by Belinda Brown

Created on: September 25, 2009

The majority of the time when I go food shopping, I'm generally in a hurry or silently begging my three year old daughter to stop her high pitched wailing for the chocolate or the Barbie doll she spotted that I cannot afford to buy. Usually, I'm the centre of attraction while I am waiting in line and more than likely the object of everybody's thoughts.

I am usually thinking about all the things that I haven't done at home, such as the washing I had been neglecting for the past week where it is getting to the point you need a snow plow to get through the laundry door, then I remember I forgot the washing powder. Then I think about the dishes piled in the sink, the endless amount of toys scattered all over the house, wondering if I remembered to put the dogs outside before leaving the house and wishing that time would just stand still for a couple of hours so I can catch up with everything I need to do for the day. After that, I'm usually silently cursing the trainee at the checkout who has to keep calling her supervisor over because she has made another mistake on the cash register.

Then I am once again drawn to my three year old daughter who is still crying for the Barbie doll, or a movie she had just spotted displayed at the registers and I finally give in and try to calculate the cost of the added extras and wondering if I have totally blown my budget or not.

But, on the other hand, when the house is clean, I'm stress free and I manage to convince someone to look after my daughter while I quickly get the week's groceries, I am quite the sticky beak. I like to take a peek at everyone's groceries and try to figure out what they are having for dinner. Sometimes I get some good dinner ideas by sticky beaking into other people's groceries.It is also handy to do during times of dieting as I have got some great fat free snack ideas while looking into the skinny girls shopping trolly's. If I'm not poking my nose through people's daily shopping regime, I look at the people waiting in line with me and wonder what they do with their lives most of the time and wonder if their lives were more interesting than mine. Or vice versa.

Usually, I'm caught staring at a particular person for too long in a day dream and have noticed them silently stepping out of the line to run off to another register, just to get away from the wierd girl behind them and even if they have to wait five minutes longer. Other times, I just stare off into space, actually glad to have a bit of me time away from the kids.

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