Plague Blog - gross picture warning!! - and Shop Strop

Yes, as warned by all the Doomsayers, we have been attacked by Australian bugs and have all been under the weather. To be fair, every Australian I know has been sick as well, so that makes me feel somehow better. Ella had high fevers and fatigue, then got a cold sore which became a bacterial infection and she had sores all over her chin - picture of it at its worst here- I don't suggest clicking to enlarge! James had fever and a sore throat and spent two days in bed, then I got flu and pharyngitis and was in bed for three days (Nick actually had to take time off work to look after the children!!), then Phoebe got infected eyes, and Nick got an infected toe (though that may be more to do with the fact that he keeps walking into the furniture...) And Will? Sick boy? The child who is always ill? Absolutely fine...!!


Have been ordering food online from Coles, and in my ongoing rant about the cost of groceries over here, i thought I would show you all a picture of $330 worth of food. Not much, is it? Now, you would think that in a country with pretty much year-round sunshine in one state or another, the ability to produce all the fresh food it requires and the infrastructure to move it around, prices would be very reasonable, so what's the problem? Only two supermarket chains - Coles and Safeway - both in trouble with the Competition and Consumer Commission for unfair practices in terms of keeping competitors out of large centres, price fixing and driving independent retailers out of business. Now, I'm not going to pretend that the supermarket chains in the UK are whiter than white, but there are at least 4 major chains (Tesco, Asda, Morrison's, Sainsbury's) plus the minors like Somerfield, Co-op, Aldi and the top end of M&S and Waitrose, all of whom are vying for market share . Coles and Safeway here couldn't give a toss - they get about half of the market no matter how bad they are - with Aldi picking up a few scraps here and there.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, a new Coles has just opened around the corner from us with three large signs out the front for 'Customer Trolley's'. I can almost forgive price fixing, but bad grammar is simply inexcusable...!