News sources are blathering about huge boosts to the economy from shoppers, both yesterday online and today in real shops. Numbers like three billion quid changing hands being mentioned for today alone.
So - did you buy anything over Christmas Day or Boxing Day?
An old 100w bulb blew yesterday so I hopped on Amazon and bought another ten, and I found some bargain sheet music on eBay today. Total spend twelve quid.
How about you?
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Went to the corner shop today and bought a pork pie and a carton of milk if that counts?
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Mrs B has been caning the credit card on Messrs Marks & Spencer's online emporium. Certainly beats standing outside West Quay in Southampton at 3.15 am, as I gather from the TV news that some folk were this morning...
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3 quid parking fee at Battersea park in total.
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Halfords this morning. One litre of diesel specific semi-synth for the Xant and two A23 batteries for my mother. Oh and 48.6 litres of diesel at Fosse Park when fuel light bingo in the 'lingo came up housey!!
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Wed 26 Dec 12 at 20:15
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Your mother needs batteries?
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>> Your mother needs batteries?
If she did there'd be a means of stopping her talking!!
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Just a few grocery bits & bobs.
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Not one single brass Farthing and - that includes er indoors!
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Few bits from John Lewis - can pick up from local Waitrose on Friday, so no need to venture to any other shops
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I'm not particularly religious and like a bargain the same as the next person. But watching the news of the Boxing Day sales I must admit to feeling somewhat nauseous. We've spent the last 2 to 3 months being bombarded with the spirit of Christmas to make us spend our hard earned and 24 hours after that 'special day' its back to normal - rampant consumerism and its obscene.
What used to be those 2 special family days I remember as a child have long gone.
Instead of interfering in female religious promotions and gay marriages perhaps the Church should focus on getting £mas back to Christmas. Perhaps like Santa Clause the whole idea is a total con.
Maybe I'm being old fashioned, perhaps 'family' has become a dirty word. The only leisure is wandering round shopping centres spending money we don't really have. And isn't that why the country is in the state it is?
Last edited by: Fullchat on Wed 26 Dec 12 at 22:57
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Spent nowt 'cept whatever 14 miles used up in Derv going to daughter's and back.
Ted
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I dunno, my family circle has been pretty traditional, family at my place christmas day too much food and drink, boxing day at family in Clapham, walk with dog along the (very fast flowing) thames bank, game of impromptu footie with their kids in Battersea park, followed by too much food and drink at their place.
No church involved, religion not needed, just a some idea of simple fun
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>> No church involved, religion not needed, just a some idea of simple fun
Oh and a game of Cluedo.
It was Miss Scarlet in the kitchen with the lead pipe.
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>> Oh and a game of Cluedo.
"Doggie Doo" with the 5-year-old here. The noises it makes are absolutely hilarious if a) you're 5, or b) you've drunk as much as I have. Good times.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Wed 26 Dec 12 at 23:10
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>> It was Miss Scarlet in the kitchen with the lead pipe.
>>
I should get that lead ripped out and replaced, Zeddo....it's probably that that's affecting you !
Ted
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The only retail outlet I've visited in the last 48 hours was the Costa coffee machine in Watford Gap services at about 10.45pm last night on our way home. My brother-in-law and his wife however were at the aforementioned Fosse Park at 5.00 this morning along with several hundred like-minded idiots folk to snap up some "bargains" from Next when they opened at 6am.
Dad finally took the plunge yesterday and reserved a decent Windows 8 laptop online for in-store collection tomorrow, to replace his decade-old PC that's now so slow it's virtually stopped altogether. I convinced him to update his home computing arrangements as his grandchildren now live almost completely online so he needs a reasonably capable machine to see pictures and videos of their exploits. In five years' time two of them will be adults, it would be a shame for him to miss out on substantial parts of their increasingly speedy growing-up by spending hours waiting for Windows ME upgrades to install themselves.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Wed 26 Dec 12 at 23:09
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Given that the items most frequently purchased in the UK sales are some form of apparel one can only assume from observing most of the populace at large that they never actually wear them. Or at least not the ones which fit or suit them.
:-)
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Judging by both the time and money my teenage daughters spend on clothing they generally end up on ebay or charity shops described as 'as new'. That's because they are new.
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Bought a new pair of wellies, walking shoes and a head torch from Go Outdoors today!
Wellies for dog walking, head torch for poo picking up! Though there is no chance of picking up what he is squirting out today!!!
Design flaw with the head torch though!
