When I go to the UK, even if sometimes go to the central office in London, I normally go to the other office we have in a very small village named Witham in the beautiful english Countryside. This village only has a couple of main streets and then then secondary ones with the residential areas, a couple of buildings where big companies have some offices (same as we do) and a couple of big factories nearby.
The bad thing about Witham is that it is not in the “center” of London, and there is not too many options to “go shopping” (not sure if my husband would identify this as “bad”!!), and the good thing is that there is a big Tesco very close to the office, and the main pedestrian street has 3 or 4 shops where I know already most of their goods and offers (and I am becoming one of their best customers!).
I think I still have not said here that I LOVE supermarkets, any country supermarket. The first time I go into a new supermarket I can stroll around for hours looking for new things that they have and that we don´t and I always buy new things to take home and try (joy and delight of my boys and husband and laugh from my friends who think I am a little bit crazy….).
Normally I interchange “delicacies” (how they call it), I get there like the cousin from the countryside, with a suitcase full of goodies such as olive oil, white wine, red wine, some other type of liquor, peppers, chorizo, ham, cheese, and sometimes even “organic” apples which we get from our own apple trees. I just cross my fingers everytime I go through the “exit”, since I am not so sure that I could get through with all those things but I never had any problems really.
Then, I take out all those things that I share with my friends, and sometimes even bring things for my colleagues to taste at the office, although many times it´s just me and a couple other two who really enjoy them….
Then I get my suitcase almost empty and have space to fill it in with my supermarket things to bring back home, like chinese, japanese, thai, mexican or other country sauces (which is not so easy to find in Spain), chips, chocolates, teas, or any other special thing I see.
I also leave some “space” in my suitcase, because most of the times (and now is when you think I am crazy, or a little bit friky (maybe this is a spanish expression), I go to get some “take away” which I wrap it very tightly, bring home and then freeze to take it out in a special occasion.
In Witham, there is this Chinese restaurant called LIAN that I LOVE. Believe it or not, it is the BEST chinese restaurant that I have tried and believe me, I have been in many chinese restaurants in different countries, and this is the BEST BEST ever…
The chinese lady in the restaurant is a little bit shocked with me (although now is used to it!) when I go by to get some take away just before going to the airport. Then, since they know me already, she just laughs and says “Food fol the plane again?” and they wrap it tightly and there I go! I swear it it´s worth it!
These last weeks, I am getting addicted to some other shops there: “The 99p shop” I know it sounds a little bit “sad” that I go to the UK and get “addicted” to a “99p shop”! but it has “season” bargains, and now they had lots of Halloween things! and since in Spain Halooween is not so popular, Halloween stuff is quite expensive, so you just should see my suitcase lately! (Did I say I love Halloween?)
This last time, when I was getting everything into the suitcase and trying to close it I was just thinking “Mmmmmm, if they try to open my suitcase this time in security they are going to think I am crazy” (above everything I had a bloddy arm and fake bloddy huge knife followed by lots of spiders, bats and small sqeletons and skulls, they are going to think I am a gothic!)
This other shop I LOVE is a library with many other things than books, it has crafts, stickers, small puzzles, magnet toys, sparkling pens, price charts and many many little things and really cheap, and I always get something special for the children, normally I try to be something educational (even if this time with all the bats, spiders, sqeletons and skulls nothing else fits in my suitcase!)
As a summary, the boys have gone crazy when they saw all the Halloween things when I opened the suitcase, and they are counting down the days for Halloween and me too!!! because even if my hubby doesn´t know yet (and I won´t tell until last minute) I am going to try to prepare a proper Halloween party at home with all the things I have bought!!!
Wish me luck!
