Receipts and Change

Dear Supermarket Visiting Idiots,


There are bins on the way out for your convenience. The fact that you don't see them is none of our concern.

Thank you for your attention.



Yesterday, Friday 8th October 2010 it was an estimated £112million jackpot on the Euromillions. This was very good for business, but my work ethic clashed with my beliefs for the whole 7 hours I had to work on the tills that day. This is because I don't 'believe' in the lottery. This has a lot to do with the attitude my parents always had towards it. In my opinion it is a waste of money, spending money on random numbers hoping that they then match with some other random numbers and pay for you to do nothing for the rest of your life! I mean, seriously, £112,000,000... can you even IMAGINE what that kind of money LOOKS like?

I have two points to make about this, both of which I came upon while on the tills serving about 90% of my customers Euromillions tickets.

Firstly, isn't it quite a positive-minded person's habit? I mean, the people who don't buy tickets will usually say "Oh no, I'll never win that... it's stupid." whereas, the lottery purchasers are basically saying "Oh, go on then, it can't hurt!" It made me feel a little better about the idea, encouraging positivity. Of course, the positive feeling was significantly decreased when my boyfriend hadn't won anything and he discovered there was only one winning ticket winning what was calculated as £113million!

Secondly, there is a positive point for the non-lottery people... a quote from a customer; "Nah, I don't need that much money... money's not what I need." How cute!


White Chocolate Cheesecake

For the BASE:
150g/5oz digestive biscuits
50g/2oz whole almonds, lightly toasted
50g/2oz butter, melted
½ tsp almond essence

For the FILLING:
350g/12oz good quality white chocolate, chopped
125ml/4fl oz double cream
700g/1½lb cream cheese, softened
50g/2oz caster sugar
4 large eggs
3 tbsp Amaretto, almond flavoured liqueur

For the TOPPING:
450ml/¾ pint soured cream
50g/2oz caster sugar
½ tsp almond or vanilla essence
White chocolate curls to decorate

Preheat oven to 180℃/350℉/Gas Mark 4, 10 minutes before baking. Lightly oil a 9x3 inch springform tin.

Crush the biscuits and almonds in a food processor to form fine crumbs [ed. I just broke the biscuits up in a big bowl and smooched them, but a food processor would have been MUCH easier!]. Pour in the butter and almond essence and blend. Pour this mixture into the tin and use the back of a spoon to press on the bottom and up the sides to with in 1cm/½ inch of the top of the tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 5 minutes to set. Remove and transfer to a wire rack.

Reduce oven temperature to 150℃/300℉/Gas Mark 2.

Heat the white chocolate and cream in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring until melted, then cool [ed. Make sure the chocolate is chopped rather than just broken into pieces to make sure it melts before it burns…]. Beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each one. Slowly add and beat in the cooled white chocolate and the Amaretto then pour into the baked crust. Place on a baking tray and bake for 45-55 minutes until the edge of the cake is firm, but the centre is slightly soft. Reduce the oven temperature if the top starts to brown. Remove to the wire rack.

Increase temperature to 200℃/400℉/ Gas Mark 6.

To make the topping, beat the soured cream, sugar and almond or vanilla essence until smooth and pour evenly over the cheesecake. Bake for another 5 minutes to set. Turn off the oven and leave the door halfway open for about 1 hour. Transfer to a wire rack and run a knife around edge to separate from the tin. Refrigerate until chilled. Remove to decorate with white chocolate curls and serve.

Reference; "Chocolate and Baking: Quick and Easy, Proven Recipes"


In England, CSAs can read minds

I work in a small, convenience-type supermarket. As you may expect, we get a few regulars and some generally strange people coming in. I have decided that I need to start writing about these people to share them with the internet! I will start off these tales with a very short one from today.

I have been made aware of a much higher number of foreign people living in my city that I first thought before I started working in this supermarket. Some of them are very friendly. However, we also get customers like the gentleman I had in earlier today.

This gentleman came in, got to the till and just grunted, "Richmond." in his European accent. (To convey the tone, I must point out the distaste in the next customers face not only when he said it but once he'd left and she addressed me in shock at this experience.) Of course, being the polite and experienced CSA that I am, I just followed his sights to the cigarettes behind me and made an educated guess that he meant the 'Superking' size, not the 'King' size… and he also meant the 20 pack, not the 10… 40 OR the 100 pack that we also stock in that brand… and that he also did not mean Menthol OR Smooth. Now, the latter is the usual assumption, as it is easiest to jump to, however the rest was just a small step away from MIND READING.

So my lesson for today is; Please, learn English, guys!