Year Two 79/365 : What A Nightmare

Waking up to find the snow on my car was not the nightmare, in fact that was the easiest part of the day. It was a very dry snow and brushed right off without any kind of problem.

The nightmare is referring to the shopping experience I had today. It was supposed to be easy. I needed to get some ink for my printer and a few other items. It took me 4 stores to find the ink for my new HP printer and have been assured that even though the other 3 stores didn't even have a place for it on the shelf it is not being discontinued...

Also while I was at Asda I could not find the butter. I walked up and down the refrigerated aisles at least 10 time each. It was so crowded, I couldn't find a worker and I had to text Andy asking him where it was and going as far as saying I was nearly in tears which was not a lie. He text me back letting me know it was along the back wall and not with the milk and cheese. Then while I was checking out my debit card wouldn't work! I informed the lady that it just worked when I bought my ink at the previous store and she said she didn't know what to tell me, we tried it three times. She said I was going to have to leave the items and try to get cash out at the ATM machine and come back to her line. For those of you in the States... here in England the debit cards have these chips on them and that is what is used to read the card not the swipe strip on the back. Anyway I rubbed this chip and asked that we try it again... thank goodness this time it worked!

Also I needed some gift boxes. My fellow Americans will know the ones I am talking about. They come in a package of say 3-5 different ones. The ones you can walk into any store such as Wal-Mart or Target and pick up. The ones that if you have something say like a shirt that you are not wanting to put in a bag. You all can see where this is going right? I went to Tesco and Asda and neither had these 'mythical' boxes. I eMailed Andy from my phone and sent a text to a friend who was at work and they both came back saying I needed to go to a card store such as below.


So in I went and yes they did have gift boxes but as you can see below not a very large collection of them. and in case you can not see the price that shirt sized is a whopping £2.75 for one! What the £%£"&*!? So I gave up and the gifts will end up in Christmas bags as those can be found in abundance. I would rather wrap them but oh well.


Now... as bad as my day had been it was about to get a lot better! I am working on a Secret Santa gift for work and I needed to get something bound and I knew in America I could go to Staples. So off I went to the one in Bolton.


Honestly my bad mood melted away as soon as I walked through the doors... I swear it was as if I was walking into America. The store looked exactly the same as one in America would look (unlike how you walk into Asda and it does not look anything the same). While I was getting the gift bound I had a good walk around. And I came across the best section of any store I have found over here...


Look at all of these Scotch products! Now if you click on the picture to make it larger you will see the prices are outrageous but this did not stop me in purchasing the yellow scotch tape dispenser and a refill pack of three.

Honestly I don't know what I liked so much about this store. It had to be just because of how bad of a day I was having. I absolutely love living in England and I wouldn't change anything about it for a second but I have never been more happy to be able to buy some really expensive scotch tape.

High: 32°
Low: 31°
Forecast: Periods of Snow
Sunrise: 8:23 AM
Sunset: 3:51 PM