When we examine consumer behaviour

This weekend, my brother and sister-in-law were staying over from the US, having stopped off in Italy to see the new grandson. We of this generation are all excited, as it is the first grandbaby to be born to our particular family set. He is fairly small but getting bigger every day. We keep sending them baby things and demanding endless photos of the child. I am turning into my mother.

My sister-in-law asked if we had probiotics, as she had run out of her capsules. I was able to direct her to the Danone Actimel we have in our refrigerator. How things change. I remember when I mentioned probiotics many moons ago, and my American friends had no idea what I was talking about. Even those of us who grew up drinking just milk (there was semi-skimmed milk?) now have such a selection of dairy products for whatever we’d like to consume. Pretty much, if you can envision it, the dairy sector has a product for it. It’s kind of a marvel how this sector has changed over the last couple of decades.

I am also off on a swimming holiday to Croatia this week, leaving the spouse at home to complete projects. This is a nervous time as sometimes I come home to strange eBay purchases, such as a beautiful, enormous mahogany bookcase, in pieces because it was so very large, all over my upstairs hallway. It was going very cheap because most houses can’t accommodate such a massive piece of furniture here. I believe a couple of the shelves are now holding books here.

Never mind. Paški sir, an award-winning, hard sheep’s milk cheese, is from Croatia, but I will be south of where it is produced. I am sure I will be able to find the cheeses somewhere on my travels around the country. When I’m not paddling around the islands.