Don't shop till you drop, I did...almost!!! (Tips For Hassle-Free Christmas Shopping)

Member Name: scattyredhead

Product:	Tips For Hassle-Free Christmas Shopping
Date:	23/12/01 (135 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None in leaving it till the last minute, unless you are of masochistic tendencies!!

Disadvantages: Oh..it's all down there in the op!!

Last Thursday I finished my Christmas gift shopping, ok I still have the food shopping to do but that doesn’t count as I do the whole lot in one store.

But boy am I relieved that the pressie bit is over and done with!

I haven’t been very well organised this year, not that ‘organised’ is an adjective that can be truthfully used to describe moi, but to be honest I usually have the whole gift buying bit well and done by now.

I guess the reason why in have left it so late this year is due to the fact of a few things happening to upset my usual routine, like my Nan being taken into hospital and my dog getting ill and having to undergo major surgery.

Nan is well and home now and we are keeping our fingers and Sprokit his paws crossed that he will make a full recovery.

So I would like to take this opportunity to sit down (and I am going to enjoy that bit…sigh!) and pen you a few lines about my hints on Christmas shopping and how not to do it, like what I have!

I did start a couple of months ago by exploring the option of on-line shopping. I started off by checking out a few of the on-line shopping sites as recommended by you lot on here, and soon found myself browsing the ‘cyber shelves’ of gadgetshop.com.

I was persuaded to buy a couple of items from there but to be honest I am not an immediate convert of this kind of consumerism.

There’s just something about looking at, and being able to touch the things that you want to buy that the vast Internet world is unable to compete with, in my opinion.

Add to that the inconvenience of having to return faulty items for a refund/replacement and the inevitable delay in getting replacements sent and I am not perfectly convinced that it is an easier option, unless you know differently?

Anyway having given up on the Internet option I decided to set to the other afternoon and do the final bits of
my gift shopping after work. Big mistake!

Hint number one: Do not attempt to do this after an extremely busy day, assuming it will be a quick ‘nip-in-and-get-a-few-things-really-swiftly& #8217; trip.

Yes ok, you might be able to park somewhat easier but believe me by 4pm the town centre will be heaving with all, those teenage type creatures, swarming all over, in their over sized blazers and clumpy footwear.

To get into Claire’s accessories or indeed any music shop will be nothing short of a miracle!

My first stop was such a shop in my local town centre and immediately I walked through the heated doorway, (what a waste of heating that is)

I was surrounded by aforementioned creatures, and that was just the shop staff! Smallest son was after a particular chart CD. Sigh, why oh why did I not listen closer to him when he was talking about them the other night?

My first thought was to ring him on my mobile and get him to remind me, in a subtle kind of way, one that would not give away the fact that I was standing in a record store right at that very moment!

I failed! Well only because he didn’t have his mobile switched on!

Ah ha then I saw it, and only because I recalled seeing the scruffy group in question on MTV the other week and thinking to myself “Gosh and I used to like groups like that!” with a feeling of ancientness descending upon my already heavily laden shoulders!

So CD in mitts I marched up to the check out and..well, checked out!

The next time I went into a record store, the next day in fact to collect the remainder of my shopping that I had abandoned the first time!

I marched right on up to the counter and asked if they had a couple of DVD’s in stock that I wanted, adding that I hadn’t been able to see them on the shelves.

I mean I truly did not have the time to spend hours ploughing thru, chart CD&#
8217;s, compilation CD’s, alternative CD’s and the like.

The assistant couldn’t have been any more helpful, she went right off to check out the back and then bought the cases back from the displays to show me so that I could check that they were the right ones.

They were, and I bought them, and this weekend they will be wrapped up in glittering wrapping paper underneath my Chrimbo tree! Success story number one!

But the first success story was the day after the disastrous one! The first day went from bad to worst!

Having got the first CD I proceeded on to Claire’s Accessories and promptly abandoned the basket that was thrust at me upon entering the shop.

After a few minutes listlessly wandering and more than once being jostled by those teenage female creatures again…aaaaggghh once again I was berating myself for coming into town at this time.

I had all but lost any iota of enthusiasm I had at the offset for Christmas shopping by now, but decided to brave one last shop in the hope of a bit of divine intervention.

Or more likely, a particular gift hitting me squarely between the eyes for the person I was searching for.

The person in question is one of the nurses where I work, we do the ‘bran’ tub thing, whereby you pick out someone’s name and buy a gift for that person.

I like to look for something that will suit him/her rather than slinging any old gift set in my bag.

I found myself in M&S, why I thought I could buy something appropriate for a gay male colleague in there is beyond me, but that’s where I was!

