Happiness is a ticked off list - or not in my case

Yesterday, I took my last day of holiday from work and decided to go Christmas shopping.  I went to the Trafford Centre in Manchester with a friend and hoped to get the majority of the shopping done in one day.    Spot the note of false optimism?

By lunchtime I had bought three items which didn’t bode well.  On the plus side, I found loads of things which I could have bought myself (books included) but resisted the temptation – gives self a pat on the back.

We had a lovely lunch and launched ourselves back into the fray.  The rest of the afternoon was slightly more successful but I still went home with more presents still to buy than I had ticked off the list.

The trouble was, everything seemed so expensive. There’s a lot of overpriced rubbish which seems to crawl out of the woodwork at this time of year. And I’m not falling for it. Cheap rubbish I can stomach but not rubbish which requires a second mortgage.

So this weekend, it’s off to the outlet village where I hope I will fare better.  But I did spend a very nice day with a friend so all was not lost.