Those that know me will realise how unusual Friday was for me, it was so unusual I was tempted to take a selfie as proof but instead I had to rely on a piece of paper as evidence that I had ventured into an environment that I avoid at all costs.

Over the years I have used many excuses however avoidance has been the most successful of my strategies; I have been known to sit in the cold dark carpark reading rather than step inside. It’s not an anxiety thing and it’s not that it scares me it is as simple as ‘I dislike the experience so much I choose not to partake’ however on this particular day I choose to enter.

Many of my friends adore the experience, taking time to examine, smell and caress items along the way, they know the environment intimately and spend endless hours there. Often their conversations are focused on the contents and they are keen to discuss individual changes at which stage I switch off as the discussion has no relevance to me.

On this particular day I decided to bite the bullet and enter as a special favour to my darling hubby who had been particularly busy this week and I wanted to surprise him. This is definitely his domain, he rocks it and on a fortnightly basis he excitedly shares the latest news, who he saw and what has changed upon his return.

I brace myself as I enter, my plan is simple, to get in and out as quick as possible and try to avoid those around me, two metres distancing whilst not touching too many surfaces. I eye everyone with caution and am lost almost immediately in the unfamiliar environment, the pressure builds as I am looking for something specific that I know hubby needs but can’t seem to locate it. Back tracking a number of times I finally find it and I admit I felt a little elated at the success.

Job done, now how to extract myself as fast as possible, but wait someone is saying something to me that I don’t comprehend. ‘Sorry dear, you can only have four bread items and you have six, the ciabatta buns don’t count but you are going to have to choose two the of bread items to stay with me’. I look at her like a stunned mullet, and my mind is ticking over time, I have four loaves of bread, two that the grandson likes, one for hubby and one for myself, a bag of hamburger buns and a bag of hotdog buns….shit shit…so much pressure, she is looking at me waiting for an answer. My strategy is to stall and say ‘Sorry what was that’ and I continue to weigh up my options whilst she repeats the original statement. I discard mine and one of the grandsons loaves, she smiles and I almost break into a run as I’m desperate to get out back to the safety of the car park.

I hate supermarket shopping, when hubby was sick the first thing I did was set up a grocery account on line, once a week the van pulled up and dropped it off, bliss. I don’t care whether Butter has gone up 10 cents in the last month. That is a total guess as I have no idea even how much it costs, although hubby tells me 500g of butter is around $5.50.  I googled it and PaknSave have it listed at $5.49 so he is right on the money.

When I looked at the overall cost, it turned out that I had spent considerably less that hubby, so I suspect he will have to go and get the things that I may have missed. Oh well at least I tried.

Supermarket shopping is not the only thing I don’t like, I have no idea on the cost of petrol either.