And that’s where I started the ‘grit in the contact lens saga’.

It lasted all through M&S and into Boots and then BHS and finally I gave up and took the offending article out of my left eye and proceeded to do the rest of my shopping one-eyed.

How I didn’t come
to get arrested for loitering with intent and looking decidedly suspicious in certain stores is nothing short of a miracle!

Have you tried deciphering the miniscule writing on a Body Shop lip liner at the best of times?

Try doing it with one eye closed and you will see my predicament! I almost gave up in exasperation and went and asked the assistant to tell me what it was.

But the shop was once again full of teenagers and I didn’t want to look any more ridiculous than I already did.

One eye red and watery and the other one a different colour (tinted lenses…Bowie eat your heart out!) I did manage to work out the writing on it by holding it right up to my nose!

So, the sum total of my purchases by this time was, one CD…that’s it! And I’d been in town for well over an hour and a half! I gave up.

I was unbelievably irate by now, and believe me that is most unusual for a ‘chick’ who is more often than not horizontal in her ‘laidbackidness’!

I made my way back to the car and then navigated my way out of the town centre which by now was cram packed with rush hour workers on their way home too. Major stress head!!!

So, what was I to do? I mean I still had at least 6 gifts to buy, not to mention the things I was getting on behalf of my Nan for my boys and the ‘bran’ tub present? And here we were less than 4 days shopping days left?

I was working full time right up to the weekend so all I could do was suggest to my boss that I would be so much more efficient in my job if I had less to worry about and,

“could I please leave work a few hours earlier on Friday so that I could go and do the rest of my shopping?”

Guess who has the best boss in the world!!

Friday afternoon at 13.30 hours I left my desk, grabbed a sandwich from the Hospital League of Friends shop (never go shopping on an e
mpty stomach!) and made for the town again!

I parked as near as I could to the town. I am sorry but I cannot get the hang of these park-and-ride schemes where you park out of town and are transported back and from the car park into the town by shuttle buses.

There never seem to be enough of the wretched things and after years of depending on my own car for transport and the convenience that comes with that I am afraid I am loathe to rely on unpredictable public transport these days.

I took one bag with me and only enough cash for the car park fee. I kept my debit card in an inside pocket in my bag and stuffed all the receipts I got in another one.

I took a large bag so that I could carry most of my shopping in that and held it close to my body, no one was going to argue with, or try to snatch my bag, I was far too well prepared.

I had a list too that I kept in the pocket of my coat, and a pen to cross things off as I purchased them.

First stop, as you already know was the CD shop where I purchased the exact DVD’s I wanted, paid for them with the debit card, stuffed the receipts into the other pocket and then made my way to Claire’s.

Pleasantly surprised to see it devoid of teenage girlies! This time not being so exhausted I was able to browse in comfort and in no time had several items in my basket which I did not abandon in the store this time and made it to the checkout and,

“No I do not want to buy 3 chocolate snowmen for a £1 thank you!”

Within and hour I had competed all my Christmas gift shopping even managing to pick up a particularly unusual present for my brother of a wire palm tree that had just been hand made by a Oriental street trader in the precinct.

Never pass these particular traders by without stopping to give them a bit of a look sometimes you can find the exact thing that you are looking for without realising it!

Oh an
d nine times out of ten they don’t take plastic so I guess I have to back pedal a bit here and suggest that you do have a few pounds here for such impulse buys.

All Christmas shopping compete I made my way back to the car passing once again by the Body Shop, and well you just have to go in and give them a look dontcha?!!

This time I got some lippie to go with the lip liner and I am pleased to report that I got a shade that will match the liner I got the day before!

Gawd knows it would have been my luck had I got a very dark liner and then a nude lippie shade!

So now I have all the presents and I know that when I come to wrap them all up this afternoon that I will have exactly what I wanted to get everyone and that I will have missed no one out….won’t I!!! ;o)

Next I have to get the last of the food shopping and I am planning to send hubby to do that tomorrow whilst I am sat at work!! That’s another hint on Christmas shopping…get someone else to do it for you!

Next year I am going to be much more organised, I AM!!! I am going to start in late Summer and by this time next year I will be able to sit back twiddling my thumbs because I have nothing left to and I am bored rigid!

Yeah right and if you look carefully you will see that isn’t Cupid, Comet, Dancer, Prancer and Co doing a trial run over my house.

Those are little pink piggies that have mysteriously grown wings!!

I end by wishing you all a stupendously Happy and Healthy Christmas and a Peaceful and Perfect New Year.

Here’s to 2002 on the wonderful DooYoo!!!

Kazz xx

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