Those Shopping Trolleys

One of the small adjustments to life down under (apart from the exploding microwaves, combat wombats, and drains that swirl the wrong way) is dealing with the shopping carts/trolleys in the groceries here. They're odd. All four wheels swivel, unlike in stores I've been in in the US, where only the first two swivel and the back two are fixed. So it makes pushing the trolleys a bit different.

Lately, on my weekly excursions to Woolies to buy dead kangaroo for the cats and some food for the humans, I've had a real run of dodgy trolleys. One wanted desperately to veer to the right -- it was almost a workout to keep it straight. Another began a most annoying squeak about 5 minutes after I started shopping -- too late to get another cart. Another shook like a space shuttle landing without its heat deflecting tiles.

Today, I thought I'd finally gotten a decent cart. It went straight when I wanted it to. It didn't squeak, shake, rattle or hum. I didn't find a sticky spot on the handle.

Then I encountered the flat escalator. I don't know what to call it -- it is like one of those long flat things that you can stand and ride on at the airport if you're lazy, except this one takes you on an incline from the level the store is on to the underground parking lot. The shopping trolleys are designed to NOT roll down -- not quite sure how it works, but it does.

But today, I hit the top of that slide and gravity immediately began to have its way with the trolley. Absolutely zero resistance for some reason. It was lucky I had that trolley and not some feeble old lady with the cart loaded with kitty litter, condensed milk, and tinned baked beans -- she could never have kept it from flying down the long ramp.