For someone who considers themselves to be shopping mission savvy, today's experience was... pretty humbling. It was my first cycling mission, thanks to Paul from Barnet's GoodGym, who kindly offered to lend me a bike.

I sorted out the shopping list upfront by calling Mrs M the day before. It was a very simple order, so when Mrs wanted to make sure I am familiar with Finchley's Aldi and the locations of the products, I kept nodding - though she couldn't see me on the phone. It was not entirely true but, once in Aldi, I managed to find all the products within 4 minutes. That was when my luck turned back on me.

I found out that, despite Aldi being open, the checkouts were not operating until 11:00 am, so I had to wait 10+ minutes. Fortunately, I was first in my queue. Thanks to some tips and help from Paul, who usually shops for Mrs M, the order was shortly delivered to her by bike.

Having that part of my tour completed, we set off for a picturesque bike ride. I went for quite a long time without drinking my water, and when I finally reached inside my backpack, I pulled out a bottle of... extra virgin oil! What a disgrace for a shopping expert! I promptly called Mrs M about the mistake. Obviously, she already knew that the item from the receipt was missing in the shopping bag but could not reach me because of GoodGym's code that recommends calling beneficiaries from a private number. I learned that she is only available until a certain time, so I had to rush back to make up for my negligence.

Despite I felt far less competent today than on my very first mission, the whole adventure ended well, and Mrs M was genuinely thankful for the effort.