Just as I sat down, Mr T asked if I'd heard of amplitude (I had) and made a wave motion with my hand which baffled him no end..."So it's not the same at Altitude then?", to which I pointed high in the sky and said no - we both agreed they didn't have the same number of letters so only one answer could be correct for his crossword. And so concluded today's physics lesson.

We then got onto Scottish weather (it's freezing up there at the moment), and the word "Dreich", which perfectly describes 99% of Scottish weather (even he agreed on this observation...). Not for the first time my visit to Tesco/Lidl was incidental to most of today's mission!

Ms G and I have got the routine pretty much nailed - list, empties so I know what to look for, money, clubcard and bags, and off I went in search of a mix of items to keep her supplied for another week.

It took me quite a few turns around the aisles to find the very elusive kitchen foil, but everything else largely fell into the basket, so I must be getting more and more familiar with this particular branch of Tesco!

A swift two parter today - to the local halal butcher for some chicken (and cloudy apple cider vinegar, but this was sadly out of stock...) and then onto Aldi for the rest of Miss N's list. The butcher even diced the chicken whilst I stood in the queue at another counter to pay, with a paper chit with the price hand written on it. Local shops do offer an amazing service...

When I rang Mr R's bell this afternoon, an unexpected visitor opened the door and said "Ah, you must be The Shopper"...it turned out Mr R's cousin was visiting for a few days, and being a little more sprightly (Mr R's words) had made it to the front door first!

With suitable introductions made, it was then a quick and productive trip around the aisles to get him everything he needed for the week.