My name is…I am a shopaphobic

According to the news, it is expected that today will be the busiest day in the year for on line shopping with the busiest time being between 1pm and 2pm.

I am no good at shopping. I hate it. I do not have the girly shopping gene. But then if you asked people who like shopping you will probably find that they only really like certain types of shopping and my shopping interests are very very narrowly defined. In a book shop I can be happy, it is my oasis of calm from the storm of the high street, my cathedral, a place of worship, and in the case of Waterstones in Reading this is literally true as I believe it used to be some sort of methodist central hall or similar.

Milton Keynes yesterday really was my idea of hell on earth. My only reason for going was that I had a long standing agreement with a friend that we would take our children to see Father Christmas in his grotto – we did and it was fun, but as usual we needn’t have gone out of our way as when asked what was the best bit about the day Spider replied “going under the bridge and pretending to be a train” (in the carpark on the way into the town centre).

Anyway, as a result of the trip to MK I am behind with my cooking, had hoped to have another batch of Brownies ready today plus some biscuits for Spider’s preschool…I also now have plans for some Ottolenghi cupcakes as a present for luscious Lulabelle who heroically drove to MK despite her terrible cold, as I’m too much of a wimp to drive on icy roads.

Anyway, recipe for Brownies will go up hopefully tomorrow morning.

The things we do for love…

I did it for Spider. I’m not doing it again, not for anyone, no matter how much they pay me…

Milton Keynes 3 sundays before Christmas.

I am feeling wiped out and it’s not even 6pm yet – tired I mean, I didn’t spend more than £20 the whole day, and most of that was on Father Christmas.

Dunstable:Citadel of the Elite

Another long commute todayfor a meeting and a day of “hot desking” plus 20 minutes in a traffic jam in central Dunstable. For once being in a traffic jam was actually quite interesting as Dunstable makes an effort to tell passers by about itself, but then A roads tend to be more interesting commutes than motorways.

At the first hold up, glancing to my left there was a blue plaque telling me that Gary Cooper lived in a terrace house on the A5 whilst attending Dunstable Grammar school.  At the next set of traffic lights there was another tablet telling me about the Eleanor Crosses.

I wish all towns made more of an effort to entertain people stuck in traffic jams…

No food related talk today – likely to be home late as have to go back across country, in the dark, in what will probably be by then bad weather and through Milton Keynes which is likely to be packed with Christmas shoppers.

“Citadel of the Elite” – sorry, nothing to do with Dunstable, its just a phrase that someone on the radio uttered as I was leaving Dunstable – it was his discription of the hotels targeted in the Mumbai attacks this weekend…I found it a bit of an odd phrase so it stuck in my head.