Thoughts on Sunday

Christmas has certainly arrived at Asda. The store is decorated and the staff are all wearing Santa hats. I doubt whether this is optional judging by the look on some of their faces. Shoppers are definitely in that Christmas frenzy mood. They have no consideration for anyone or anything else. They are now simply programmed to get whatever is on their lists and at all costs. The ones in Asda today probably all had the same idea - to shop early in case anything runs out. It was busy, verging on overcrowded. If more than one person stopped in in aisle this would cause a bottleneck. Yet supermarkets are very much like roads. People drive about like idiots. They meander about in their own little worlds, their eyes fixed on their target - a box of sage and onion stuffing or the current two for one offer. I was glad to get out. I can stand those places for a limited amount of time I'm afraid and my clock was ticking.
Argos was pretty much the same but a little less organised. The store layout lends itself to chaos with people crossing each other and others just looking confused. Today we had a clear objective. We had to collect a toy dinosaur our son had set his heart on. It had been out of stock for a long time at all the local stores and it was only by chance that I was able to reserve one last week - the only one remaining. It has become so rare that examples have begun to pop up on eBay at ridiculous prices, £80 being the highest I've seen so far. The toy is just £39 normally. We also bought a nice portable CD radio which I don't think he's expecting. So I'm quite pleased with our work today.

No matter how hard I try, I simply cannot escape the fact that Christmas is almost upon us. For some, it is already time for celebration. My wife had threatened to begin putting up the decorations and assembling the tree this afternoon. This would have entailed a visit to the loft and the precarious job of balancing on the ladder whilst wrestling with boxes and bags of tinsel and other paraphernalia. It's looking likely that we'll do this on Wednesday. Our Son can help us after school - he'll love that.
It feels as if we've had just a couple hours of daylight today for it's now beginning to get dark once more. I do have a sense of what it must feel like for people who are affected by the lack of daylight. I really don't mind it too much. I preferred it when I was working as this would herald the winding down of the working day and home time. For me it was a 45 mile drive back from the outskirts of Lincoln. I loved the drive, it was the best part of the day.

It looks like we could see our first snow of the winter this coming week. According to the forecast, the temperature will fall and snow will begin creeping further and further south. They've already had a covering in many parts of Scotland. It'll be nice if it arrives in time for our trip on the Santa Express at Sherringham next Sunday.

It's a slow news day. The top story is the arrival of two Pandas from China, on loan to an Edinburgh zoo. It is ridiculous how much coverage is being given to this. People have been lining the route from the airport - as if they will be sitting in an open car waving at onlookers. With everything that's happening in the world at the moment, I suppose it's the only real bit of good news so I suppose we should enjoy it while we can. I'm sure it'll be back to doom and gloom tomorrow.

I won't give much time to this but I read an article in the Mail on Sunday and The Express newspapers regarding an attack on a toddler. In fact it is so horrendous that I won't repeat the article in any detail suffice to say that it sickened me to the bone and produced a feeling of anger and disgust I've seldom experienced before now. All I will say in response to this article is this. If there was ever a reason needed to justify the use of capital punishment, then this is it. I only wish that our pathetic justice system had the powers to inflict the same level of pain and suffering these people have inflicted. But it doesn't and the tragedy is that these scum will be served a slap on the wrist and be released into society. These 'people' are not human, they are wild animals and should therefore be treated as such.

Wedding afterglow

I notice people are beginning to reminisce about the wedding and the TV is desparately trying not to let go completely, some channels still re-running the highlights. There is much speculation as to where the Royal Couple have disappeared to. Frankly, I don't really care. Chances are, they are just down the road from here at Sandringham and if I made enough noise, they'd probably hear me. Hopefully they are getting some peace and quiet away from the relentless glare of the media. There is though a warmish glow lingering from Friday. It prompts the odd ridiculous conversation about the wedding and how beautiful the bride looked - as if they'd have had her looking a mess. 'I hope she doesn't turn out like Diana' and 'he's more sensible than his father' are amongst some of the phrases I've heard so far. Many seem to agree that Anne could have found something a little less 80's and that Beatrice's hat was simply silly. The gossip in various hairdressers and co-op stores up and down the land will persist for weeks and possibly months to come.

I'm amazed at the weather today, it's really quite good. A little windy maybe but bright, clear and sunny. We did a little shopping earlier in Wisbech and I played 'spot the English person', a regular source of amusement for it is common knowledge that mass imigration has now made English people of British origin a minority group in many parts of the UK. I'm just stating a fast and nothing more. I actually find it amusing.
I picked up a cheap digital TV box in Asda - my parents had requested a cheap one for their kitchen TV. I thought £19 was quite reasonable so bought that and had it installed and working in no time. In August we begin to lose our trusty analogie signal here as everything is converted to the DVB standard. I'll probably mark the event with a special entry nearer the time but I'll always have happy memories of trying to position the antenna for optimum picture and thinking I'd got it just right only to find that just one of the four channels was watchable... Oh what fun. It's hard to imagine that my son will only know digital though I expect FM and Medium Wave will be with us for a few years yet. We'll see...