Trolley-watching

I always think what people put in their shopping trolleys (or baskets) can tell you quite a lot about them.

- The little old lady with a basket full of chocolate and fizzy soda probably has grandchildren coming to visit.

- A young man with a trolley full of frozen pizzas, tins of soup and microwave meals. Student?

- How about the woman pushing round a trolley that’s full to the brim - a whole bunch of apples, three cartons of milk and the largest bag of rice available I've ever seen. She’s clearly got a big family at home waiting to be fed.

So what does my shopping trolley tell people about me?
Well, most days I look like the classic, single girl on my road to being a career woman. There I am with my half loaf of bread (because I’ll never finish a normal sized one all by myself), two tomatoes, a couple of yoghurts and the a packet of meat I can find - the one that contains mince beef for exactly two servings of pasta bolognaise, which look totally lost on their huge polystyrene tray. Just about enough for a busy girl to feed herself on for a couple of days without it going mouldy while she’s occupied with something else.

Then there are the lonely and depressed days. Those are the ones where I’ve had a lousy day at work and can’t be bothered to do anything, so I fill my trolley with chips and chocolate bars and a couple of those canned stuff like Spam or Corned Beef that you just heat up in a pan. On days like these, anyone who was glancing into my trolley would either think I’d just been dumped or was depressed about not being able to get a boyfriend. Why? Well we all know chocolate and crisps are the ultimate "just been dumped" comfort foods…

And finally, roughly once a week, my trolley reveals me as one half of a happy couple. Those are the days that I know M is coming over, so I can actually buy enough food to feed two people without having to either leave half of it or stick it in a tupperware for the next day’s lunch. Those are the days when my trolley contains salmon or maybe even some juicy steaks. If I’m feeling really decadent I might even throw in a bottle of wine and some posh ice-cream.

So what does your shopping trolley say about you?