Miss Comic relief has just been to her first Build-a-Bear birthday party. It's something that she was looking forward to with great zeal, because up to this point her big sister had been to three, and she'd been to none. She said it wasn't fair - like a Build-a-Bear party is some kind of right of passage. If you don't know what Build-a-Bear is, the clue is in the name. You go in to the shop, choose a lifeless furry carcass, stick a cloth heart in it, insert a sound chip with an annoying amercian voice or a random noise...
shopping is not my life
Miss Comic relief has just been to her first Build-a-Bear birthday party. It's something that she was looking forward to with great zeal, because up to this point her big sister had been to three, and she'd been to none. She said it wasn't fair - like a Build-a-Bear party is some kind of right of passage. If you don't know what Build-a-Bear is, the clue is in the name. You go in to the shop, choose a lifeless furry carcass, stick a cloth heart in it, insert a sound chip with an annoying amercian voice or a random noise...
Remembrance day has been and gone, but I don't see anything wrong with talking about it on any other day of the year, because to be honest - it's one of those things that people seem to forget until it's that one day of the year. And it's not the only thing that people forget, respect as a whole attitude seems to get the short shrift too. I was sitting in the waiting room of my chiropractor the other day, and I was leafing through the "News Shopper" - our local free rag. It's a rivetting read, but the...
Yep, it's that time of year again. When all the shops start pushing the christmas agenda, while all the shoppers start decrying the anti seasonalness of it. I was in "Game" earlier today. They've beefed up their staff for christmas already. They've placed them at roving intervals of about 6 feet, which meant that there were about 12 of them standing at uncomfortable readyness. Unfortunately for me, I was the only person in the shop. By the time I made it to the preowned DS rack (which the bastards had moved) I had been offered assistance 5 times. While I...
Our local blockbuster has a rigourous training scheme which all employees must undergo. Successful staff must be able to take and match videos, accept video card, pull up details, tally up video and snack-like beverage costs, calculate change and give the customer back their card - all without ever EVER making eye contact with the customer.I am sure that you find this as astonishing as I do. At the very least, entry level quality customer service involves eye contact. I know that the service industry in Britain doesn't teach people to wish their customers a nice day. That is because...
I never was an afficinado of woolworths while it was alive. I think that they lost sight of what they actually stood for - if they ever stood for anything. I did go there regularly however - usually having to make repeat visits to find the item I needed. In hindsight, the demise of woolworths was on the cards for some time. My reasons for shopping there were primarily to find a pair of grey tights for school. In the last year I must have gone back to Penge woolworths 5 times hoping for the right size to be available,...
I get emails from shops that I buy from - even though I check the box that says NO THANKS. I bet you do too. Then I start getting emails from shops that I did NOT buy from. Most of them I trash without even reading them, but the other day one caught my eye. It wasn't that it had something I was interested in - it was that it was strangely familiar. It looked like the last email from a different shop. And strangely similar to yet a third shop. I had trashed most of the previous day's emails,...
We've just got back from the Beckenham Town Fair, about £30 poorer, and frozen to the bone. Take note that it's actually the first week of September, so you'd imagine if you went out wearing jeans, a jumper, coat and shoes and socks you'd be warm enough. The grey drizzles meant that the park - usually packed in summer on a weekend - was practically empty. The vendors selling pancakes and hog roast probably didn't break even on their petrol costs. We watched the medievil archers (it's always the yorks against lancasters) and the working dog show, then wandered off...
Beckenham now has three major chain coffee shops. The number of coffee shops is only outstripped by the number of charity shops (which currently numbers at about 6, and I am really not sure what that says about us...) A year ago the independent coffee shop closed down under the pressure of the new costa coffee, and a betting shop opened in its place. That was a tragedy. But the opening of Cafe Nero and Coffee republik is downright perplexing. Just how much of the stuff can one village-like suburb imbibe? The three cafe's are all the same - apart...
Is that when things are free, people don't value them. And they don't seem to value the time of the person who is happy to provide them something for nothing. I am giving away a 2 and 3 seater sofa. They are in good condition for 9 year old sofas. The covers are washable and they are in great condition. And lots of people have emailed and asked about them. But the people who were coming today (tomorrow, saturday, thursday again, friday and then today again) have just cancelled because their man with a van has broken down. And so...
So today was a fun day. I rolled out of bed at 8am, missing a full one hour of my lie in, poured my cappucino into a handy travelling cup replete with lid, cleared out George*, programmed Kenº and met up with a haggard band of mums at C---- H----- station. Ready for the Fairways shopping extravaganza. You've heard of Bluewater? Well this is nothing like it. Tucked behind an industrial area, with reject trolleys from a variety of supermarkets is Fairways. It's a cash and carry for small shops that stock gifts and toys. There is a small metal...
When you've had two kids and you're not a celebrity, you have to accept that a flat stomach is forever going to be an unattainable dream. Which is why magic knickers are the best invention since breadslicers. But not all magic knickers are as magic as the others. I've got one pair which works well up top - it doesn't roll down, it ends at the ribs and there is not a muffin top in sight. But at the other end, the legs holes leave a lot to be desired. They don't leave a vpl, they leave an efpl. "Escaping...
Want some excitement in your dull, monotonous, routine little life? Want your adrenaline levels to rise to dangerous levels and blood pressure to threaten to hit the roof? Want to be incited to violence despite the fact that you are a conciencious objector? Be arrested for beating a granny to death with a breadstick? Thrill as you shove innocent bystanders into the path of an oncoming 73? Laugh in the face of death as you take a white knuckle ride through the world that is consumerism? Laugh like a maniac? Bwuahahahahahah!! There is only one answer. Go shopping. In...
