So it's all over

again for another year. this seems to have been the shortest Christmas on records. Driving back on Boxing Day was ludicrously busy, and there were queues of cars waiting to get into Brent Cross - surely people must have no money after the rash of late Christmas shopping this year, or maybe the lure of slightly reduced towelling in Fenwicks was too great. Or, more likely, I believe, retail therapy is required after a morning/afternoon/evening/day/Christmas dinner with their families. Or maybe they simply want to return all the presents they received and swap them for a trouser press or something equally useful. Anyway, all I remember is that when I was a kid, it was nigh on impossible to find anything open from mid-afternoon Xmas Eve to 9am on the 27th. This is, of course, to say nothing of the sales with online retailers that began at midnight on Xmas Eve... I am not (as you may have been able to tell) a religious man in any sense, but this has been the first Christmas I have not worked in 8 years, and let me tell you, it is bliss. Everyone should have these few days off, irrelevant of race, sexuality, religious persuasion or whatever. It is nice.