'Tis the season to be shopping: a Christmas song for 2014

Here is my little Christmas gift to you.  I was inspired to write this little song based on four things:

a)  The retail mania around the festive season
b)  The rise and rise of online shopping while the high street is just a parade of empty shops
c)  The popularity of pound shops
d)  The failure of certain courier companies to deliver Christmas presents on time.

So may I present: "Fair-retail of New York (or anywhere else)"
To be sung to the tune of that perennial Christmas favourite "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl.

It was Christmas Eve babe
In the pound shop
But the empty shop next door
Won't see another one

Cause now it's bargain time
And people queue in line
To buy the most they can
With the little that they have

The tills all go kerching
We can buy everything
But it's not so easy now
As times get harder

So happy Christmas
But who'd have seen the day
When food banks fed the starving people in this country

(Shopper) We can buy everything
Hear the tills go kerching
Yet the shops disappoint me, I can't find a thing
When I first clicked that mouse back in 1999
I knew online shopping would suit me just fine

It was easy, it was magic
High street shopping was tragic
You could buy anything
And everything you liked

While the overpriced shops
Had nothing in stock
I decided the high street
Could go take a hike

The boys of the online shopping sites
Still singing hip-hooray
That's where I bought all my stuff for Christmas Day

(Shop owner)  You're a horrible creep
You buy things cause they're cheap
Putting me out of business
And staff on the dole

(Shopper)  You rip off your prices
And now my advice is
To head for the web
In search of a good deal

The boys of the online shopping sites
Still singing hip-hooray
That's where I bought all my stuff for Christmas Day

I could have had it all

I ordered it in time

But there's no delivery van

My stuff's abandoned

They've not delivered it

So how do I explain

That Santa's overwhelmed

And couldn't bring your presents?

The boys of the online shopping sites
Still singing hip-hooray
But the presents won't arrive for Christmas Day.


I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and that Santa's good to you :)))

Mistletoe and whine

Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my often ambivalent feelings around the festive season. One of those things which I could see far enough is the trip to Tesco for the big food shop.  Battling an extremely nasty cold (it's not the flu, thank goodness) which started last Monday, then slightly cleared up, only to reappear on Saturday night with a vengeance.  It knocked me for six and has left me with a violent cough.  So I wasn't really firing on all cylinders when I hit Tesco today.  But the big shop is done, I'm many pounds lighter (purse-wise, sadly not weight-wise) and Operation Christmas Dinner - lemon marinaded chicken with home made roast potatoes - is ON.  

My sympathies are with the poor staff employed in the retail sector at this time of year, having to endure all the forced jollity, having to wear Christmas jumpers and listen to Christmas albums on a repeat loop.  Yet for a season which seems to be becoming more and more long and drawn-out (Christmas cards in August, anyone? No? Didn't think so) Christmas seems to evaporate very quickly indeed and before we know it, we're bombarded with ads for furniture shop sales and we're on to the year-end reviews and retrospectives etc.  

Anyway I would just like to wish all the faithful readers of this and my other blogs a very happy Christmas/holidays/whatever your particular preference - hope Santa's good to you all :)

It's a wrap (almost)

Last week was probably the busiest week of my year.  Not only did I have a great night out at the panto (oh yes we did!) but I was also responsible for wrapping a very large number of presents for my section colleagues at work, and trying to buy some last-minute purchases and beginning the big food shop.  Busy enough so far, then throw a rotten cold into the mix which I've spent all week trying to recover from, only for it to come back last night.  So here I am blogging from my sick bed, I usually do lots of housework on Sunday morning but have allowed myself the luxury of a lie-in today!  The good news though is that I'm now on leave and not back at work till the 29th. 

There's just a few presents to be wrapped, and some overdue blog posts to be written (the 2014-50 should start making an appearance over at EuropeCrazy at some point this week!).  Today is the winter solstice, which is an appropriate metaphor for my own mood.  There are little spring-like shoots of happiness beginning to appear, and now that all the things that stress me out in the lead-up to Christmas have now come and gone, I can get on with the happy stuff - spending quality time with mum and faithful travelling companion, and enjoying the luxury of some free time at last.

