Sainsbury’s - When Is A Bargain A Bargain?

Who do you think you are kidding?

This is the coffee we buy regularly and a little while ago we were buying it at Sainsbury’s for £5.50p. Then the price went up to £6.50 and we thought that was pretty steep so we tended to buy it elsewhere, things stayed this way for a while.

Then came “Nectar Pricing” and lo and behold the price to non-cardholders was £6.50p but we lucky few who held the cherished card were then able to buy it at £5.50p and that made us feel great - we were now only paying what we had been paying in the first place!

Whoopee!

The latest is, as you see here, the price has now gone up to a massive £7.40p for those poor souls without a Nectar Card but Yes!, the lucky ones who have a Nectar Card can now buy it a whole 25% cheaper than the full price, just how lucky are we!

Am I alone in thinking this is cynical, letting people think they are getting something 25% cheaper, when in fact it is the same price as it was not long ago and of course, Sainsbury’s will still be making a handsome profit. Do they think we are stupid?

Typewriters and Security

If it’s good enough for Vladimir…

At the moment, the most secure and, at the same time, usable, method of creating, sharing and storing information is to write it up on a manual typewriter and store it in a locked filing cabinet or send it in an envelope via the good old Royal Mail. This is not a perfect system. It can be vulnerable to burglars or to Police Officers armed with a search warrant, but it may be better than anything else that is available to the general public, or, for that matter, to corporations or government agencies that truly wish to protect their secrets.

Brack — A Lovely Tea Loaf

Brack - My Favourite Cake

Ingredients

450g sultanas 220g raisins 220g currants 350g demerara sugar 300ml hot tea 2 eggs 450g Be-Ro Self-Raising Flour

Method

In a large, heat-resistant bowl, mix together the sultanas, raisins, and currants. Dissolve the demerara sugar in the hot tea (see tip below) and pour over the dried fruit.

Cover the bowl and leave the mixture to soak overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 150°C (fan oven) or 170°C (conventional oven).

Grease and line the bases of two 2lb loaf tins — this is a double-quantity recipe, so you’ll need both tins. I make a double quantity because the loaves keep well and with the cost of energy I think I might as well bake two as one as I’m heating the oven anyway.

Add the eggs to the soaked fruit mixture and beat well. Then, slowly stir in the self-raising flour until fully combined.

Divide the mixture evenly between the two prepared tins.

Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes, or until the loaves are firm and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tins for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Tip

Always use hot tea to help the sugar dissolve and allow the dried fruit to swell more easily. A useful method is to dissolve the demerara sugar in the hot tea first by stirring it in a saucepan, then pouring the mixture over the dried fruit before soaking.