Ship ship ship shop shop shop

Yesterday I braved the shopping centre in what was my first day's shopping since I started work over two months ago - well, apart from on my birthday, which also happened to be a Saturday.

Yes, I took time out on my birthday to go shopping. With my parents in tow. This is actually not quite as bad as it sounds since my parents are quite patient on the rare occasions when this happens, and are happy to hang around at the entrance of shops whilst I fly around looking at all the clothes/books/cheap videos on offer.

The reason this happened on my birthday - well, actually, there are a number of reasons. Firstly, I needed to buy things. (Not in the compulsive shopping way, but because I was running short of a few items. Well, okay, I can't quite make the claim that I was running out of books, but I was feeling in the mood to have a good browse around in good bookshops.)

Secondly, my weekends have all been really busy since I started working - no connection except insofar as the weekend's the only time I have free, and therefore the only time when I'm likely to be able to do things. All through the week leading up to my birthday I was thinking at the back of my mind, "Ooh, I have Saturday free, I can go shopping then!"

The event of my birthday didn't really make much of a wave in the water sea pond lake swimming pool ocean of my mind.

When realisation dawned I said, "Sod it," (or an approximation thereof) and decided to go anyway. So yeah, I did the dull, oppressive, fighting-your-way-through-crowds and parting-with-hard-earned-money thing on my birthday. What a day to remember, huh?

I do beg your pardon, I've tangented myself quite a long way off my original, intended, subject (so far that I've had to change the entry title to accommodate it). Going back, then, yesterday I shopped.

The thing that irked me the most, apart from the almost-forgotten Saturday crowds, was the Christmas theme that had pervaded just about every single shop in sight. Not just that they're selling Christmassy things - calendars, wrapping paper, "Christmas gifts" and the like - which they've been doing for a couple of months. Not just the Christmas decorations which are up everywhere.

The worst aspect, by far, is that they've started playing Christmas music. Already! It's not even mid-November, and already we're hearing strains of "Winter Wonderland" and other, more traditional, Christmas songs. I feel deep down, in my heart of hearts, that the first of December is the very earliest time that it's decent to play such stuff. Shops pushing their festive merchandise I can just about cope with starting from about October - I can always look the other way. But Christmas carols a full seven weeks before the actual day? No. No, no, no, no, no.

The most wonderful time of the year?