White cliffs of Dover & Joy of John Lewis

It's my last day at home, hence the reference to the wartime song above. (Vera Lynn is a Saint in case you didn't know, and she's still alive which must indicate some sort of supernatural powers at least). I also thought I'd let you know some of the things I'll miss when I get back to Australia.

Now you'd expect this to be lists of family and friends, childhood memories and all that guff. But actually the thing I'll miss most, apart from lists of family and friends of course, is actually Waitrose. And John Lewis. 

Now you might think it's weird to miss a supermarket and department store, but if you've ever been to Waitrose and then had to go to Coles or Woolworths then you would understand where I'm coming from. It's a different world in Waitrose. Everything is gourmet and everything has it's provenance on it. For example you don't just by eggs, you buy "Large, Organic, Free Range Old Cotswold Legbar Eggs" and it's got the name of the farm on the box too. When you unwrap the burgers (or "Scottish Aberdeen Angus Free Range Quarter Pounders"  to be precise) you get a little picture of the farmer and his story. You want tinned duck confit? Waitrose has it. You want Madagascan vanilla pods? Waitrose have got them. 

It's not just that they sell all this fantastic stuff, it's also a lovely place to shop with clean, wide aisles, friendly and helpful staff. In fact staff that take you to the item you need, not just point and mumble "aisle 46". Actually Will takes you to your item too, but he's far too classy for Woolies anyway. It is truly the altissimus quod optimus of supermarkets. So nice in fact that I've gone all latin. That's how posh it is! You do of course pay a bit more for this. Actually a lot more but Waitrose has the highest rate of passing money from the customer to the farmer of any supermarket in the country. So you pay more but the producers get more too and this makes you fell all warm and fuzzy. And makes paying a third more for your Marmite than at Tescos almost bearable. Waitrose also has no shareholders. It's run like communism, where all the staff own the company. Actually it's not quite communism, as there are, to my knowledge, no Waitrose gulags where employees found shopping at Lidl are sent to push heavily loaded trollies around remote parts of Siberia. More like socialism maybe. Does anyone remember what that is?

It's like this because it's part of the John Lewis Partnership. This whole company has a fantastic story which you can read here. I just love it as it's sort of the last real department store left. It's not just full of other retailers concessions. For example it still has a sports department that actually sells sports equipment (like hockey sticks and tennis rackets), not just sports casual wear. It's got a men's accessory department where you can buy wallets and cufflinks. It's one of the last places in the country that still has a haberdashery department. I just love it. It is even unique when it comes to advertising, this christmas it has managed to be the first company in the UK ever to be able to use a Beatles song in a TV commercial. 

Tell me that isn't cool. Simple but brilliant. See why I'll miss John Lewis?

And if you're wondering who does the music it's John Lewis' staff and Music society. See. Socialism.