Christmas Shopping

On Saturday I went out to buy presents for my family. Really I knew it was a bit late to be doing this but thought I'd better go for it anyway (can't imagine my Sister if I'd turned up here without goodies).

My first port of call was the cheese shop. I wanted to buy Stilton for my Dad and knew he'd like it if it were fancy special Stilton. When I arrived at the shop (which is fairly small!) there was a queue stretching down the street. I joined it at the back.

I waited in the queue as we moved forwards slowly. After 40 minutes or so I had my foot in the door. Only to find that the queue wound round the inside of the shop too.

This cheese shop is full of exciting foodstuffs. There are French delicacies in jars, Spanish saffron which I bought for my boyfriend's mum and of course SCOTTISH foods (oatcakes to go with the cheeses).

The queueing became less arduous inside the shop, as it was dry and warm and there were things to look at. However the smell in a cheesemonger shop is indescribable. You smell cheese, but unlike normally strong smells which you stop smelling after you are enveloped for a few minutes, the cheese smell changed as I moved around the store. So I could still smell cheesiness until I left.

The queueing lasted a further 40 minutes before I was served. By this time I was bored, and had spotted a whole Scottish blue cheese for £8 (which meant I didn't have to get it weighed and wrapped too) so just handed over the cash for the cheese and saffron and squeezed my way back to the door past the other eager Glasgow cheesies.

During the queueing process I joined in one interesting conversations... about parking in the city. It seems that EVERYBODY in Glasgow has a parking story. Mainly they have had parking tickets. I can go one up on this. My car was towed away after my boyfriend parked it in a no parking zone. I'd advise against this - it becomes very expensive when you go to get the car back.

So it wasn't an altogether unpleasant experience despite the 1hr 20 mins duration. I learnt that there are people in Glasgow who do this queue for cheese EVERY CHRISTMAS. It is part of the festive tradition for them. I am not planning to join them in this, but the cheese (Strathdon Blue) is delicious. It's creamy and rich - with the blue cheese tang you expect. Mmmm. And Dad's happy with it too. Success... Surely worth it?