Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Life just bounces
posted by John Davies at 9:38 PM
Christmas shopping complete. Parcels parcelled. Cards for posting, posted. Behind my right eye something aches. Muscles behind my kidneys too. I'm shattered but happy that it's a job now done.
Essential rule of Christmas shopping #1: Buy in Liverpool. Feed the local economy. For the last two years it was all done in the little shops of Bold Street. I shopped around a bit this year, but all within the Liverpool postal area.
Essential rule of Christmas shopping #2: Ignore people's Christmas lists. Saves any possibility of overlapping with other family / friends and means that the exchange of a gift between two people allows an element of surprise (admittedly I note sometimes shock or despair is part of the recipient's response).
Christmas shopping delight this year: Trying applying generosity to my buying. How did I do? You'll have to wait and see.
Christmas shopping gaffe this year #1: Buying what I thought was a blue santa hat from the Everton FC shop only to discover on getting it home it's a Santa stocking. Can't wear that on me head at Blackburn next Saturday;
Christmas shopping gaffe this year #2: Buying cards in bulk from a charity which twice, over two months, failed to deliver to my address - a bloke twenty houses down the road was bemused / annoyed on both occasions. The cards went back both times - I never got the delivery;
Christmas shopping gaffe this year #3: Buying cards from a shop to get them home to discover they had Happy Birthday inside them;
Christmas shopping opportunity this year: Due to above card gaffes, I made me own cards last-minute and photocopied them. Hope they'll do.
 Christmas shopping treat this year: After completing my shopping, a purchase from Probe - Perverted By Mark E., a truly wonderful celebration of Fall music. Probe's sticky label calls it an "ace double cd set of U.S., U.K., German and antipodean indie misfits paying tribute to the mighty Fall - a load of great cover versions and a heap of fantastic originals inspired by Mark E."
The drive home after Christmas shopping this year: A celebratory journey, singing along to Perverted By Mark E., waving my Everton club shop bag at friendly flag-bearing Blues car drivers and, at traffic lights, in the rear view mirror of cars bearing LFC stickers. "And green grow the hedgerows along the walls / And I see that my problems are really small / And life just bounces so don't you get worried at all".
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john davies
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