a large gar…

These past few months I have been staggered, and frankly, deeply disappointed, by the utter contempt shown by MP’s for the general public and for the very rules and laws that they are making and forcing on us including increasing limits on our freedom and civil liberties. We have a parent of a world leader photographed not wearing a mask whilst the rest of us plebs must. A former leader of the opposition breaking the ‘rule of 6’. An MP going on a long drive during a national lockdown to ‘test…

With all the doom and gloom and crazy out there, I thought it would be good to focus on some positives. I love this cooler weather. This morning, away from the shelter and warmth of the trees near my street, there was a light frost on the ground. I was wrapped up well in a woollen hoody, a fleece jacket, and gloves, and the dog was enjoying scrunching through and sniffing at the frosty ground. He loves it so much if it snows, and I well remember one year his nose was acting as a tiny snowplo…

This week, we seem to be returning to panic-buying. One day this week the store I work at was wiped out of pasta. Another day, the toilet roll aisle was well stocked, but by 9am, it was severely depleted. Flour is another, with a colleague stating one customer bought 9 bags of it! Today, barring a single food item, I filled a crate – and these are not small crates – with cleaning fluids and wipes for one customer. Now, this is only my opinion and not the opinion of my employer, but at this rate,…

Today was a good day. For only the second time since I started working at the supermarket, I said no thanks to overtime. With my new contract now started, I’m working an extra 10 hours a week which is quite a lot, I think. I worked an extra hour on Sunday; I couldn’t work out who I was more cross with, myself for saying yes, or the supervisor for asking, knowing my hours have increased so much. Anyway, today I manned up and said no. I got paid, which is always a bonus, and it was a good amount d…

Since my last blog, I’ve had the great fortune to come into contact with some special people. I don’t know if they were celebrities, or VIP’s of some kind. The first was in my place of work in the vegetable aisle: there were customers aplenty, and three of us picking. A man was looking at the produce, and I made to go around him; there was plenty of room to social distance, and we were all wearing face coverings. He raised his hand, and in a very loud, imperious voice stated: No, just wait. Wait…

Since my last blog, I’ve been somewhat irritated. I was packing the one day and the picker hadn’t checked the lid was tight on a bleach bottle. Not surprisingly, it leaked! Over my hands, over a couple of items in the tray… I had to do a major clean-up job, and despite being very careful, I managed to get a tiny bleach ‘spot’ on my work shirt. Man, I was cross. Another day I had picked some milk and was picking vegetables when I espied a white mess in a lower tray. There were 3 containers of mil…

Due to long-term ill-health, and the covid virus, my kid sister has been self-isolating since this all broke out. Her partner has been home for much of this time after his employer gave him compassionate leave to be home with her, to take care of her. This week, he finally returned to work and my sister commented that though she obviously loves him dearly, and was grateful for his care, it was so nice to finally have some alone time at home. It made me think; my son has been home since this all…

It’s been a busy though productive week. I have one more day to go for this week, but so far have managed to work 2 hours less than planned which given all the extra hours I was scheduled, that’s fine by me. I’ve worked a lot of overtime recently and I netted almost an extra week’s pay from it. Not a massive amount given my salary and part-time basis, but very nice all the same. Thursday was an odd day: I arrived at my usual time, which is 10 minutes before I start, to find very few people on th…

… I have been mostly hot and bothered. Tuesday night, around midnight, we had some terrific thunder and lightning. We also had a heavy shower, but it did nothing to bring the temperature down and in the morning, there was barely half an inch of rain in the buckets dotted around the garden. Both bedrooms have been around 30C which is just awful. We leave the windows and curtains closed when the sun is on that side of the house, and then open the windows once the sun has moved around to get some a…

After almost 7 months, the ‘head’ (bathroom to you landlubbers) has at long last been repaired. I know, I know, there’s been a lockdown and a pandemic, but the landlord had 2 months to sort this out before we went into lockdown and she simply prevaricated. I’d lay money on the fact that had she been living in the house, then the repair would have been sorted very quickly. This is what many renters have to put up with; repairs that take an age to complete, if they’re tackled at all, and I really…

This week, I have been, mostly, shattered. I worked an extra 10 hours, making my weekly total 22 hours. It was hard work. I didn’t mind doing it, however the one day I was a tad miffed. It was a day I wasn’t supposed to be in anyway, I did a 6-hour shift, and even then, two people asked if I could stay extra. I apologised, but said no, I really wanted to get home, and I reminded them I was working 10 hours overtime this week anyway. Each day that I’ve worked 6 hours, I’ve fallen asleep in front…