Whenever I hear people moaning about having to do grocery shopping, I feel completely baffled. I absolutely LOVE supermarkets. I look forward to doing the weekly shop. I'll make excuses to pop into the supermarket in between.

My idea of perfect relaxation is a pile of junk mail and a cup of tea. I look forward to Sundays because that's when they're all delivered here. I get upset when it rains and the junk mail gets wet. My favourite catalogue is Aldi's. It's so random, and I love to see what they'll come up with each week.

I definitely inherited this catalogaphilia from my grandma. She takes her catalogues to bed for relaxing nighttime reading. I have many fond childhood memories of cuddling up to her sitting in bed, wearing her glasses on chains and thumbing through her Coles and Woolies catalogues, tearing out the items she planned to buy

Mr K thinks my catalogaphilia is funny, and after observing me fishing them out of the recycling where he threw them before I could read them, he now thinks it's cute to hand me a pile and tell me how much I'm like my grandmother. Every time.

***

Anyway, Woolwoorths surpassed themselves this week with an amazing special on Lindt chocolate blocks for $1.69 each.

So I bought 17.

I needed special permission from the manager because apparently there was a limit of 12 per customer (no signs saying so though), but I must have come across as a chocoholic rather than a reseller, because he said yes.

Ok, they're not all for me. 10 are for my sister.

If you have a Woolies near you, I hope you find some in the flavours you like

Then I stumbled across this nifty new take on the humble box of tissues by Kleenex. A tube for your car's cupholder.

Cute, hey? I'm constantly rummaging through the glovebox for a tissue so this clever concept pleases me. And only $1.99 – bargain!

I also stumbled across another flashback to my childhood (I'm having lots of these lately) – behold the return of the toffee apple!

I found this on a biscuit fixture, gasped in excitement and raced back to the produce department to find two more for my nieces. I was a bit disappointed when they said, "Oh we get these all the time", but luckily they received them enthusiastically so at least we shared that, even if I wasn't the one to introduce them to this timeless childhood treat.

I don't know if your supermarket has always had them, but I haven't seen them for decades. Shopping with mum often meant a "yes" to toffee apples because they were at least partly healthy. I don't know about you, but I never got the green ones. Only red.

I hope it's as good as my memory tells me they were.

***

I asked Mr K if he liked the smell of these lovely rose-scented paper drawer liners, passing him the roll to sniff.

His response? "They smell like toilet paper".

Boys.

Sorry my dear, but the linen and towels are all going to smell "like toilet paper" (BTW, it does not) from now on because it's not good for linen to sit on bare wood, and I absolutely love rose-scented anything. Sorry to feminise the linen cupboard, but I don't inflict florals anywhere else, so I'm sure I get a free pass on this one.

***

I think it might be a little bit embarrassing how much pleasure I get out of inconsequential supermarket purchases like these. I hope – and suspect – it's not just me though. It could just be a sign of the (very) domestically inclined.

xx Kiki

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