Moloko Coco

Today I am going to admit to a rather shabby bit of assumption on my part, and I record it so that I can shame myself into not behaving like this again! Only too often, I hear people complaining about things here, when quite often I am certain that if they spoke the language they would find that 70% of their worries would just melt away. And so I was quite cross with myself when I found that I had been doing the same thing. 

I was in my favourite supermarket Ramstore picking up a few things for a camping trip. I have mentioned this store before. Usually my complaints are about things like staff watching as I simultaneously try to control three children next to the sweetie stand (there are no child seats in the trolley so one older kid has to look after baby in her stroller), then letting me unload my entire trolley onto the belt before they tell me that the payment machine is not working, and I need to move to another check out. 

I needed to buy coconut milk, but it had disappeared and been replaced with glace cherries. 

"Right," I thought, "I am going to ask a member of staff where it has gone,"

"Excuse me, there used to be coconut milk here, where has it gone?" I enquired of a Ramstore employee. 

"In the chilled aisle, near the eggs," she muttered in surly fashion. 

"No, not milk," I said, "Coconut milk, it is in a tin, used to be here, you know," I pressed on, certain that she had misunderstood. 

"Try the next aisle then," she said, and sent me off to the tea and coffee aisle.

"I will not stand for this," I thought to myself, and bustled back to confront her again.

"That is the tea and coffee aisle, there is no coconut milk in that aisle," I wittered on. 

She was obviously thinking 'Oh go away you annoying woman,' but said, "Well, maybe we don't have it any more. I don't know where it is."

"So who can you ask to find out?" I persisted

"Try the information desk," she said disappearing off, and I went home without coconut milk. 

Later I was chatting to a friend at home who is a keen asian cook, so I told her that coconut milk seemed to have disappeared. The she spotted my tins of Heinz Baked Beans which they have started to stock ("Oooh, where did you get those?") but I was explaining to her that I would rather have coconut milk than baked beans any day. 

"Oh, they still have coconut milk, but it is in the fridges. Near the eggs!" She told me. 

Serves me right for not listening, eh?