Monday 9 March 2009

Satisfaction

A windy day. Someone remarked this afternoon that it hasn't been a very windy winter, and I think that's been so. It was sunny today though, and I thought I'd cycle into town until I went outside. I changed my mind. I know, very wimpish.

Al was going to do a Health & Safety check round the village school, so I went into the shop for a couple of hours or so. The price of bananas has rocketed since I was last serving there. I suppose it's the dollar/pound rate. Cucumbers and cauliflowers have come well down though and are back to the price they cost at the beginning of the year.

The Sage gave me a lift in, and this was the first time I'd been in his new van. I asked more about it - I knew that he'd taken it on to help Mike out, as he'd got it for his wife to take the dogs out in, but she hadn't liked it. There is slightly more to it than that though as I discovered today - Mike took the Sage's old car in exchange, and no money changed hands. Both were extremely satisfied with the deal - indeed, the Sage insisted on giving Dilly, whose car his had originally been, an extra £100 as he felt that, three or four years ago, he hadn't really given her enough. She didn't want to take it but the Sage wouldn't take a refusal, so she and Al bought a lot of plants for their garden. So everybody was happy.

Oh, and Al found a fire door that had been painted over. So that was useful. Mind you, the school has loads of doors and if one painted over hadn't been noticed for a while, it just showed it wasn't ever used. But he has displayed Keen Observation. A new school is being built at present, which will be ready by the end of the year, so it's not worth spending any money on the present building, unless for anything absolutely vital, but I suspect that unsticking doors comes in that category. Maybe a school governor with a Stanley knife?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The grocers a block away charges 89 cents per pound for regular bananas, 99 cents a pound for organic. Trader Joe's charges 19 cents per banana-something which greatly confused my neighbor-she misread and thought it was 19 cents a pound. That would have been quite the deal.
That was very nice and fair of Sage to give Dilly more $ for the old car. He's what you call a decent chap!

Z said...

They were £1.10 per kilo (50p per pound) for ages, then they had to go up to £1.20 per kilo but they've shot up. I can't remember the price - £1.40something. Al charges the same whether they're organic, Fairtrade or regular - he doesn't know what the wholesaler will send. He loses a lot in cold weather as the shop is unheated and the skins darken when it gets cold. They taste the same but don't look good on the outside and don't keep so well.

Everyone was decent, weren't they?

Dave said...

Does the Sage keep a black and white cat in his van?

Anonymous said...

I have just paied 74p a kg for bananas. I find the prices are coming down every week here. But we all know that come Easter the prices will be through the roof.

Dave said...

I buy quite a few bananas (as a potassium deficiency is a result of my condition) but I must admit, being a medical necessity, I don't bother to check the price.

Z said...

It's often used, like sugar, as a loss leader in supermarkets. It's a blip, I daresay - I may well find the price has gone down by now. Al checks the price things come in at every day - sometimes it'll shoot up one day so that the price he's been selling at is less than the wholesale price, then it drops again.

Bananas were in short supply when that cargo ship went down off the South coast - you remember that all sorts of things were washed up, including motorbikes and all? There must have been bananas in the hold too, because for a week he couldn't get all he ordered!

I usually have bananas in stock here too, Dave, as the children like them and Ro takes one in his packed lunch every day. They're not exactly expensive, even now.

Z said...

Oh, I'm the big jessie round here Dave, in answer to your earlier question.