is it

weird to have bought a woolen underlay for my bed when it's 30 C outside?

I don't like having so many public holidays together

and it's hot, it's overcast, it's not going to be hot tomorrow

and there are really strange movies on daytime TV

and I put together my new wheelbarrow together.

Yes I got a wheelbarrow for Christmas

thanks Mags

Strange but true.

Nope I didn't ask for one it just came with the tree

it's a fake tree so I don't need the wheelbarrow to cart it out to the green waste dump.

Even though putting it together made me swear a little bit

and took me two hours

cause I kept stopping to swear and watch Saved 

which appealed to my frustrated and cynical self a little too much.

I may also have thrown a glass very hard at the wall.

Frustratingly, it didn't shatter.

I got another set of glasses for Christmas so it's ok.

Then Mags and I decided to brave the Christmas sales crowds at the mall

except there weren't really that many people there.

I did feel sorry for the guys who were standing outside dress shops

looking forlorn

but probably secretly happy they were in an air conditioned building

but then, they may also have been checking where the nearest exits where

in case of earthquakes.

Oohh I have been meaning to have a rant about men in supermarkets in the festive season.

Now all women know there is a supermarket etiquette

keep to the left*,

follow the aisle flow unless you DO NOT have a trolley,

get what you came to get,

DO NOT read labels extensively,

DO NOT stop without pulling your trolley over as far to the left as you can get,

ALWAYS watch for bunching trolleys up or stopping opposite another trolley,

KEEP TO THE FREAKEN LEFT.

 Wives,

there is no earthy reason to bring your husbands with you to the supermarket in the week before Christmas. They just take up space.

Do not give them the job of driving the trolley, they can't do it. 

It's a seriously responsible job that involves a certain kind of spacial awareness that men just do not have. 

Women of the world,

in the week before Christmas any visit to a supermarket is a search and buy mission. 

It is NOT the time to bring along your men so they can read the freaken labels and check the prices.

The mission is to get in and get out as smoothly and quickly as possible.

We women understand that and until recently it was one of those mysteries of women

men just didn't need to know.

 But somehow the sanctity of the festive season supermarket shopping mission has been breached by men with too little to do or have an over inflated idea of their Jamie/Gordon skills.

You don't see real chefs reading labels,

they shop like women.

Even the women chefs do.

They tackle ingredient shopping as a serious endeavour

that is planned out with military precision, get it done and get back to home base.

This is the bit that that annoying Richard Till** misses out with his speech impeded blather about Countdown.

Maybe Jamie could help the Nation by focusing on shopping skills rather stupid school dinners.

That would be really helpful thanks Jamie.

*Or right depending on which country you are in.

** Please read his bio.  I suspect his annoyingness comes from his association with the King of Smug.