Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Easter consumer news

Easter Saturday yesterday was shopping time for markdowns. The local Woolworths supermarket had a huge quantity of chocolate Easter eggs they were trying to unload at half price. Trouble is my wife had bought what she needed earlier in the week at full price. I'd said she should wait, but she was convinced they would sell out, plus she has the notion it's not right to give loved ones mark downs, even if they are the identical item. It's the same old story every year.

My idea of a decent markdown was a large custard tart for $1.90. I love those things. They also had large apple pies marked down to the same price. We bought two of them as well. When they went through the cash register the guy absent mindedly swiped one of them twice. Luckily I noticed, or they wouldn't have been a bargain

Late Saturday afternoons Woolworths mark down their meat from exorbitant prices to just plain expensive ones. So we grabbed a few items there as well. I always go for the cheapest cuts because I can easily do a metamorphosis on them with the things I cook for the tribe - especially with things like curries. I'll be doing another curry today - lamb and lentils spiced up with garam marsala, tumeric and a corm or two of Chinese garlic. Note! Corm, not clove.

We had some bargains during the week from Woolworths too. Someone had left a quantity of Drumstick 'Rocky Road' ice creams out of the storeroom freezer and they had softened slightly. So they were marked down to about $1.20 for four. We bought a few packets and after a few hours in our own freezer they were back to normal. Actually I don't like Nestle's Drumsticks, but the kids do. I prefer Bulla Splits, especially the green ones. They were marked down too. I suppose we spent about ten bucks on marked down ice cream that day. They'll be all eaten by the time Easter is over.

We had a couple of phone calls from sons travelling afar yesterday. Number four, who had his appendix cut out at Narrogin last week, was relaxing at Dunsborough on the southwest coast. He was at a holiday house belonging to friends of his female companion's family. Nice for some people. He wanted some tips on how to cook unsheaved corn on a barbecue. See, there was something he didn't know after all.

His elder brother, our number two son had earlier rung from Dublin. He'd just spent a week in Amsterdam with his female companion. Verdict: Interesting, but very expensive. Apparently they ate a lot of cheese. I'd told him to watch out for dog crap. That was my primary memory of Amsterdam when I was there over thirty years ago - it was everywhere on the footpaths. He reported that the Dutch have reformed their grubby ways. Apparently there's no dog crap in Amsterdam any more.

Our lad said he had sent us a half dozen SMS messages from Amsterdam during the week. We only received one on the first day. So surprisingly, it seems that the Dutch phone system is less reliable than their dog crap cleanup.

I gather that the Easter egg hunt for the younger kids is about to start in the back garden, so I had better go and watch.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

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