It’s christmas eve in my part of the world as I write. Last night there was all night shopping at the local shopping mall, Chadstone and it was crazy. I only went there because I needed some drugs man. There were your late shoppers who were busy snapping up a few last minute pressies, and there were young people. It wasn’t clear what they where doing apart from standing around getting in the way. The traffic was horrendous with hundreds of cars pouring into the car park with hundreds leaving at the same time, and of course everyone wants the car park closest to the front door.
Then today, I nipped up to the local shops to get some milk and bread, the shops are closed tomorrow you know. I was confronted by a range of people in various levels of stress. I’ve gotta say, if you’re in the local bargain store on christmas eve then you’ve probably left your run a bit late. If you do happen to have forgotten to buy somebody a gift, spending $5.00 on a candle is not the answer. You only ever buy candles if you can’t think of anything else, or you are simply so disorganised that you left it to the last minute. Christmas has been happening on the same day every year since some tosser decided the 25th of December was the date. It’s not like it moves around and creeps up on you.
The shops are full of christmas stock. Lots of cheap nasty items gather in large boxes just waiting for the unsuspecting to make the purchase. It’s stuff we don’t really need, it’s just taking up space, however it has had to be manufactured and transported. It requires vast amounts of energy, probably fossil fuels, to make and will probably just end up in land fill. Resist the urge to buy bay wideners.