Thank you USAF

I have just been to Lidl.  Now don't all fall of your seats laughing.  Fish have to eat and frankly, ants eggs pall after a while.  So I resolved to be like the Yummy Mummies and take my Waitrose bags and shop at the cheapo place.  (Waitrose is a superior UK supermarket - sort of like Dillards but with food.  Actually Dillards might well do food.  I don't know).  Now my nearest Lidl is about 12 miles away.  There are at least four supermarkets within two miles of where I am sitting right now so why did I choose one that far away?  Simple.  It's cheap.  "But think of all money that you will spend on petrol getting there and back" you cry.  "I've got a hybrid car.  That's at least a third of the cost saved."  Don't roll your eyes.  I have been thrifty, in a not very efficient way.  This is the point where Pumpkin, my lovely surrogate daughter comes in and ticks me off.  Have I mentioned  her?   She will tick me off for this I just know it. She is so good at making her money stretch and I just fling it around, despite trying to manage on a, for me, low budget.  We haven't made £25 once.  But we are "only" spending about a tenner more.  Thats still £50 a week less than we used to.  But I love her so.  She'll have to forgive me the waste.  Please.

What has this got to do with the USAF then?  On my drive up there I went through a small village, just a strip of houses really, called Shipton Bellinger (SB).  As I drove into the village I burst into tears.  I have done a lot of that this week.  Not screaming my head off the end is nigh stuff. Just silent eye watering ones.  Close to SB there is a large military airfield - Boscombe Down.  Just as my tears started to make me wish that I had taken my rain coat the entire US Air Force (well three of them) flew over to check that we are all still here.  As the last aircraft flew over the sun came out, my tears dried, and I felt the most cheerful that I have done in a while.  I carried on to Lidl and did my shopping.  Of course I didn't have a £1 coin which is a requirement if you want a trolley, so I had to carry my purchases round the shop.  Have you ever tried to carry a frozen lobster, 40 dishwasher tablets, assorted other fishy items and a bottle of red wine in your hands?  Well don't if you can avoid it.  I did think of stuffing the lobster down my trousers and then whipping it out at the checkout.  However, firstly inserting a frozen lobster into your trousers is a risky business; secondly, once there it will drip freezing water over your unmentionables causing intense discomfort and a need later for nappy rash cream; thirdly, at the checkout itself making a lunge for your trousers saying "I'll just get my lobster out for you to see", is going to involve a nasty scene involving not only the checkout assistant but the store Manager too. 

As I drove back home the USAF, plus a smaller British aircraft (everything is bigger in the US of A) flew off again leaving the sun shining.  Happy and safe flying, take my love to America.