In the rain I wear a fleece lined baseball cap as ij keeps my head dry and the rain off my specs. If I wear the head torch under my cap, the glasses get yet. If I wear it on my hat, the skip prevents the beam from shining clearly on the poo.
Oh well
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The ideal thing.... Bobby.....you should have shopped around.
For a few quid a coupla years back I picked up a 5 LED slightly curved light that clips on the front of a cap's peak .
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-LED-Attachable-Cap-Peak-Light-Torch-Hands-Free-DIY-Camping-Biking-Batt-Inc-/330787205128
So you get the best of both items !
Ted
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No shopping for us apart from a Costa Coffee from Brampton Hut on the way to Arnesby early on Christmas Morning.
Yesterday we had a rare day at home to ourselves, the sun was shining and we both needed some exercise.
The call of the great outdoors is a wonderful thing, we got the chainsaw out and cut down four conifers which had grown toowide for their position. had a huge bonfire with all the wrapping paper and boxes but the wind changed around mid afternoon so today will see me, cap in hand, apologising to the neighbours.
Ian is back at work today thanks to all of you who shop at Asda and Costco!
Pat
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Nope we haven't spent anything in sales or other revenue raising exercises, but i did have to work yesterday (shift pattern falls) so in theory 22ish miles, call it a gallon, whats the tax on LPG about 30p?..:-)
Flask of hot water and ingrediants carried plus lunch box so no MSA rip offs either.
Don't feed the beast, it only encourages it.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Thu 27 Dec 12 at 07:47
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If you think I'm taking a flask of hot water out with me on Christmas Day to avoid buying a coffee...
Pat
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B&Q for Rock Dust and gardening prerequisites: I replace 10 seed trays every year due to wear 'n tear.
25% gardening discount + 10% Diamond Card.
Vast sum of some £35..
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Total of £17.40 over the past 2 days on 6 pints in my local (plus 2 free pints on Xmas Day from the Landlady)
£1.45 on a pasty tomorrow for lunch when i pop out from work and £11.60 on 4 pints after work & gym.
I've decided to eat up from the freezer between now and New Year so minimal food spend apart from bread & milk.No sales shopping for me.
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>> www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-LED-Attachable-Cap-Peak-Light-Torch-Hands-Free-DIY-Camping-Biking-Batt-Inc-/330787205128
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>> So you get the best of both items !
>>
>> Ted
>>
That's for a Corsa drvers cap peak, surely Ted?
Main, dipped and fog. Well keeeewl.
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This is the sort of light pod I prefer:
tinyurl.com/d454el6
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>> Maybe I'm being old fashioned, perhaps 'family' has become a dirty word. The only leisure
>> is wandering round shopping centres spending money we don't really have. And isn't that why
>> the country is in the state it is?
>>
Your whole post is exactly how I feel.
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>> Your whole post is exactly how I feel.
>>
Yernow what he's right too.
We had a lovely old fashioned evening yesterday, i had to work during the day but was finished by 4 so shot home and showered, i'd already helped SWM prepare the evening meal the night before and she'd got everything under control cooking nicely, prepared a feast as she always does, roast pork with cracklin to die for and chicken, and real home cooked roasters and veg all with her special gravy which is seriously good stuff.
My children gradually turned up and me sister all with their respectful spouses and children, parents all gone but not forgotten, my new grandaughter now 6 weeks old and starting to smile, and we all sat down to a lovely Boxing evening meal and chin wag at 6pm, a little drink was taken but none too much and a lovely evening was had by all, yes and i cleared up and ran two dishwasher loads through whilst SWM had well earned extended cuddles with the baby and time with the crew.
It could have been a scene from 50 or 500 years ago, simple pleasures good food and family together again, gentle teasing of each other when needed of course..;)
We haven't spoken too much of it but its been like recharging the body feel-good batteries.
I wonder how many others find they are turning the clock back by turning their backs on the consumerism FC speaks of, you couldn't pay us enough to go to the sales.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Thu 27 Dec 12 at 17:58
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If I could 'like' that GB I would.
It wasn't you going south on M1 between 21 and 19 @ 15:00 ish yesterday with a branded tractor but hired tank was it?
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>> It wasn't you going south on M1 between 21 and 19 @ 15:00 ish yesterday
>> with a branded tractor but hired tank was it?
ooer possibly spotted..;), wasn't doing anything naughty was he (if he was it wasn't me;), should have given a pip Brompton.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Thu 27 Dec 12 at 21:21
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>> ooer possibly spotted..;), wasn't doing anything naughty was he (if he was it wasn't me;),
>> should have given a pip Brompton.
