I agree. However my partner, daughter and son like it but there is a restriction on presents it's down to one secret Santa gift each. We go out for Xmas day meal so the crazy shopping for a month's supplies doesn't occur for us as we're fully aware that shops are open beyond the big day.
Easter? roll on Ascension Day a much more fulfilling puritanical experience, none of that chocolate bunnies, eggs, what-not and nonsense .
Oh no! I've never heard of that one, and I'm hoping it doesn't catch on with special Ascension cakes, pies and other weird food that is sooooo delicious that no one eats it all year long... Unless its some wonderful festival held on Ascension island?
I feel your pain as some low life woman in a Merc pushed her way into my road path because of parked cars on her side, she wouldn't back up but a lady in a rather expensive Audi behind me told her it's not really the thing to do is it............so we back up and let that bad mannered person through.
5 Gold Star Good Samaritan points to you Pete you've made me think of a vaguely similar incident around 10 years ago, but the person who was driving the wrongly blocked car got out and walked towards the offending car with a length of thick conduit and they backed off fairly quickly - this person was taking the piss massively though, and when he smirked it was just like "lighting the blue touchpaper".
If it was purely a Christian festival - candles, Christmas carols, quiet reflection etc - I wouldn't mind. I may not participate but it wouldn't offend me or spoil my peace and quiet. But it's become a vulgar exhibition of kitsch and excess. Eating and drinking yourself half to death, flushing away money you don't have on shit you don't need, and that's before we start on giant inflatable Santas and hideous cartoon jumpers made in third word sweat shops. I don't know what gets into people's heads. It's a kind of collective lemming-like madness. It's the same with summer bank-holiday getaways. Everyone seems to think they have to flock to the west country just because everyone else is, and they spend two days out of the three sitting in tailbacks on the M3. I'd rather spend the weekend sitting in my garden.
Plus a little group think thrown in perhaps? How many fairly broke people have £1000 phones which they use to call, text and post on FB? Though some probably do take pics of their pets... How many people now suddenly refuse "bad" injections for their kids despite them enjoying immunity from diseases their entire lives? How many discovered they need barista coffee/ handfuls of vitamins/ oat milk to get through the day instead of tea/ bacon rolls or weetabix / gold top? Media & Marketing is big deal! PS Why do almost all motorbikes "need" £3000 exhausts and all cars are fine as they are?
Keeping up with the Joneses and 'fitting in' is such a part of it. Unfortunately the pressure of societal norms drives so many. Thinking independently (as many motorcyclists do) is increasing rare I believe.
Had to make an impromptu trip to the butchers to pick up a ham, and it’s now in the oven on a low heat for 24 hours, courtesy of Nigella. We were meant to be going to my Auntie & Uncle on Boxing Day, but he had a stoke last week, so was rushed into hospital for an emergency op. Thankfully he’s back home now, they say he’ll make a full recovery, so we’ve taken the reins and are hosting the family festivities on Boxing Day now.
Our town high street was packed with people today. Kids, teenage kids and their friends, oldies, families, old friends talking to each other, pet dogs, babes in arms - the whole lot were out and about. M&S was packed, already some food items going at a discount. The giant sky fairy thing - doesn't live in the sky, but in the human soul. Its battles with the dark of the human soul is eternal.
I have an £800 phone. I don't use it for social media and most apps don't work because it's Android and as I refuse to have Google active on it I can't update. I own a smart phone purely for internet on the move and this particular one for the qualty of the camera. Really I should have bought a tablet for internet access and a digital SLR for taking pictures and kept an old analogue Nokia for making calls. I don't need anything more than that and most people, if they're honest with themselves, don't either. You're right about group-think, compounded by MSN click-bait grooming. I do have a £2500 exhaust on my bike, plus a £450 custom map, so up there with the 3 grand. But that's because I'm allergic to having Eurocrat vermin nesting in my ECU and gnawing at my happy wires..
There is no supernatural being living in any part -be it physical or otherwise- of the human being I fondly call myself. I have absolutely no issue with other humans who consider themselves to be differently equipped. You keep reading King James, and I'll stick with Hitchens and we will both be happy. Perhaps this is the origin of "Each to their own"?
