Turkey advice

It has been a little quiet here on the blog recently hasn’t it. I’ve been undertaking extensive quantities of preparational Christmas activities as plans have changed and Maddie_C and I are staying in Essex for Christmas rather than touring the motorways of southern England which had previously been our plan. Unfortunately the cat is not well so we are staying here to tend to her merest whim. Sleeping and raw mince are her particular vices.

So this has meant that I’m spending my first Christmas in Essex and we have been out getting lots of the paraphernalia required for undertaking a Christmas day without being at a parent’s house. We now have a tree and some baubles (The catering-size box of baubles I got at a knockdown price at a church sale have been vetoed for their gaudiness).

Which brings me onto the pressing subject of the day. Turkeys. We looked today in the supermarche and they all seemed to have ‘best before’ dates of December the 26th. Is this normal? It’s just that one really wants to be eating turkey leftovers on not only the 26th but also the 27th and perhaps at a stretch the 28th. Does the ‘best before’ date apply to when you need to cook it by or when you need to eat it by? And if we go to the shops tomorrow will the turkeys all have best before dates of the 27th? Or is the 26th some sort of an industry standard? In fact will there be any turkeys left tomorrow or Saturday? I am worried that the pensioners go in at 8am and clear the shelves (no disrespect to pensioners here).

Your help and in-depth advice would be appreciated.

I would like to take a moment to explain to all the people for whom I should have done many things that I have not been able to do all of their many things yet. This is because of delays. Thank you.