"Up in the Roof" (with apologies to The Drifters)

Sorry in advance for this being quite a long post!

Two objects found in the roof space at 130 Roandola. The lethal looking "brush" has two rows of seven 125mm nails driven through a hand carved wooden handle. My best guess is that it was used to comb the thatch layer when topping off a stack of hay. These haystacks can still be seen in many gardens and are winter food for any cattle, horses etc kept by the owner. Second object is a tray carved from a single piece of wood. It is just over 1m long and 430mm wide with two carrying handles at each end. Best guess on this one is that it was used to gather and carry corn cobs which would also be used as winter animal feed. In some areas of Romania you can see timber built corn stores, usually about 2.5m high, 3m long and 1m wide with open sides and ends constructed in such a way as to contain the corn cobs but allow maximum airflow. This is achieved either with thin wooden lathes or sometimes metal bars. A roof of wood shingles protects the corn from the rain. However, in my house, as was common in the Saxon villages, the corn cobs were stored in the roof space and there is plenty of evidence of this from the remains of cobs under the eaves and under the floorboards where the gaps are large enough to allow smaller dried-out cobs to slip through. I have seen similar wooden trays on display with other agricultural items on the wall of an inn at Saschiz (about 40kms east along the E60) although those ones were either half the size or somewhat larger and all had a pouring lip so may have been used for other purposes.

On a completely different subject, I have noticed while shopping here that "use by" dates are often much longer than those I was used to on fresh produce in the UK - at least in my experience shopping at Co-op and Sainsbury's. For example, the semi-skimmed milk in my fridge was bought on 30 June and is dated 16 July - and no, it's not UHT. I also have chicken breast fillets dated 12 July, eggs dated 25 July and smantana (sour cream) dated 21 July, all bought on Monday 5 July. This is brilliant for me as I can now have plenty of produce in the fridge without having to shop two or three times a week as was the case when I lived in Grove. Being the only person in the house, it was sometimes difficult to consume everything within the "use by" date which more often than not only gave me a few days before consigning it to the bin. So the question arises, do UK shops, especially the large supermarkets, keep produce in their warehouses for long periods and only put it on the shelves when "use by" date is within a few days? This can result in more food waste if consumers forget what they have in their fridge, or buy more than they can consume within the date - and more profit for the supermarkets when binned food is replaced. The obvious question you may ask me is do Romanian foods contain more preservatives? This may be true for some products although much of what I buy is labelled "no artificial flavours or preservatives". So it looks like Romanian supermarkets have more frequent deliveries and quicker turnover from warehouse to shelf. Both the supermarkets I use, Penny Market (Sighisoara) and Billa Zilnic (Medias), are owned by German REWE Group and perhaps their warehousing/distribution policy accounts for shorter time from production to sales floor. I have noticed on some meat labels a packing date which is only 1 or 2 days before the day I have made the purchase.

I have been eating lots of salami, something I didn't do in the UK. There are usually about a dozen types to choose from and because it is a product designed for long storage, they have "use by" dates giving many weeks for consumption - some varieties even come with a loop of string at one end to hang them up. I have three types, bought as a "special offer" pack on 30 June and all dated 7 August so even if I don't eat them all before I visit the UK again in two and a half weeks time, they will still be OK when I get back on 31 July. While still living in Grove, I bought some Italian salami which had to be eaten within two weeks! I ask you, how ridiculous when salami is supposed to be capable of long storage!

Another consumer "bonus" available to me in Romania is that all the electrical appliances I have bought so far came with a standard TWO YEAR guarantee. No salesperson asking me "Would you like to buy an extra year warranty for that sir?" as they do in Argos, Comet, Currys etc. This applied to everything from a toaster (made in China for a Hungarian supplier), deep-fat fryer (made in Czech Republic for Philips), food slicer (made in Slovenia for Bosch) to my large Romanian made fridge/freezer. In addition, the guarantee form was completed, signed and stamped by the retailer, who did not require my details - unlike the UK practice of expecting the consumer to complete and post off a guarantee registration card which is really only a way of collecting your details for a database to send out loads of unwanted junk mail!

Back on food - I bought some very tasty and crunchy celery in Billa Zilnic. That may not seem so amazing but from previous enquiries, I had thought my favourite vegetable was not available in Romania where they use celeriac instead for soups etc. Thank you Billa!

Finally, I have just come to the end of the first of 12 boxes of 80 teabags I brought with me from the UK - dated Sept 2011. English tea is a rarity here, Romanians prefer green tea and fruit teas. I have seen Earl Grey and English Breakfast Tea but these are considered expensive luxuries and are priced as such. Penny Market sells Belin Ceai Negru Indian (black tea) produced in Poland and I have some of this, but it is quite weak, requires 5 minutes brewing time and the bags are only enough for a small mug. As anyone who has made me a cuppa knows, I like a BIG mug - the one I use most of the time holds half a litre - almost a pint!