Misanthropy

Xmas has been and gone and I think we survived pretty much unscathed. I have a new coat and scarf and a snazzy Brain Training little game thingy (which nevertheless tells me my brain is aged and atrophied...) and the girls have all sorts of bits and pieces, most of which we have now found homes for.

But we made the big mistake of venturing out into town today. I don't know if anyone was spending any money (sorry, Gordon, but we aren't doing our bit do haul the UK out of its hole) but people were certainly out in numbers, mostly just to get in each other's way. Perhaps they had by now become sick of annoying their family members at home and had decided they absolutely had to get out. So they all congregate in town to annoy each other. We at least managed to get the lovely people in the Early Learning Centre to take back a malfunctioning (pink...) CD player but otherwise the trip was a bit of a dead loss. Shopping with kids is at best a hit and miss affair, unless you want just to shop for things in shops that are kid-approved. But today it was absolutely horrendous. I was very glad to get home and collapse into a sofa. (And I also was able to have a first go at Lego Batman... Lots of fun.)

Perhaps the week between Xmas and New Year is just designed to persuade us all that it won't be so bad to get back to work.

Just the panto to negotiate now and then the January pool...