Pinse Supermarket Shut-Down

I cannot believe we got caught out. My parents have been visiting and the weather had turned BBQ-esque. What better way to spend the last evening of their trip, than out on the terrace eating food from the grill. Shame we left the shopping so late then. It's a holiday weekend. Pinse (Pentecost). I'd read in the paper that if you needed to buy wine or spirits it had to be before 6 on Friday or else you'd have delirium tremens by tuesday morning when Vin Monopolet reopens. Ditto beer from 3 PM on saturday. It's just a shame that the newspaper didn't mention that the same applied to food from 4 PM.

Yesterday (Sat), starting at 4.15 PM, my husband and I spent the nearest we've had to a date in a year, driving around looking for an open supermarket, cursing ourselves for not shopping earlier. We weren't the only ones who got caught out; every supermarket car park we went to was filled with frustrated and hungry people with shattered BBQ dreams. Note to supermarkets: in future when you are shut for 2.5 days, would you mind putting a sign outside your car park and remove the tantalizing boards advertising grill meat? Thanks. Much obliged. Not that we'll be here for future holiday weekend shut-downs. But still. Think of it as a public service appeal.

So we ended up with pizza from Peppes for the second time in a week and by the time we got home, it was raining with a ferocity worthy of the tropics. Still, cannot believe we got caught out after all these years. Even more surprised at the number of (presumably) Norwegians thinking the same thing this morning; I mean all those people we drove around with yesterday were hardly foreigners, were they?

To anyone thinking of trying to send us food parcels, the petrol stations are open today and tomorrow, so we won't starve. Thanks :)