On this, my fourth Sunday in the UK, I have decided to collect a few small bits of news and observations and combine them into this one "masala" post. Readers please do read it and enjoy.
One of the things that immediately got my attention is that all stores, big and medium-sized, have loyalty cards and schemes. This is through a plastic card, but you have to register online, and once that is done, points accrue to you whenever you visit the store or franchisee and buy something. The amazing thing is, I have already got 5 such franchisee cards with me, and they are all earning points for me. At Sainsburys (a large department store), for example, every pound of purchase earns you 1 point; once you have points, they can be redeemed against a future purchase. Every point is worth 1/2 a pence. Effectively, therefore, you are getting about 0.5% per purchase as cash back. It isn't much, but it adds up for someone shopping there regularly for groceries and other provisions.
Secondly, most stores have their own websites, and you can do online purchases from the comfort of your home. Above a certain value, delivery is free, but for usual purchases, you may either pay a delivery charge (which can be rather steep), or go to the store later on and pick up your purchases. This is called "click and collect".
Thirdly, many stores run online surveys and when you take them, they enrol you into some kind of lottery where a random winner every month or so gets a huge bounty. For example, Pizza Hut is running a daily lottery of UK 1000 pounds! Of course, you are required to fill up a survey, but that should be all right, isn't it?
Fourthly, pork is the main source of animal protein here in the UK, as I suspect it is in almost every Christian country in Europe and in the US too. The ready availability of pork is not a personal problem with me; rather, the unavailability of lamb or other, alternative meats, is. One can find chicken and sea-food readily, but even more than that, beef is universal. On the vegetarian side, legumes and pulses are not so readily available, and one has to hunt in many stores. For tur dal, for example, I had to go to Worldwide Foods in Manchester!
Let me now turn to securing your items and properties in the UK. There are many companies that enable you to register your stuff online and secure it with a tag and a certificate. I registered with IMMOBILISE and have secured my small electrical purchases like a bread toaster and a blender with them online. I bought some of their tags, which I have stuck on to my appliances, so that there is proof that my items are registered with them. It is not an insurance against theft, but it may discourage thieves as they will be aware that the items can be tracked with the tags. This is particularly useful to deter house-breaking thieves who will find their immobilise stickers even on the windows and doors of the house in addition to all household appliances such as the refrigerator, the TV, and so on.
Finally, I am going to talk about my own last few days here except for my 5 km run, about which I wrote yesterday. I was quite tired yesterday, but I went to the gym yesterday. The walk to the gym itself is 1.5 km, so I would add that to my workout, which was basically upper limbs today. I must have lifted weights after a long gap of two or three years, so my muscles did not take too much strain. Even so, I worked for nearly 45 minutes on free weights as well as machines and afterwards, walked all the way to the Town center (another 2 km) to spend a few hours at a more leisurely pace. I ended up ordering a pizza at the Pizza Hut, but all I could eat were 2 pieces out of the eight that are normally cut out of one pizza. I also had a salad bowl with unlimited refills, so I enjoyed having the fresh greens and some other stuff like bell-peppers, beet, bread-crumbs, etc. ... the salad bowl costing just 50p when you buy the pizza (which was 8.45). My return was again through a walk of about 920m and then a bus ride to the hospital. All in all, therefore, not counting some other walking, I did almost walk about 4 km today!
That's it for the day. Do subscribe to my blog through RSS or Atom feeds and please, please do interact with me. Thank you very much.
One of the things that immediately got my attention is that all stores, big and medium-sized, have loyalty cards and schemes. This is through a plastic card, but you have to register online, and once that is done, points accrue to you whenever you visit the store or franchisee and buy something. The amazing thing is, I have already got 5 such franchisee cards with me, and they are all earning points for me. At Sainsburys (a large department store), for example, every pound of purchase earns you 1 point; once you have points, they can be redeemed against a future purchase. Every point is worth 1/2 a pence. Effectively, therefore, you are getting about 0.5% per purchase as cash back. It isn't much, but it adds up for someone shopping there regularly for groceries and other provisions.
Secondly, most stores have their own websites, and you can do online purchases from the comfort of your home. Above a certain value, delivery is free, but for usual purchases, you may either pay a delivery charge (which can be rather steep), or go to the store later on and pick up your purchases. This is called "click and collect".
Thirdly, many stores run online surveys and when you take them, they enrol you into some kind of lottery where a random winner every month or so gets a huge bounty. For example, Pizza Hut is running a daily lottery of UK 1000 pounds! Of course, you are required to fill up a survey, but that should be all right, isn't it?
Fourthly, pork is the main source of animal protein here in the UK, as I suspect it is in almost every Christian country in Europe and in the US too. The ready availability of pork is not a personal problem with me; rather, the unavailability of lamb or other, alternative meats, is. One can find chicken and sea-food readily, but even more than that, beef is universal. On the vegetarian side, legumes and pulses are not so readily available, and one has to hunt in many stores. For tur dal, for example, I had to go to Worldwide Foods in Manchester!
Let me now turn to securing your items and properties in the UK. There are many companies that enable you to register your stuff online and secure it with a tag and a certificate. I registered with IMMOBILISE and have secured my small electrical purchases like a bread toaster and a blender with them online. I bought some of their tags, which I have stuck on to my appliances, so that there is proof that my items are registered with them. It is not an insurance against theft, but it may discourage thieves as they will be aware that the items can be tracked with the tags. This is particularly useful to deter house-breaking thieves who will find their immobilise stickers even on the windows and doors of the house in addition to all household appliances such as the refrigerator, the TV, and so on.
Finally, I am going to talk about my own last few days here except for my 5 km run, about which I wrote yesterday. I was quite tired yesterday, but I went to the gym yesterday. The walk to the gym itself is 1.5 km, so I would add that to my workout, which was basically upper limbs today. I must have lifted weights after a long gap of two or three years, so my muscles did not take too much strain. Even so, I worked for nearly 45 minutes on free weights as well as machines and afterwards, walked all the way to the Town center (another 2 km) to spend a few hours at a more leisurely pace. I ended up ordering a pizza at the Pizza Hut, but all I could eat were 2 pieces out of the eight that are normally cut out of one pizza. I also had a salad bowl with unlimited refills, so I enjoyed having the fresh greens and some other stuff like bell-peppers, beet, bread-crumbs, etc. ... the salad bowl costing just 50p when you buy the pizza (which was 8.45). My return was again through a walk of about 920m and then a bus ride to the hospital. All in all, therefore, not counting some other walking, I did almost walk about 4 km today!
That's it for the day. Do subscribe to my blog through RSS or Atom feeds and please, please do interact with me. Thank you very much.
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