Temperatures still in the low twenties in the daytime, which means significantly warmer in the sun. Think we’re running three or four degrees above average. But prefer the shady side of the street. To Lidl to stock up on peanut butter (actual sale on 100% peanut kind). Also Lidl’s own astonishingly inexpensive but prize winning gin, as well as cheese, wine and eggs. They have free range eggs here, while other supermarkets seem to be mostly caged or barn (free run) with free range in smaller quantity and much pricier. Of course this is territory in which a hen might not feel ill used at being sent outside to take the sun in January.
Notice that UK products seem almost, though not quite, to have disappeared from the shelves. Scotch whiskey still in evidence, though there seems to be more Irish than previously. Cheese is increasingly not English. Much, of course, is Cypriot or from other EU countries, with the aged cheddars often from Ireland. This week’s peanut butter is from Poland. Lidl in the past used regularly to carry Scottish shortbread and with Christmas coming it would be nice, but none to be seen. Presumably the problem is Brexit. British goods may be less competitive than EU products and - worse - the extra paper work is a deterrent to both selling and buying. Many labels are multilingual, often with four or more languages. Finding English is ideal but rare, with French and Polish next in order of preference. After that look for any Romance or Germanic language - or Slavic if the letters are not Cyrillic. In desperation Greek or Russian about equally desirable - or undesirable. Arabic, of course, dead last. Not sure whether the decreasing size of the letters is a factor of age or of their trying to include info in too many languages in too small a space.
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