Alamaba 2023 - 5 July - Land of Plenty

Today was an acclimatisation day, a chance to relax, a chance to get used to being 6 hours away from the body clock.  That does not mean there is nothing to do - there is always preparation, and today the preparation is shopping. It's only fair to note that shopping is an activity I hate, I'd do it online and sit and wait for the delivery, rather than find a space in a car park, push a wonky trolley down aisles packed with stuff I have no interest in, and fight with a 'self-service' till.  But that's what we did, apart from the self-service till. We visited Kroger in the morning.  American supermarkets are in a league above their British counterparts in terms of range and choice - they have too much to choose from, which makes finding exactly what I want difficult. Especially when they don't have it!  But, perhaps because of the holiday yesterday, the shelves are not brimming over with goodies.  American is a land of plenty, if you are able to access it. Still, we get a good enough shop done, and return home.

Lunch is salad from, a large plastic box containing 1lb of mixed salad leaves, and some other loose fruit and vegetables. I also found some Danish blue cheese, which was very nice. I'm not the only one trying to eat healthily now.

After lunch, we visit Sam's Club, which is like Costco, very big and requires a subscription to enter.  Some things there are very cheap, but not everything.  We get towels for the beach and fish (snapper) for dinner, and a few other things.  During the walk around this store, we have a short conversation about supply chain issues post covid and how they haven't recovered.  If you're a regular in Britain, you'd never have noticed.  There is food price inflation here too, but there's also more slack in the system, so it's not affecting people quite as much.

Dinner is cooked at home and the snapper is very good.

The day has been hot and humid, even after dinner it is uncomfortable outside.  We took Maeve for a short walk, so that Jo could see their old house. It is less than half a mile away - they call it the courtyard house, but, of course, we can only see the outside, so not the courtyard itself.

The remainder of the day was spent watching Wimbledon and playing with the children.  Despite having loads of toys, this stick and old bottle gun is Robbie's favourite at the moment.  That's childhood, and it's good to see him enjoying it.