Was going the other way returning Mother to Leicester after her festive sojourn in Northants.
Often wonder if it's you driving when I see Welly's Millers tankers.
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>> Was going the other way returning Mother to Leicester
Phew, was wondering what report was about to be delivered on the driving of whoever it might have been.
It could only be me if driven perfectly by the book, ahem...i like this job a lot.
>;)
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"I wonder how many others find they are turning the clock back by turning their backs on the consumerism FC speaks of, you couldn't pay us enough to go to the sales."
What, not even for a nice trolley-jack with 50% off?
Personally I hate shopping but I would put it marginally above servicing the car as a pastime but that's just me. You can enjoy shopping and the sales still enjoy family life. Each to his own as they say.
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>> What, not even for a nice trolley-jack with 50% off?
>>
Thats man shopping CGN as you well know, completely different thing..:-)
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I was single-handedly keeping the country going by shuttling people from London to Edinburgh and back again.
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Like quite a few on here we have most of what we need and just buy at a time that suits which is rarely in the "grab a bargain" 10days after Christmas.
However I did cave in to the sales mood yesterday as B&Q had a deal on 10kg pre-pack HomefireEco for the multifuel stove which made it the same price as a messy bulk delivery from the local coal merchant (Mrs F can't easily lift his 25kg bags about the shed, 10kg are ideal).
So we joined the town traffic and filled the Alfa boot.
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(Mrs F can't easily lift his 25kg bags about the shed, 10kg are ideal).
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For some reason Fenlander i have a mental vision that i can't shift of a put on Mrs Doyle slaving away and falling headlong out the window whilst Father Fen puts the world to rights and Father Jack calls for 'drink' and 'girls'...
--:))
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Went out specially to buy an immersion timer from the local independent builders merchants.
Not in stock.
Went home and bought one from Amazon. Life in a nutshell these days.
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Well Cliff you should have gone online to the nearest Screwfix to check their stock before leaving home... saves a lot of hassle.
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Well sort of close gb.
Mrs F as a youngster was quite a Pansy Potter ( www.beano.com/retro-beano/pansy-potter?decade=1960 ) coming as she did from coal merchant and farming stock. A strong horsewoman and biker in her teens who showed promise for building projects and lifting the other end of heavy things... I just had to take her on.
Now though as we approach our 60s a bit of joint pain makes her take care... or rather makes me organize stuff to make things easy.
She is still "in charge of the fire" as was her mother before her in the parents household so I just get everything ready to hand.
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>> Mrs F as a youngster was quite a Pansy Potter ( www.beano.com/retro-beano/pansy-potter?decade=1960 ) coming as
>> she did from coal merchant and farming stock. A strong horsewoman and biker in her
>> teens who showed promise for building projects and lifting the other end of heavy things...
Brilliant-:)
I'm married to Minnie the Minx but without the stripey jumper, still every bit as bad as she was years ago, as her backside touches the driving seat the two horns still rise. wouldn't change her for the world. www.beano.com/characters/minnie-the-minx
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Fri 28 Dec 12 at 12:26
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>>B&Q had a deal on 10kg pre-pack HomefireEco<<
D'you mean Homefire Ecoal, effendi?
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>>>Homefire Ecoal,
Indeed. It seems to suit our stove and we've changed to it from logs.
....as (a long story cut down) it seems the external brick chimney on this new-to-us house loses heat quickly and produces sluggish flu gasses towards the top which, with the greater production of water vapour from wood during combustion, was causing condensation to form and run down past the closure plate.
This doesn't happen with a good stove fuel so easier to swap to that from wood rather than have the mess and £500 expense of a twin wall chimney liner.
How do you get on with your Taybrite? Seems the cheapest of the stove fuels.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 28 Dec 12 at 12:29
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>>How do you get on with your Taybrite? Seems the cheapest of the stove fuels<<
I find it's excellent, light it at 2.00pm, bank it right up to the gills, and it's still a'glowing at 7.00am next morn.
I was thinking of trying some house coal as we don't live in a smokeless zone, but I'm the chimney will soot up quicker using that stuff?
I just checked B & Q on-line for that Homefire Ecoal = £5.48 for 10kg :(
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>>>B & Q on-line for that Homefire Ecoal = £5.48 for 10kg :(
In store it's £5 per 10kg if you buy 5 bags at a time. That brings it to the same as the local guys want for smaller deliveries of 25kg bags which is all we need given the stove is a cold weekend comfort thing and not our main heating source.
How much is Taybrite your way then?
