Milton Keynes
Posted: Mon 16 December, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Festering Season, Getting Organised, People, Shopping Leave a comment »
On Friday, I realised I needed to do some stuff in Milton Keynes that couldn’t be done/sorted anywhere else. On the penultimate weekend before Christmas. Oh tits.
As it worked out, everything went really well. I was in, parked, and ready to do everything I needed to by 8am. One thing was a look round the M&S to see if there was anything that appealed – and a bit of web-checking had shown that they were open from 7am. (God knows why they felt the need to be open for 13 hours when the rest of the shops weren’t open ’til 9, but I digress)
So – a quick belt round an almost-deserted M&S proved there was nothing I actually wanted – excellent. Back to the car to wait for 9am when everything else opened.
From 9am, I got everything done within 30 minutes, and was completely out of Milton Keynes by 10am. By that time there were already queues of cars to come in to the car parking, but my deeds were done.
Surprisingly organised, and surprisingly easy.
Even better, I think I’m now done and dusted for the entire Festering Season stuff. Next weekend should be spent avoiding retail environments completely, all being well with the world…
Missing Moosen
Posted: Fri 6 December, 2013 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Festering Season, Mooooose!, Thoughts 1 Comment »Long-term readers will know that for a long time back at the start of D4D I had a fair collection of moose and reindeer soft-toys. This collection also received substantial additions from Herself in the first Christmas we were together. It wasn’t a serious collection – probably more of a conglomeration than anything else – but it amused me, and I liked most of the moosen therein.
Post-Herself, and over four moves, a lot got despatched to other homes. Charity shops, toy stalls, friends with kids, all that kind of thing. And the remaining ones got abused to various degrees by the cats, and particularly the bloody Bengal.
So now I have no moosen.
And it’s stupid, but at this time of year in particular, I kind of miss having a couple of stupid soft-toy moose/reindeer around the place. I know they’d fall foul of the felines again, but I may just end up buying a couple if I see any I particularly like.
And yes, I’m 42, and should know better. But you know what? I really don’t care.
Christmas TV Clash
Posted: Thu 5 December, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Domestic, Festering Season, News, Television, Thoughts Leave a comment »I don’t know why, but somehow it’s ‘news’ that major TV programmes will clash in their scheduling over Christmas this year. (And every year in the last 30 or so, I’m sure)
Now really, are these clashes something that will even affect most people any more? Since the advent of the video-recorder, we’ve been able to watch one programme and record another to view later. With DVRs/PVRs (Sky+, Freeview Boxes, TiVo etc.) it’s even easier, with two (or even three) recordings able to happen at once.
So – why is this a problem? I know not everyone has such a set-up, but I’d guess that the great majority have something that can record a programme. Plus there’s also all the VOD stuff (BBC iPlayer, ITVoD, 4OD et al.) allowing us to catch up later on anything that we do happen to have missed.
The only thing I can think of is that it screws the viewing figures for people watching [Programme X] right now, and viewing figures like that still seem to be the main reference point for how succesful a programme was. (And surely that has to change or be updated, with all the developments above?)
But still – does that make this newsworthy? Or should it really read “Newsflash : TV Schedulers Screw Up Again“?
Only A Month
Posted: Mon 25 November, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Festering Season Leave a comment »One month today, the shops will be shut, and the Festering Season will be over.
Rejoice and be happy. There’s just a month to go.
Festerous
Posted: Thu 21 November, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Charm School, D4D™, Festering Season, Marketing, People, Shopping, Thoughts Leave a comment »This year I’m trying hard to not get ranty about the Festering Season – which is no mean feat, I can assure you. (I’ve also just discovered that I’ve not used that Scrooge image for nearly three years in a Festering Season post, so welcome back owd fella)
After all, my local Tesco Tosspots had Christmas Cards on sale at the end of September, for fuck’s sake. They’ve had mince pies since August, but I didn’t even bother getting any photos of those.
Since then, it’s just been going on and on. Their tree went up (fully decorated) before Hallowe’en was done. The foodstuffs have been in since November 1st.
I know shops need to have the time to sell all their festive shit. I suspect that they’re also stretching out the season ‘because of the financial climate’, allowing their customers to spread the cost of the Festering Season over greater time, rather than being crippled in December. I get that, and I don’t mind. (Too much)
It still narks me that everything is so obsessed with materialism, gifts, and the social-status inferred therein. I can’t help it. I don’t like seeing it in the shops for three damn months, or hearing poxy bastard carols on shop sound systems for two months. But it’s pretty much unavoidable – I try to limit my exposure to it all, but there still has to be some, sadly.
But I’m trying hard to not be too ranty about it. For now. That may change over the next few weeks – after all, there’s still a month to go…
Approaching Year-End (Part 2)
Posted: Mon 23 September, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Festering Season, People, Shopping 1 Comment »At the end of August, I wrote about the signs that we were coming to the end of the year, and the Festering Season. Obviously X-Factor and Strictly being back on TV are the two primary harbingers mentioned in that one.
Now though, I’m seeing more signs – and they seem to be earlier than ever.
- On TV, we’re starting to see the adverts for perfumes/fragrances (for both men and women) and also the music compilation CDs that only ever seem to be on the shelves for the Festering Season. It’s always the “Oh god, I don’t know – get something” gift of last resort.
- In the supermarkets, hard though it is to believe, there’s already Christmas confectionary and mince pies on the shelves.
- And then there was this, spotted yesterday…
Yep, Christmas Cards are already on the shelves. I despair.
I’m surprised at how early all this tat is hitting the shops- I assume it’s retail’s way of handling people having less money than usual, so making the items available ever earlier. Personally I think that’s bollocks, and they’re just hoping for as many sales as possible – but as you can see from the picture above, people are actually buying the damn cards already…