Fish or Beef (4 letters).

Fans of cryptic crosswords may be familiar with the above clue...

It's a somewhat tenuous link in today's run report to get from that to the contents of Mr A's list, which was a healthy mix of both salmon and beef, the latter requested both in sliced and full dinner form (I never knew - it comes in a tray with Yorkshire pudding and vegetables...I'll admit to being tempted to try). In addition, and very helpfully, whilst standing in his kitchen going through his list Mr A was able to show me what he meant by Kitchen Wiper (a cleaning sponge with scouring pad on top), and how big (or small depending on how you look at it) a small jar of coffee is.

Dodging the rain to and from Mr A's front door proved the bigger challenge as Sainsbury's luckily came good with all the items on his list. When I got back to his flat I was reluctant to linger too long in his kitchen for fear of leaving a small pond on his floor...(which neatly links to the answer to the cryptic clue above..."Carp"...).