I am pleased to say that I managed to get nearly all of my Christmas shopping done in Exeter yesterday. No internet shopping for me this year – I decided to get out and support the high street. It served as a stark reminder for why internet shopping is, in many ways, preferable. And here starts my Bah Humbugage (yes, it’s a new word).
Firstly, people are mindless zombies who just randomly change direction or stop, or both. People should be fitted with indicators, and where possible, allow a 2 second breaking gap like you should in the car. However, it would seem that the (somewhat drastic) solution to navigate the high street with greater speed and alacrity would be to have a child and take a pushchair. Nay, a battering ram, if you will. While I fully intend to be able to do this one year, I am a bit behind on being able to do so this year and definitely have no intention of being in that kind of way next Christmas. So that’s out for me. I may don my steel toe capped boots next year though.
Secondly, how on earth do you dress for shopping? Internet shopping = easy = scruffs and slippers. High street? You could dress for the outdoor temperature (coat, jeans, boots), or the temperature of most shops (flip flops, shorts, t-shirt and anything else that you’d wear in a hot country). I foolishly opted for the winter option and nearly died in the furnace known as Marks and Spencers. I wouldn’t mind, but combine zombies with heat and my temper is beginning to look frayed at best, all out raging at worst. Coffee was the only solution.
However, I do enjoy wrapping presents. So, after watching the Wales v Australia rugby match (boo to the result, but some of the best rugby I’ve watched in yonks) and texting M the updates, I parked on the floor, stuck True Blood on the DVD player and got wrapping. I was a bit sad though, as the present pile isn’t very big this year. M and I agreed that we just don’t have the money to go all out on Christmas this year, and the pain of paying off last year’s credit card in January (to March) was still ringing around in my memory. I know it isn’t all about the presents, but I feel this is a significant cutback on previous years. I have one or two other bits and bobs to get, but otherwise I am done. One more high street trip and that’s it – no more until 2014!
Roll on to this morning, and I come into the living room to see the Christmas tree being unpacked. This is a new tree after the cats ruined our tree last year. I can feel another month of yelling “GET OUT OF THE TREE TIMO!!!” coming on. I am not putting the presents under the tree, having learnt last year that in their haste to evacuate from under said tree, they rip the wrapping. While the tree is going up, the living room is filled with a Christmas countdown on one of the music channels. And my answer to that has been laptop + iTunes + filter on rock and metal + headphones.
Now, despite all of this, I really do love Christmas. I love seeing other peoples’ decorations go up throughout the town, the town lights being switched on, the shop fronts, the cold, the smells. I am just not loving it this weekend.
In other news, I am seriously thinking of not doing the Weston AC Christmas Cracker 10k. I haven’t put the time into training and I feel quite demoralised. I don’t know what benefit running it badly would have. It’s something I need to give some serious thought to over the next few days, because I don’t want to feel worse about my running than I already do. IS DNS worse than DNF? Either way, both are attributable to my lack of preparation.
Tub on the Run 