The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Home-made muffins are an eggstravagant cost
Nothing’s as simple as it should be where money’s concerned, as Fiona discovers on a village food stop and after an online order
T he sun keeps shining and we keep rising bright and early. Which suits the Macnaughties. Today the plan is to bake – which also pleases them as they get the burnt bits – and today I will be using the world’s most expensive eggs.
Let me explain. They are William’s eggs. Purchased from his cottage near the village. William keeps hens and every day he puts their new-laid offerings in a little wheelbarrow by his gate.
Anyhow, I am returning from taking food to my mother – and yes, it is a very necessary journey, because the woman has to eat – when it dawns that one way to use up our over-ripe bananas is to make muffins. For that, we need eggs and I stop by William’s house, get out the wallet and rummage round for the required £1.25.
Hurrah! The right change is found. I pop it in the box and am just about to zip up the thing when out falls a note. It is windy, of course. Isn’t it always at the wrong time? And this is one of those new-fangled slippery things that never sits properly in your purse. And so it is that I find myself chasing a £10 note down the road. I can move when I have to. And I do. But when it blows over the hedge and across the fields, enough is enough. So those six eggs have actually cost £11.25. Which makes each muffin worth – oh, let’s not go there… Because it doesn’t get any better financially.
The following morning my bank calls. Have I just tried to make a dozen purchases at John Lewis? One for £1,000?
No, I have not. Why, I am still smarting about the cost of those eggs. Someone else is using my card. I rack my brains to think where it could have been compromised. The thing is, like most of us, I haven’t been anywhere to buy anything.
Then it dawns. Last month I ordered a small greenhouse from an online merchant. Which duly arrived, although has yet to be erected.
Going back into the emails I find the receipt. And realise that another missive from the company has also pinged in. It tells me their computer systems have been hacked.
Payment details have been stolen and anyone buying goods in the last few weeks should contact their bank. I am lucky. Because I know that others have not been so. All the fraudsters get
The following morning my bank calls. Have I just tried to make a dozen purchases at John Lewis? One for £1,000?
away with is a £10 carry-out. The card is cancelled, and I get a new one. Thank you, Barclays, and thank you John Lewis for noticing something amiss. I call my mother and daughter to give both of them a lecture about watching out for scams. Because it is a bad old world out there.
Although hearing the birds sing lifts the heart. Plus, I am not a baker, but the chief says the muffins are delicious.
Please stay safe – in every way.