The bank holiday starts with feel good sunshine before Monday afternoon arrives bringing relentless rain. We make the most of the mornings good weather and enjoy a walk up Penshaw monument and through the village. A total contrast to the afternoon spent hiding in from the rain sorting through my clothes. Not that I managed to get rid of much, but I am sure you will agree the act of wardrobe sorting is therapeutic?

In fact, I feel any tidying is therapeutic. And with my week off forecasting more rain and hailstones the size of runner beans, there will be plenty of opportunities for sorting, tidying and cleaning. As the week progresses, we even get up into the loft for a much-needed sort out.

In one of my sort outs I find shopping bags from the old days. Cheap flimsy plastic bags from the time when shops used to give them out for free. How much things have changed in just over 5 years. It’s got me thinking how much more noticeable changes in society have been during the ongoing pandemic.

I have seen my shopping habits change. For one I have tried to stick to one weekly shop by enjoying frozen berries later in the week. But the whole experience of grocery shopping has been changed by technology. Scan and go has become a norm in supermarkets like Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s. With self-scan areas increasing in size in many stores, expanding separate self-scan areas for trolley and basket. From my own experience I have found myself sticking to a shopping list, scanning the items as I cross them off my list, resulting in less browsing, less time in the shop and consequently less money leaving my account at the checkout. However, the later shortfall is filled 10-fold by online shopping. I guess you just can’t stop me shopping. And it was inevitable with online shopping being so readily available, with providers like Amazon offering next day delivery, that when essential shops were closed during lockdown, most of us would turn online. At least when you go to the shops you can see the shopping piling up, but with 1 click checkout options it is so easy to purchase more than you realise online. And that is without the admin errors where people have reported purchasing larger quantities than expected. Recently I read someone bought 10 bunches of bananas instead of 10 bananas! The delivery driver must have thought he was delivering a family of orangutans the headline read =P