Now I just wish this cold would hurry up and go away....!

Happy life-changing things

You'll remember that rather gloomy previous post about my miserable year and how I was hoping for this life-changing thing to happen.  Well, yesterday it became official. 

In January I will join the world of the part-time workers.  Well at least for a couple of months anyway, to see how it goes.  Working 4 days a week instead of 5 should help me to achieve that much-desired "work-life balance", give me more time to deal with all my extra caring responsibilities whilst improving my focus when I'm at work.  And it won't be all work and no play either: I can take mum out for coffee, or some retail therapy during the week instead of at the weekend when the crowds can be overwhelming. 

I'm also envisaging a positive impact on my own health and fitness, and am targeting some serious weight loss and improvement in my overall wellbeing.  And you never know....I might even have time to blog more regularly.  Win-win, I think you'll agree. 

So here's to a fresh start and happier times :)

My 1000 Hours and the inspiration of Niall Breslin

If you've been a regular (or even occasional) reader of my main blog EuropeCrazy, you may remember that over recent years I have been a big fan of the Irish singer/songwriter Niall Breslin, better known as Bressie.  At the height of his fame he decided to quit his music career and focus on other projects.  As time went on we learned that Bressie had experienced anxiety and depression throughout his life.  There is so much misunderstanding and stigma around depression and mental health issues - and this is very close to home as it's something which I continue to struggle with on a daily basis - and I think it's truly inspiring that Bressie has used his fame to speak out and raise awareness.

Bressie's latest venture is a new website called My 1000 Hours http://www.my1000hours.com
The website focuses on holistic fitness and will be one of my go-to websites in the months to come, check it out for lots of helpful tips on dealing with emotional and physical fitness.

Pulling myself back from the brink

I've been in a pretty dark place for much of the year:  balancing the unrelenting stress of day to day life and a full-time job, with being a full-time carer for my mum, who is not the same person she was before she got ill earlier this year, and the impact this had on my physical and mental health.  I never thought that at the beginning of the year that I would end 2014 at two stones heavier than I was at the start of it.  But we all have different ways to deal with stress and bad times, and binge eating was mine.  Even though I've been overweight for a number of years, I always maintained a high level of fitness but even that went this year, to a point where the pains in my legs became so debilitating that I couldn't even walk for long periods. 

Just weeks after my return from holiday, I spiralled into a deep depression, struggling with daily panic attacks, and I completely shut down.  That seemed to be the tipping point for intervention, acknowledgement and clarity.  I won't go into detail just now as there's some pending stuff which will help me to deal with it all; I don't know how it's going to go, but, well, it's worth a try.  I've also read a number of articles on the internet about being a carer, and these are helping me so much.

There is one other major thing in the pipeline (what I have called the "life-changing thing" on my Twitter feed).  It is now out of my hands, and I don't want to count my chickens, but if it happens, then life is about to get a million per cent better (ok I know there's no such thing as a million per cent, but hey...).  And if it doesn't happen, then I'll just have to deal with it.  But for the moment I'm hanging on to hope, with fingers and everything else crossed.

Before this post descends into a one-way ticket to self-pity city, there are reasons to be cheerful.  Although certain elements of the Christmas season relentlessly annoy me, regardless of how I'm feeling, I'm still looking forward to being around my loved ones and sharing happy experiences.  Two weeks from tonight, I'll finish up for a week's Christmas leave and I can't wait!  When almost every minute of your day and night is accounted for, particularly at this time of year, it's difficult to make time to make positive changes, losing weight, getting fit etc - I don't make new year resolutions, but those are definitely on the to-do list for 2015.  I also have new challenges and ambitions for the year ahead, so we'll see how far I get!

I suppose the thing I'm saddest about is that I haven't really had much time or energy to blog this year, but I can only hope that next year will be better in the blogging department.  And we are now in Eurovision season: if that's not a mood-enhancer, then I don't know what is...!