Thursday 11 October 2007

Online Living

My enforced stay in bed these last few weeks has led me to spend even more time than normal on the internet. Let's face it... there isn't a lot else you can do when you are lying down except read, watch TV and surf the net. I'm still waiting to find a book to grab me and keep me turning the pages... and as for daytime TV... let's not even go there! So the internet it is.

Thank goodness for email and for social networking sites. Thank goodness for the BBC and thank goodness for the 100-something sites that Rich had recommended to me and I'd put in a folder to 'check out later'.

Is it possible to use up the internet? I mean... technically there are a finite number of pages out there... it just seems like an infinite number because they constantly evovle, get edited, get replaced etc. Does anyone even know how many pages there are... it is quite opressive actually... like worrying about reading every book in the British Library (or similar).

I digress. The good thing about the internet is that it seems to allow me to accomplish pretty much everything from right here in my bed. Communication? Check. Leisure activities? Check. Grocery shopping? Check.

Rather than send Rich off to Asda to shop and then need a taxi back we decided that we would give the 'home delivery' a whirl. Now just completed the second week... it is reasonably successful. Advantages: well, you don't have to shclep around the supermarket; it is reasonably easy to find things that sometimes you can't find in store (with a few irritating exceptions); there is no 'impulse' buying so it saves at least £10-£20 and some things do seem cheaper than in store! Disadvantages: the 'alternative product' isn't very intuitive and sometimes you get something else all together than what you wanted; the dates are sometimes a bit limited compared to those I would pick if I were in store and they use WAY (way) too many carrier bags. I don't think we can begin to estimate how many each week... but for example, this week the ketchup came all by itself in a bag! At least I recycle my bags I suppose, but even so... they should use cardboard boxes or paper bags or something... I'll bet not everybody recycles their bags and any ecological gain from the delivery route rather than X number of separate trips by shoppers is being negated by this horrible waste!