After that rant about not knowing what it is, I'll now talk about how fantastic it is!! I have probably been 5 or 6 times now and beginning to feel like I know what I'm doing. I was very nervous the first few times and that's the sort of situation I feel quite uncomfortable with as I don't know the system and the etiquette. It got better when I was brave enough to ask for a list of what they have so I can study it at home in advance. John and I have also been through it marking the items we are likely to buy so I can just look through those each time to see if there is anything I need. Then we have also been collecting containers and keep those in a bag ready for the market. I go through those in the morning and make a list of what we want and which container it will go in.
It's a bit of a lifestyle change from being able to go to the shops and get something whenever we should fancy, to only being available on a Saturday morning from 10-1. Quite often we are not around on a Saturday morning but if we are I try to stop at the market on my way back from park run. And it's funny having to wait your turn at the stall. But I try to remind myself that that is a good old world thing like Blair's shop in Carmody, PEI! I try and mentally allow an hour for the shopping.
It's a nicely efficient set up. You pick a little yellow number and wait to be called and then they place your number on the hook so you and they know who is next. All the tubs of goods they offer are lined up along the back. On the table are the scales where we put our containers to be refilled. There are also the bottle pumps with liquids like washing detergents - some of which we have recently started to do ourselves. They write down each price on a scrappy notepad and so unless I read it upside down I have no idea what I'm spending on each thing! Another example of the weirdness of this lifestyle - price is no longer the consideration! And often we are now getting things in strange quantities so prices seem funny. Scarily I spent £10 on olive oil and £8 on an ice cream tub of dried mango last Saturday!
Also at the market are other stalls. Lots of nice looking lunch sort of things of various country origins. There's an amazingly big bread stall. Then outside there is a fruit and veg market that I'd like to get in the habit of using more. On Saturday it was mainly a veg market, possibly just winter thing? There is also an egg refill place that we have been using latterly. I was also excited to see the milk last weekend. Their cows hadn't been producing latterly apparently so they'd been away but are planning to be back now. I'm looking forward to getting my milk from there till we can live somewhere that we can have a milkman.
So once I've added my photos (don't seem able to from phone - such a pain the app is gone!) I think that completes this long awaited post. I'm not sure if it came across, but this is a new part of my life that I'm really excited about and enjoying and want to get their Oxford people to partake in!
I'll just finish with a funny little story. Last Saturday I was proud of getting up in time for park run and market despite not setting an alarm. I ran in the snow and then went a different way to the market at the primary school in hopes of finding somewhere to park without having to pay for the car park. Unsurprisingly it turned out to be permit holders everywhere on the other side but I parked a way up the hill and then walked down to the school feeling rather chilly now I'd cooled after the run and surprised how heavy empty containers can feel (I guess there were a few glass ones). Just as I finally made it to the school, I suddenly realised I had no money with me, at all. Not on me, not in the car... So I just had to turn around and walk back up the hill in the cold and drive home. At least there I showered, warmed up and breakfasted before heading back again. At least it's not a mistake I should be making again!
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