What do the following have in common?
Toothpaste, peas, milk, cheese, onions… You know, it’ll be quicker if I just show you the photo:
So, what does that lot have in common? Well, they all come with reusable plastic bags that will eventually end up hanging from branches up near the tip and stay there for a hundred years, but apart from that… That, on the table, is what €50.00 will get you these days when shopping on Symi. I’m not pointing at any one shop here, in fact, if I am, it is at the cheaper of our supermarkets; there are others I know of that charge more for certain things, while others charge less. You have to shop around, but generally speaking… That little lot will cost you an orange fifty.
We used to have a greengrocer in the village, sadly not for long enough, and after shopping there, you could have covered the table in €10.00 worth of veg, and that would have lasted you a week. Now, that medium-sized tin of coffee was €7.00-something (the double-sized one is only ten, but they didn’t have any), and the biscuits are a luxury. At least, they would be if they didn’t have chocolate on them. The cheapest thing on there is probably the tin of tomatoes, as you can still get one for €0.80. The veg is rarely priced around here, so it’s always hit and miss regarding cost, but last year, a cauliflower was going for €5.00, and it was a small one, mainly made up of greenery. It was a special event.
Milk appears to have doubled in price over the last couple of years, but the price of a five-litre wine box has taken 20 years to go from €10.00 to €15.00. Lord! I sound like I doing an episode of ‘Houseparty’, which, in case you have forgotten, was a Southern TV, afternoon show that ran from 1968 to, surprisingly, 1995 – and I say ‘surprisingly’ because it was rubbish. Just a group of gossiping housewives (probably can’t say that these days), who sat around getting enthusiastic about blanket stitch and Mary’s muffins. It was a cheap afternoon programme that I still remember fondly. I think, today, they call it ‘Loose Women.’ Or is that, Lose Women? That’s one I always have to look up.
And talking of looking up, it is what Neil did yesterday evening, and this was the result.
This was my version.
