london
it is great entertainment to observe others and what they get up to.

There is one group of people, the majority it would seem if the statistics have anything to say, who go shopping. This they do online, in increasing numbers it seems, or hit the shops during boxing day and the following days.

I enjoy seeing what they buy. the daily mail purports to show what the bargains are here. But i have known winter sales where £700 items are reduced to £10 as a one off, and in those days people queue up for days, camping outside the store.

Those days are gone now and even after reductions i think they are still expensive. like an umbrella selling for £120 reduced to £50. who would buy it at the original price? and who will be fooled to buy it even at the reduced price which to me is highly inflated.

i find it very amusing that these are supposed to be bargains.
Added 27.12.11 it seems many of the shoppers are tourists, from china, nigeria, middle east. Only they will think it a bargain , as the £ has dropped so low, they must feel rich after converting their currency. they can also reclaim the 20% vat so why shouldn't they feel it is all a great bargain. !!?


What is a bargain is this evening at the sainsburys, when they were reducing loaves of bread to 10p, and turkey crowns to £2.
I bought one, supposedly £33 to £2, 3.5kg. 

There is a lot of meat in there and all very lean. anyway i cut it up and split into two pots to cook. one I made into a curry,(i added some curry leaves which i found in the freezer. i forgot i still got them.) the other tomato based. 

it should keep me in meat for a long time haha. 

i bought another 3loaves of multi seeded warburton loaves. Cant go wrong, at 10p each .haha.

We all know that turkey will be reduced today. once christmas is over turkey becomes very cheap. 

it is always the case, even in malaysia, the food prices before chinese new year or any festivities are always inflated. 

£2 turkey and 10p loaves.

Perhaps you visited people, parents or friends. Or even been working over the christmas. You get double pay and day off as well.

Pubs were opened during christmas day. It surprised me , but the driver of the car who took the charity run told me he will be going to a pub afterwards. and during our ride, we saw plenty of pubs with lots of people in them. it seems they close at about 3pm and are full of local people who can walk there and so can drink without worrying about drinking and driving.

it seems the convention is that the men folk go to a pub, to meet their friends, whilst the wife cooks the christmas dinner and that gets rid of the men whilst the lunch is cooking.

then they all return after drinking to eat christmas lunch at home. i suppose there are plenty of people living on their own who will go to a pub and have their christmas lunch there.

The prices are inflated of course. Tourists in knightsbridge are paying £5.50 for coffee.

What a nice thing about living in a big city... lots of people buying and eating and keeping businesses open even on a public holiday like christmas.

I did my bit for charity, by doing the food run. there was left over food and i got a roast chicken dinner and a pitta bread with salad which filled me up and saved me having to cook lunch when i got back. we got the full complement of helpers , 5drivers and 5navigators as well as the kitchen helpers.

I told some of those who parked their bikes on the raillings outside the building to bring it in as my bike had one of the brake wires cut and the brake pads of the back wheel stolen when i was there about 2 wks ago.

so now i bring the bike inside.

it is not that crucial, as the front brakes works and i use the front brakes, so that i did not even realise the back brakes were gone till i used it this sunday.

But i think it is a nasty person to cut the bike brakes. fortunately he or she only cut one set of brakes.

Another joy about this time is watching tv. haha. there have been a surfeit of jane austen .

i have got lots of books to read as well.

there is madagascar 2 on now. so i shall sign off and watch it.