Christmas time involved catching the Christmas cold, watching the nativity, singing carols, eating my own bodyweight in turkey and chocolates, watching lots of tv and playing some of the games we got over Christmas. We also learnt about the true meaning of Christmas. Which isn't, as the shops might have you believe, about running up a credit card bill equivlent to the GDP of a small Eastern European nation.
1. I enjoyed (?) my first sales shopping trip with my fiancé over Christmas.
Why does everyone look so miserable when they're shopping? Out of every 50 people, I'm sure only 1 person has a genuine smile on their face. Faced with that level of gloom and grumpiness, it's no wonder most of the shop assistants and cashiers look so depressed. We tried smiling at them which sometimes got a smile back, but probably just gave them the impression that we'd spent too long sniffing the scented candles in the homewares section.
It was kinda fun watching the behaviours exhibited in the shoppers while waiting for the fiancé to browse through evening dresses for the 2008 weddings. The shop was filled with sounds of hangers click-clacking as dozens upon dozens of women sorted through the rails of clothes searching for their size. There were handfuls of men spread out across the shop. Some were trying to stand in a spot out of the way of the main thoroughfares, others were forlornley shuffling behind their partners carrying several bags in each hand. There was the middle aged man standing next to his wife, who was also flicking through the clothes rails and would occasionally extract a dress or pair of trousers, examining it for a second or two, before placing it back on the rail. Whether he was thinking about outfits that his wife could wear or whether they were for him, I wouldn't wish to enquire. Having originally adopted the 'find a spot somewhere in the store' approach, I decided to wait outside, along with a number of the 'dads with small children' and the 'I've spent 30 minutes in HMV, but she's still inside monsoon' brigade. If I were designing a shopping mall, I would have a minimum of one table football and one pool table outside every womens' clothing shop. Either that or every clothes shop must be pared with a bookstore, electrical appliances and gadgets shop or music store, before a plot is leased out. Failing that, maybe every store should have a minimum of 2 large televisions showing Top Gear or episodes of Blackadder. :-)
2. Out of all the shops where men and women can peacefully co-exist, places like Zaavi and HMV probably rank as one of the highest. So, we decided that Zaavi would be a convenient meeting place in the shopping mall. My future brother-in-law remarked that they seemed to have actually increased the price of all console games and accessories - presumably on the basis that everyone got a WII or Xbox 360 for Christmas and are now out to buy extra controllers or games with the money they got from their granny after telling the little old dears that they didn't need more deodorant for Christmas and money would do just fine. We very nearly bought an extra 'nunchuk' controller for the WII so that we could do the 2 player boxing game, but given how sore our arms were from 'playing tennis' and doing the shooting games, we decided we should probably wait until we'd extracted all possible enjoyment out of the other games that had been receive for Christmas. Besides I'd already managed to blow two lights and almost demolish the living room light fitting after getting a little too enthusiastic with my topspin backhands on the WII tennis game the previous evening. It's a wonder that the cricket game played at New Year didn't result in more damage to Nud's living room! Though actually, I think they were hoping for a bat through the TV screen, so that they could replace it with a brand new widescreen LCD telly. You can just see their insurance claim now "The TV was damaged as a result of playing cricket in front of it". "Ah, well, of course, why didn't you say so. That kind of thing happens all the time. It's not like you were doing anything crazy like playing tennis in front of it..." It's no surprise that the WII remotes come with wrist straps, just in case you lose your grip...
But I still enjoy the non-electronic games too. The Fiancé got a Dread Pirate boardgame, which was fun to play with the 2 of us, but should be great if we can get 4 people together. And yes she is into pirates and boardgames, he says, like it is an obvious combination; "I wish to parlay with Blackbeard the pirate." "Can you wait 20 minutes?" "Why?" "Well, he's just finishing off a game of Monopoly with Norman the cabin boy, Bob the deckswabber and Captain Hook. Once he buys the Gas Works, I'm sure he'll be up for taking a break to do some raiding and pillaging of the local ports."
In return, I got Uno Stakko, a game which comes perilously close to infringing copyright on another well known game. I think the shout of 'uno' comes in when you use 2 hands to remove a brick from the tower. As if Jenga wasn't hard enough eh?
2. Fun with sparklers... Looks like Mrs Heavy Isotope D is attempting a bit of 'force lightning' in the background.
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