A Solution To An Ongoing Argument:

Having been arguing the toss of the Who Does The Mid-Week Shop debate for some time, I finally hit upon a solution.

I simply went and got it.

I warned mother beforehand, letting her know in no uncertain terms that I wasn't asking her permission. It caused her to purse her lips and looked disapproving, but no more than that. She is so flat out exhausted and frazzled now, really, that I think that for the first time the idea actually appealed to her. She wasn't happy though; and stubborn to the last, I saw her pale, haggard face light up when I casually mentioned that I wanted her to leave me a list and some money.

Oh, how triumphant and magnanimous her smile was then, thinking that she'd found a loophole and she'd won. Of course she would agree! Then if she 'forgot' to do those things, well, I just wouldn't be able to do it, would I, and oh well; what a shame. How smug she was, sat there in a crumpled heap and smiling and nodding in that placatory manner that elder people tend to use when dealing with younger.

And how smug I was, too, smiling and nodding back in the self same placatory manner - as younger people also tend to do when dealing with elder - knowing that in spite of her brilliant scheme to stop me, I was going to do it anyway.
That's why I like to have a small buffer in the bank put aside from the pittance of my wages. It's to pay for necessary and unavoidable expenses, such as medicine to be paid for from the chemist or unexpected rides on public transport or, as in this case; a to foil a mother who can't accept, even though her soul is weeping with nervous and physical exhaustion, that she needs help. Y'know; those sort of expenses.

So I did it, and then I carried the supposedly too-heavy-to-lug without-a-car bags (there were two; one containing bread) home. Including the actual picking up, queuing and paying for as well, the entire thing took less than twenty minutes.

When I got back and had put the various items into their rightful places, I sent her a text.

"Done the mid-week shop," I said: "Brought loaves x2, milk; semi-skimmed and skimmed and some cheese for MJ. Should anything else be needed I'll nip to the Tesco Express this evening."

Two hours later I received a text back. One word. "Thanks".

Ha. That got her.

...Really, really; should have thought of that a lot earlier than I did...