Mr Grumpy

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If there is one thing that life has taught me it’s this - to be grateful for my calm and patient demeanour and my sunny disposition.

- But certain things push me to the edge – and one of those things is shopping - let alone shopping in Spain!

Anybody who has ever been shopping in Spain will know that if one thing is true it is this - it is impossible to buy everything that you require in just the one shop - regardless of what products it is that you are shopping for !

I’ve got to tell you about an incident that happened to me this morning, because if I don’t get it off my chest now, then I’m afraid I may be in danger of getting myself arrested for criminal damage, or maybe something worse.

I’m currently in the process of building an outside bathroom at my house. When I say “I“ I mean “We “. When I say “We “ I mean “A Professional “ – I struggle to so much as change a light bulb.

Anyway, I digress - I’ve bought pretty much everything that I need, with the exception of a sink unit - and I’ve seen a combined sink, cabinet, tap and mirror that I like for a good price at the local DIY store.

I called in to get this missing piece of the jigsaw a couple of weeks ago and was told that the sink that I had seen on display, sitting happily underneath a sign proudly declaring that it was in stock - was actually out of stock and to call back in 2 weeks time, as they had more units on order.

So I did just that and called in to the store this morning, only to be told that the sink was indeed on order, but that it is ‘no longer in production’. Maybe they could have told me that 2 weeks ago, but ‘hey, this is Spain’....

Maybe I could also have asked why they had ordered an item that is no longer made, but that would just have confused them...

So I asked if I could buy the display model – I explained I was not asking for a discount, or needed the original box or anything – I just liked the unit itself and it was the right size for what I needed it for.

As you might imagine there was a lot of shrugging and tutting and stamping of feet, until eventually the lackey shuffled away, had a smoke and a tea break or whatever and came back to tell me no, they needed it “for display purposes “.

- Because naturally, they’d need to offer a sink unit for sale that they didn’t have in stock and was no longer in production !

If anyone can follow the logic here I would be grateful for an explanation.