Good on you Bunnings - you pack of twits

I have been to Bunnings twice this week. I have been hunting sandpit sand, which as it sounds, is designed to go into sandpits for the little kiddies. Until this week, I had no idea such a thing existed. When I was a kid, we had a pile of yellow sand in the back of the yard that was left over from when the back fence was constructed. The fence was made of limestone, cement was required to bind it together and yellow sand was required to make the cement.

At age 6, I was shovelling sand into a cement mixer. That which was left over from that bit of home renovation became my sandpit. Thankfully, Dad over-ordered by a factor of about six, so I had a nice big pile of sand to play in.

These days, you go to Bunnings and buy special river sand that has probably been washed and scrubbed and filtered and bleached and is now suitable for the little dears to play in. If I had known it was going to cost $8 for a 20 kilo bag, I probably would have driven to Bondi and just shovelled some into the back of the Disco. Except that when you tote up the tolls and the parking fees, it's just easier and cheaper to buy the bloody stuff from the local hardware store.

It took me two trips to find it. I searched the entire yard on my first visit. I didn't bother asking anyone, as there was no one to ask. I guess all the staff were at another store making advertising videos. I did however buy a box of herbs, which are now in the garden. Chilli, parsley, mint and something else - tomatoes. I got yellow ones and red ones. I want a good look salad this year.

As an aside, I always find that you buy about 5 times more herbs in those little pots than you really need. For a few years, we survived with one tarragon plant. I denuded it every month or so to make a great tarragon and grape salad, but it was all we required. I really couldn't eat tarragon more often than that. So when I bought a pot of it this week, did I absolutely need 30 or so little tarragon plants? I know that I will kill a certain number in transferring them to their new home, but I'm sure I won't kill 29. It's a good thing that we have friends down the road who have plenty of space in their garden and were in need of some herbs. We planted half of what we bought, then gave them the rest. The contra deal is that when we need more herbs in a few months, they can buy the next batch. That said, there were enough herbs in that box to give at least one type of each herb to every person in our street.

Anyway, we had to go back again today to buy some sand. I went right around the yard again and eventually found an employee who could point me in the right direction. He led me from one end of the yard to the other to this pile, spitting all the way. I think he was Syrian. He spat every time his left foot hit the ground. The yard is pretty sizeable, so that was a lot of spitting. I reckon he would have been pretty dehydrated by the time he spat his way back to his original location.

What is it with cultural sensitivity? If I go to Saudi Arabia, I am supposed to be sensitive to the culture and not do anything offensive blah blah blah. Yet if someone comes here and decides to be offensive, what happens?

They get a job at Bunnings obviously.



The sand I sought was behind this pile of pallets. On the bottom row of course, so it couldn't be seen from anywhere. And there was also a big ladder of sorts right in front of it, so access was impossible. The only way I found it was that there was a bloke standing behind these pallets pulling out bags of decorative sand. I reckon his name was Stanley Livingstone. He was nice enough to point out the sandpit sand to me.

The point of this post is that if big, stupid companies want to sell their wares, the best idea is to make them available to someone that wants to buy them.

As it was, in the time it took me to buy $16 worth of sand, J managed to walk around and pick up $75 worth of plants and pots.

So I guess there is some method to their madness.