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>>How much is Taybrite your way then?
I bought 60 bags for £450 ... each bag weighs 20kg ... woss that then = £7.50 per bag?
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Just out of interest on the coal front, i used to drive an artic tipper many years ago and coal was probably 10% of our work.
I wonder how much water you are buying from a normal coal yard with uncovered bulk storage, if you bought a load of coal today then i daresay there's a good chance that its got a high water content, similarly the pre packed will have been outside stored so would depend on when it was packed.
Anyone done any tests such as reweighing a known weight of coal when its stood under cover for a while?
We didn't have weighing facilities on site and very few independent coal yards did either, so i never weighed the lorry after a weekend of heavy rain sitting outside uncovered in our secure yard with a known 25 tons of coal, wish i had done, just wondering aloud..;)
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Good point GB but ours is delivered by hand in sacks and we pay by the sack. I suppose though the price is calculated by the ton and a sack is a % of that. The last lot was wet and covered in ice. I store mine in plastic dustbins and copious amounts of condensation were drained from under the lids as it dried out during the summer. The dry stuff did burn much better.
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Down ere in West Briton, it rains every day and twice on Sundays, so all the wood has a higher moisture content than a relatively dry area, like Northampton :)
Does coal n' smokeless fuel retain moisture, I don't know, mine is stored outside under a ta Pauline in plastic bags, I also have an outside fuel store which takes about 5 bags at a time.
TBH, I forget the last time I lit the ole multi-fuel stove, it's 12° outside at the mo, and 17° inside,
without any heating.
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>>>forget the last time I lit the ole multi-fuel stove, it's 12° outside at the mo, and 17° inside,
without any heating.
Hmmm that would be a tad cold for Christmas hols lazing here. 11deg outside... stove has lifted the living room to 23deg with the adj hall and dining room 21deg and tapering off up the stairs to 17deg in the bedrooms.
Mind you I'm in a T-shirt and two teens still in what I'd have called pyjamas.
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>> Mind you I'm in a T-shirt and two teens still in what I'd have called
>> pyjamas.
onesies?
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Yep.... animal costume onesies. I'm just grateful there wasn't one for me under the tree.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 28 Dec 12 at 15:50
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>> onesies. I'm just grateful there wasn't one for me
I am too. But they wouldn't dare. I gave one to my eldest daughter years ago when she was about 30 - the things weren't fashionable but I saw one in a shop - and she wasn't best pleased. I thought she could carry it off as cute but she thought I was being satirical about her appearance. Something like that anyway.
I did get a nice heavy brown dressing gown to preserve my modesty. No more scampering through the hall in a tee shirt with an open paperback artfully held in fig-leaf position! Dignity at last!
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Onesies
Yet another successful practical joke by the fashion industry !
Previous triumphs include...
Women-
Leggings ( for anyone over 25 and / or size 12 )
Crocs ( in any size )
Uggs ( in any size )
Men-
Persuading young men to walk around with their backsides hanging out and their underwear on show.
Persuading old men to leave their shirts hanging out
Gel
3/4 length trousers
Skinny jeans
Crocs
Baseball caps
:-)
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Thanks Humph - managed to avoid all of them.
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Well, I am surprised at you RP, surely you've tried womens leggings under motorbike leathers when it's cold....or are you a tights man?:)
Pat
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>>>did get a nice heavy brown dressing gown to preserve my modesty. No more scampering through the hall in a tee shirt with an open paperback artfully held in fig-leaf position! Dignity at last! <<<
I have always thought that you were a colour magazine sort of person:-
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The very thought of Lud in a onesie will see me through to the New Year with a smile on my face;)
Pat
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I don't know how you can all keep the house so warm.
Ours rarely goes above 18 degrees and I wear a sweater, surely that's doing my bit for the planet? ( and Eon's profits)
Pat
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Ecoal - is that delivered by e-mail as an attachment...
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Hmm.. a central heat source powered by broadband routed to each room by wi-fi.... it's on its way. Saves a lot of copper pipes.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 28 Dec 12 at 12:31
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we'll have appliance power by wifi soon, so why not?
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Perhaps we can wear wire mesh vests and be heated by induction too.
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>> Ecoal - is that delivered by e-mail as an attachment..
Ohhh, I thought it was that unpleasant virus found in dodgy fast-food.
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ECoal?
I though it formed "the cloud"
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24" HD tv bought from Asda today down by £25.00 the tight sod in me has watched it for 3 months in the store now it's mine.
