Christmas Time

There's no denying it any longer - Christmas is here. Yesterday, my day typified that in so many ways. Firstly, I had a selection of Christmas cheese and a couple of Mike's legendary homemade pickled shallots for lunch. Thanks to Mike for bringing them round (and H, for asking him to!) It just wouldn't be Christmas without them...



I even managed to watch 15 minutes of "Santa Claus: The Movie" while I was munching, but then it occurred to me that I should probably go and do some Christmas shopping, seeing as I hadn't actually started it yet. The fog, (which appears to be covering most of the northern hemisphere) added to that festive feeling.



The shopping went remarkably well. Of course, it was horrendous in the Mall but I managed to get in and out, buying seven presents and cards, in just under two hours. Perhaps the only slightly uncomfortable moment was when I handed quite a bulky present to the shopkeeper at BHS, just as I noticed that her right arm ended at the elbow. She then proceeded to struggle to get the box into a bag, and I was left with that difficult decision... Do I help and risk treating her like an invalid? Or do I just leave her struggling and risk appearing heartless? I decided to take the third option of looking uncomfortably down at my wallet, and pretending that I hadn't noticed her struggling. Thankfully she got there in the end.

When I got home, I decided to use my bumper wage (thanks to backdated petrol claims) to buy myself an advance Christmas present. I'd been keeping an eye on this badboy for some time on ebay, and generally they were going for at least £250, so I took full advantage yesterday when I spotted one with a 'buy it now' price of £210. The guy even phoned me on my way into Town to tell me that I'd got myself a really good camera at a bargain price, which was a nice touch.

Anyway, perhaps the final confirmation that it was Christmas came later that night, with the return of Mr Skinner...





...And, we "had it"!