The Systems Administrator went out this morning, to buy more coal, and some fresh rolls. The first I knew of it was when I heard the car leaving. I protested when the SA got back that I'd have been happy to go, but the SA replied that he'd felt like going out. I can see you might want a chance of scene. While in the Clacton branch of Tesco the SA had tried to use some of our two-for-one vouchers for Finest wine, which have to be exchanged before the end of the month. I'd have preferred a double-your-vouchers offer on cat food, since we always need cat food, and the cats will not be tempted by knowing it was free to eat extra, but there wasn't a pet food option, and we don't need any electrical goods or Tesco clothing.
The SA left it to the eleventh hour to swap the normal vouchers for double value wine ones, despite my frequent reminders. These might almost have constituted nagging, except that when somebody offers you fifty quid's worth of free wine it would be foolish to miss out on it through lack of organisation. Then the SA caught a cold, leaving the vouchers still unused with, now, two days to go. Today's initial attempt to use them met with only mixed success, since Tesco's till failed to recognise two of the bottles the SA had chosen as Finest, despite their being clearly labelled as such. With a queue mounting and the poor young lad on the checkout sweating, the SA gave up and paid for them in the normal way. They came up on the receipt as rose, which they weren't.
Investigating the contents of the fridge to see what we could eat up for lunch, I thought I'd better check the dates on the cheese, or at least the soft ones. I bought rather a lot of cheese, since the original plan was to have a cheese and wine fest on Boxing Day evening while watching a film. Actually, we were going to watch the director's cut of Apocalypse Now, which might not be everybody's choice of festive viewing, but is one of our favourites, and gets a periodic outing on high days and holidays. In view of the SA's cold we agreed to save the film and the cheese for another time, but I was not sure how long the cheese would last.
The use by date on the box of Petit Pont l'Eveque was 11.12.2013, which caused me to do a double take. I bought the cheese with the main Christmas shop, on 23rd December, meaning that it was already twelve days out of date when Tesco sold it to me. I did check the dates on the chicken, and the sausages, and the pork and chestnut stuffing, and the bacon, and the cream, and the milk, and the clementines, very carefully, and made sure they would all still be good until at least 25th December, and preferably later. I had not thought to check every individual piece of cheese. Lo, the bastards at Tesco managed to sell me one that wouldn't merely not last until Christmas, but was already well past its sell-by date as it trundled down the conveyor belt at the checkout.
I do still have the receipt in my handbag, as it happens. It does not name the Petit Pont l'Eveque, merely says cheese. I could go all the way over to Highwoods with the SA when the SA goes to spend the rest of the wine vouchers, and take the cheese, and the receipt, and stand in a queue at customer services, and insist that the date expired cheese is one of the nameless cheeses on the receipt, and refuse to leave until I got a refund. I could. It would be very dull, and stressful, and I would be using up my time at less than the minimum wage. Ergo, it's not worth it.
Everything the newspapers say about Tesco having lost the plot is true. The SA believes that the Highwoods branch is better managed than the Hythe one, but I should say they are as bad as each other. I would have liked to do the main Christmas shop at Waitrose anyway, except that I knew their car park would be a complete riot, and the queues for the tills two hours long, since it isn't a very big store. Next year, once the Christmas rush is over, I'll be free to go where I like, and it is increasingly unlikely to be Tesco.
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