pumpkinstrokemarrow

Some of our seasonal beverages came from Aldi. Or perhaps Lidl - my difficulty with distinguishing the two continuing. In any event, we have two half dozens from the one in Leatherhead, at something like £3.50 a pop, a good deal less than I usually pay in my off-licence of choice, Odd Bins. So yesterday tried a bottle of 'Coteaux du Languedoc 2007' which went down fine. Magic number was 13.

For the second time running, my visit to Aldi was livened up by bumping into a very Surrey sounding lady who explained that she didn't really shop at Aldi, but that she just happened to have to visit her poodle parlour which just happened to be next door, so she thought she would pop in as she had just run out of aspirin. I must attract the sort of middle aged ladies who need to explain away their being caught bargain hunting.

And some of our seasonal beverages came from Mr S, in this case the magic number being 40. Now the beverage in question came in a cardboard tube and the packing arrangements did not include removing the security tag from the neck of the bottle inside the cardboard tube. Maybe if I had not used the self service checkout (of which I am a great fan. If one only has a small number of purchases, much the quickest way to the exit), the checkout operative might have thought to have removed the thing. That being as it may, the thing did not set off any alarm and arrived back home, where it could be subjected to closer inspection.

So we have a hollow gray plastic disc about 1.5 inches across and a third of an inch thick, attached to a steel wire version of one of those plastic zipper straps used, for example, to tie notices to street furniture. The steel wire loop having a fat core with a thin spiral wrapper, this last for the lock to bite on. Not mild steel, the other stuff whose name I forget. Tried to cut the steel loop and failed. Break into the plastic disc, which takes a little while with wire cutters. First thing to fall out was a lightweight wire loop, rather like the white paper and wire fasteners one has for freezer bags. The only tricky bit was a small red thing, like a red lentil in size and shape, with the number 101 stamped on it and soldered onto one end of the wire loop. This, we thought, was the thing that the detector detected. Gave the coil a magnetic echo or something otherwise geeky. Then came a little steel cylinder, maybe 3mm across and 1cm long. This appeared to be the thing which locked the wire loop in place, held in place by a small spring. This we thought would be released by putting the plastic disc next to a large magnet. This would pull the cylinder the 1mm or so needed to clear the spiral wrapper of the steel loop. We thought that one would have needed a serious magnet for this to work, but could not come up with any other story.

In between times, gave 'The Great Gatsby' a second outing. Remains a first division rather than a premier league product (if I have got the analogy right), but not without interest. The most interesting thing for me on this read circled the paragraph including '... the colossal vitality of his illusion... He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way.' (page 79). The idea being, which I have come across elsewhere recently, that the fantasy about something can be far stronger than the thing itself. Which can, of course, be interesting for the subject of the fantasy. Not necessarily a bad thing: it might be quite convenient for the fantasiser to hold to the fantasy, whatever the state of the subject of it. On the other hand, it might be thought of as a burden.