Supermarket sweep

I had a bit of a Chuckle Brothers moment in Morrisons yesterday. I had parked on the lower, covered level of the car park to get some relief from the driving rain and ferocious winds. But when I came out of the store the lift had stopped working, so I turned my loaded trolley into the headwind and struggled towards the travellator. The only way I could move at all was with a peculiar crab-like motion, pushing the front of the trolley, then the back, until I reached the top of the downwards track.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind

With relief, I slid my trolley on to the grooves and set off. I was about halfway down when, without warning and for no discernible reason, the travellator stopped. This caused much hilarity amongst the people gliding serenely past me going the other way. Sod's Law meant that no one else was going down, so there I was, stranded and alone, unable to move in any direction. I whimpered, 'Help!'

A couple of people offered suggestions in passing: 'You need to call someone.' How, exactly? 'Have you tried pressing the emergency stop button?' How would that help, even if I were prepared to abandoned a week's worth of food to go back the way I'd come? I looked around in vain for a trolley man or anyone else in Morrisons livery, but all the staff seemed to have disappeared.

Eventually, a burly man going up showed some sympathy and trotted back down to me. Grasping the front of my trolley with both hands, he towed me down to the ground as I thanked him profusely for his gallantry.

And then, in true superhero style, he was gone.