I’ve just got home from town and written a blog post (which will appear next thursday for reasons which will be revealed next thursday!) however so not to keep you waiting for a new post here are some thoughts on town…

Firstly town is insanely busy and there seems to be a bizarre mix of Christmas and normality going on…back on the 7th November Queensgate (the shopping centre) launched their decorations and Santa’s Grotto (I can’t help but feel he should still be sleeping until December!) yet with all these decorations there’s no Christmas music playing so although town looks Christmassy it doesn’t feel christmassy (not that I want it to in November I’d just rather it was one way or the other!)…secondly because of all the Christmas stock finding anything in a shop seems to be an impossible task! In the three bigger shops I went into I had to ask where things were which in theory is easy however tracking down a shop assistant requires a lot of energy and wandering!

I think all this is a sign of getting older…there doesn’t seem to be any excitement in shopping in such a incredibly busy place…however I have a solution!

Wander into down during the daytime (before 4!) on a weekday and it’s quite empty, there’s space to breath…you can walk around the shop without tripping over 20 toddlers, 5 walking sticks and being rundown by an old (or just very fat) person in a mobility buggy thing and because there’s not a million people blocking your view you can actually find what you want!

I think I’m going to do all my Christmas shopping on a weekday…or online which of course is even more relaxed and has no risk of being tripped up or run over!