Many years ago I was dining with friends when the doorbell went. Who could it be so late?
“Oh, it will be Molton Brown delivering soap and stuff” my host said. I was both taken aback and impressed by such, as I saw it, decadence. Now fast forward to Saturday evening. Bertie’s collar was on the point of breaking and the spiral ring securing his tag was also about to break. Robert sourced a temporary collar and I bought a dozen spiral rings on Amazon. They were delivered in less than 24 hours, yesterday afternoon.
Earlier in the week I ordered a new leather collar with brass fittings costing exactly half as much as the previous one bought in St James’ Street. Recently my electric toothbrush ran out of batteries so I ordered more on Amazon. Booze comes online as does the occasional order of bulk groceries like loo paper and tonic water. In the summer I needed some blue, cotton Oxford button-down shirts from Uniqlo as mine had migrated to Robert’s wardrobe. Job done; ordered online. In March I treated myself to a new blackthorn walking stick – ordered from the maker online.
I still buy lightbulbs from a specialist shop ten minutes walk away and I use the newsagent (for spiced rum and the odd bottle of whisky) and we use the corner shop and the Polish and French cafes almost daily and the dry cleaner. They have been winners in our migration from driving to Waitrose to ordering online and shopping locally. Slightly worryingly the genial newsagent offered to drop off the rum and whisky with The Times if I didn’t like going out. I was tempted but what would the neighbours think?
It was a sunny morning at Cranford yesterday. The sun as low in the sky as the ‘planes coming in to land at Heathrow. I re-met the rescue dog from Spain that has tried to bite me a few times. The last time his owner asked me to give his dog a treat and yesterday this seemed to have paid off as he wanted a treat and didn’t try to bite me in the bum. Then I met a woman from West Cork, an economic migrant from Ireland in the last century like me. I told her of my friends living on Coolmain Strand, admitting he is English. “Oh, we won’t hold that against him.” She was very critical of the economic consequences to the UK economy and more importantly individuals and families of lockdown and I agree. Jobs are being lost that will not be replaced. To what extent is this because I buy online? There are now individuals and families turning to the state to support them at just the time when tax revenues are drying up and government debt burgeoning. And Brexit? It’s not a pretty picture, unlike the park.
