Bah Humbug

I've been Christmas shopping. And I am clinging to sanity by a thread I swear. (Of course many people would swear that I lost any semblence of sanity years ago).

Most years I am better organised but this year I am rather indifferent in the health department so didn't get to it earlier.

Yesterday I was left pondering why the retired don't shop before things go nuts. First there was the old fella in a little Daihatsu car doing a 36 point turn in the carpark building and holding up about 5 cars either side. Eventually he sorted it out - without hitting anything (though it was close at times). Then dozens more clogged up aisles in shops with walking sticks, walking frames and mobility scooters. In between them are whining toddlers and screaming babies. Poor little bastards, I know exactly how they feel.

After a couple of hours fighting my way through it and managing a reasonably productive spend up I went to fill the car with fuel. In front of me at the pump was a little old lady who carefully filled her car and went in to pay seconds ahead of me. Then she lost her eftpos card, and her Flybuys card and searched through her entire bag for five minutes before finding them - then she got her PIN number wrong twice and decided to use another card which eventually worked. So she toddled off and I paid for my fuel - I go out to find she's sitting in her car blocking mine in, door open, contemplating something. So I get in and start my car. I can't back up as someone has come up behind me so am pretty stuck. At this point the silly old bat gets out of her car and comes over to me "you can't go until I move and I forgot to buy something."
"Maybe you should move before you buy it then" I said (reasonably politely)
"No I've got a disability you know and can't walk far"
So help me she was lucky I left the gun at home!

Anyway I finished this morning by getting there before the shops opened, standing outside my selected retailer and racing in as soon as they opened the doors. This of course only works when you know exactly what you want. I would have availed myself of the gift wrapping service in the mall but men with huge bags of stuff that needed wrapping had already beaten me to it and the wait looked long. Some nice shops did do a bit of wrapping for me.

On the horse front Eby has put a bit of weight on Annie looks to need surgery in a couple of months, and Gemma is still holding on to that foal (and still moonbathing frequently). We also have one limpy yearling - Tee- limping on the same foot as his sister was limping on last week but unlike her we can't fix it by pulling the little piece of wire out of her sole and giving her a tetnus shot - at least we can't see any wire to pull out. Would appear to be a stone bruise (though where he found anything to bruise himself on we aren't sure) - anyway his timing is just impeccable. We also have one deeply disturbed mare 20km from home and unwilling to be caught let alone loaded onto a float. She also has a new fear of 12 foot lines and runs backwards if you look at her. I guess we learn from that that if someone says their current horse took 8 years to come right that may indicate incompetence rather than patience. Sadly it was a lesson learnt at the expense of the mare who deserved better.

All out of Christmas Cheer but don't mind me and have a good one.