4 Days To Go

Time rolls on and on, nothing gets in its way. No storms, no earthquakes, no wars or anything that seems to make a mockery of our frail, imperfect existence. I am sitting in the gastronomical experience known as Greggs, where all your food desires are met with criticism, distaste and verbal vitriol . My own personal tipple is tea with soya milk, front seat near the shelves of diabetes, hypertension and metabolic syndrome X sustenance items that are on display.

My enjoyment here is with the massive amount of theft that takes place as people walk in and steal a sandwich, some wedges and a couple of drinks. Occasionally you get the weekly stealer who comes in and takes everything they can get their hands on and thrown into a bag of some sort. The staff are all high and mighty with their very forcefull "stop that", or "don't steal the food". The thieves must be quaking in their Nike trainers as they walk away grinning and swearing with their bag of swag.

The secondary reason for such persistent people watching (inspired by Desmond Morris" book *Manwatching") is today's societal trends and behaviours  that are on full display. In a more upmarket eatery a customer may ask for something well done, to have less garlic added or pan fry rather than grill something. In a Greggs the main question, "is it hot" or "I want a carrier bag for my sausage roll". 

The array of food on offer at one of these salubrious establishments range from high fat, high sugar and very bland items to boring, underfilled sandwiches and baguettes that will let you know you have hit rock bottom in your culinary preferences. People will spend ages thinking about if they want a steak bake or a sausage roll, and by God what to have with it , tea?, coffee?, fizzy drink?  Or energy drink?  This thinking process is probably the greatest decision of their day and will give them a day's worth of verbal ammunition. "Do you know what, I went into Gregg's and asked for a sausage roll. They only gave me a steak bake, what type of people are they hiring, they should pay more attention. I went berserk and demanded to see the manager, you should have heard me." 

Meanwhile in Ukraine a family are bombed out of their home where they have lived for over a hundred years. 

Its seeing things like this that makes me grumpy but at the same time gives me so much pleasure at what people aspire to, and thinking what they are entitled to. 

It's also amazing how long someone can spend at the counter putting in milk and sugar in their hot drink. For some it's an afternoon's entertainment, spending ages opening each sugar and methodically stirring it for a full 10 minutes. 

Greggs has nothing specials for the 60+ brigagde apart from a cheap showing of the classic live film "Life in Living Colour".