Blind Date

Having booked the shopping mission for Mr R at noon on my Friday off, I decided to squeeze an appointment in the morning in Ealing Broadway. Because of that, my mission started with a dilemma: how to transform into my GoodGym persona without a telephone booth in sight? Thanks to my knowledge of local alleyways, I replaced my civilian top with my red t-shirt without witnesses.

After a light jog, I was at Mr R's doorstep. Mr R, as usual, was one step ahead of me and waited behind the door to greet me the moment I arrived. He handed me the money, and I confirmed I already had the grocery list but would welcome some shopping bags.

Mr R's Sainsbury's order had his staple products on it. The only new item was Medjool dates. I was pretty sure I came across that name before but all the packs of dates I was finding, pitted or not pitted, dried or slightly moist, were not Medjool enough - or I was too blind to see them as being Medjool. Two friendly gentlemen from the staff, busy at the vegetable section, were so kind that they walked me to the alley with said dates. I picked the big box which might have been overkill because I went slightly over the £20 Mr R had given me. Nonetheless, he was pleased with the delivery and reimbursed my expenses.