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More Shopping Malarkey

 Seriously, I think I ought to collate a collection of shopping stories. Why do odd things happen when I am in shops? Am I a shopping angst magnet? Or am I merely hyper vigilant and notice these things more acutely than other people? Or are people just angrier than they used to be. Hmmmm….

Anyway, I made a trip into town today, mostly to collect a print I’d taken into a framing shop a couple of weeks ago. The print was a birthday gift. Here it is, all done up in its lovely blue frame and white mountings: 


I’ve been wandering around the house trying to decide where to hang it. Ideally, it will go in my study/ writing room but that means I’ll have to redecorate first and really, I’m not in the mood for painting and wallpapering at the moment. 

Back to the shops. After collecting the picture and enjoying a lovely chat with the couple who own the framing shop, I popped into B & M to stock up on bird food because it’s the cheapest (!) place to buy it. The cost of sunflower seeds has become prohibitive. £24.00 for a 12.5 kg sack compared with £16 a few months ago. The Damson Cottage birdie population will go through a sack in around ten days. Add on the cost of peanuts and fat balls and I reckon feeding our garden birds would be in excess of £20 a week. As we are being inundated with starlings at the moment, £20 is a conservative estimate. Also, I am no longer bringing in a wage. So sunflower seeds have been replaced by the same weight in mixed seeds at £7 a sack, and whilst the birds were initially sniffy about this change, they’ve got over themselves and have adapted to the substandard non-sunflower seeds offering. Peckers can’t be choosers, eh?

Whilst waiting at the checkout, because even though there were only two of us being served, the other person decided to initiate a very complex refund process which the B & M till system couldn’t cope with, I could hear a couple making their way up and down the aisles and their discussion was growing ever more heated.

Woman: Just hold the basket, will you? I need to look at these toys.

Man: I thought we’d already got him something.

Woman: We have. But this is for his Christmas Eve box.

Man: (mutters something undecipherable)

Woman: How about this? Do you think he’ll like this? It’d go with the other things in his box.

Man: I don’t know. You started it all, with this Christmas Even box thing. I don’t know why he needs all this as well as Christmas presents…

Woman: (at the very top of her very loud voice) IT’S PEER PRESSURE, DEREK!

Honestly, what has Christmas come to? Not only is there all the pressure for presents on Christmas Day itself, now it seems that families have to deal with the cost of providing Christmas Eve boxes, too. It’s insane. Insane and unnecessary. 

And peer pressure? Seriously? Peer pressure is another name for bullying. And I thought the world was supposed to be all about anti-bullying these days. 

Excuse me if I emit a cynical ‘Pah!’

Comments

Anonymous said…
It is insane. Do people not know they are in charge of their own life?
KJ
23 November 2022 at 17:01
Denise said…
You’d like to think they do, KJ. I am beginning to despair.
23 November 2022 at 18:06
Anonymous said…
What a lovely picture by the way! Just how I picture you.
KJ
27 November 2022 at 14:38
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