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Have you done your bit... I gave a pint last Friday to see the Blood service over the Xmas break, does that count? :)
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That's more than a bit. Thank you. :)
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>> That's more than a bit. Thank you. :)
Any time. Well, four times a year now, given latest advice. Hope things are bearing up FC.
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Oh I'm ok. That was on behalf of my late Father (8 years now) and all the others who rely on blood doners - in his case to prolong his life, it was like a battery recharge.
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My wife went today as well..
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Well done.
They won't have mine any more. I made a withdrawal from the blood bank in 1991, a while after that they decided they didn't want donations from anybody who'd been topped up.
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I used to give regularly but they don't want mine now either.
Summat to do with being diabetic and full of drugs, I expect.
Ted
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They've never wanted my blood since I had jaundice in Cyprus in 1956, serving with 45 Commando. Drinking infected water while out on a 5 day patrol was the likely cause.
No booze for a good while and a spell in the RAF hospital in Akrotiri.
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Roger.
I used to think I was exempt due to jaundice as a kid, but my GP put me right after I had shingles and explained how they use the white cells for kids who lose anti-bodies from leukaemia treatment (Lygonos?). I couldn't really use the jaundice as an excuse any more.
They told me not to bother going after three donations. I've got a needle phobia and caused more trouble than it's worth. My pressure would drop, I'd tremble and sweat and usually ended up with at least two staff monitoring me!
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If you have ever visited sub-Saharan Africa they don't want your blood, as I discovered following a rare virtuous impulse. Actually though mine carried malaria from the time I was a child of 8. The bug was certainly still there when I was 14 because I came down with a relapse at scout camp in Gloucestershire when I was 13 or 14. Really puzzled the local doctor.
Feeling lucky punk? Let me give you a small transfusion.
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Yeah they aren't too keen on I've you've visited malaria areas. I got told to come back in 12 months having been to a malaria area. That reminds me I've not been in a while best book an appointment.
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>> relapse at scout camp in Gloucestershire when I was 13 or 14. Really puzzled the local doctor.
But without that relapse C4P might have been spared my presence. Having a high temperature and sweating and shivering and so on, I was moved into the house of the farmer on whose land we were camping. The farmer's kind, maternal wife, Mrs Rowe, brought me a copy of Thor Heyerdahl's book on the Kon-Tiki expedition and my first ever copy of Motor Sport, to which I became addicted on the spot and then read constantly for a couple of decades... Funny the way things happen. Not in a line but a three-dimensional zigzag.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sat 29 Dec 12 at 16:17
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Watching the news on Boxing Day covering the sad muppets queuing at 8am for the Next sale, I felt nauseous. And as for the sales themselves, I suspect they are still offering prices that 5 minutes on the internet can match the other 364 days a year as a matter of course.
I don't understand the logic of opening on Boxing Day. Everyone still has the same amount to spend, whether the shops open on the 27th or the 26th. Surely, the retailers are merely spreading the same amount of revenue over an additional day, and incurring the additional costs of opening (staff wages, electricity, heating etc).
I would never visit any retail establishment on Boxing Day as a matter of principle.
Last edited by: DP on Sat 29 Dec 12 at 16:57
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Pictures of people queuing for a shop made you nauseous?
You should spend more time with Rattle, I think you'd get along.
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>> Pictures of people queuing for a shop made you nauseous?
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>> You should spend more time with Rattle, I think you'd get along.
>>
Metaphorically speaking. Although I think I might be coming down with Norovirus ;-)
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>> I think I might be coming down with Norovirus ;-)
Yeah, I have those symptoms when I read some stuff in here.
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>> I don't understand the logic of opening on Boxing Day. Everyone still has the same
>> amount to spend, whether the shops open on the 27th or the 26th.
True, but would you stay closed and watch the finite amount of money go to your competitors?
Same argument applies to Sunday trading, which is why the main net effect has been to displace other forms of leisure activity and make employment in retail less attractive.
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>>Same argument applies to Sunday trading...and make employment in retail less attractive.
Dunno so much Manatee. When my son was little we were struggling a bit financially. My wife got a job at our local Sainsburys in their back office, her hours were from 06.00-1200 Saturdays and the same on Sundays. We couldn't have afforded childcare at that time so her weekend working was ideal for us without encroaching too much on our leisure time.
Wasn't ideal but it saved our bacon.
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isure time.
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>> Wasn't ideal but it saved our bacon.
She was shoplifting?
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>>They've never wanted my blood since I had jaundice in Cyprus<<
You mean Hippo Titus Shirley.
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Have you done your bit? - Runfer D'Hills
