What is it about Christmas that encourages splurging out? You spend loads and think that you have finished and then you spot something else and you feel compelled to buy it because it would be a perfect gift for someone special and you just have to get it as it will make their Christmas. I have to say that I have been very good so far and have pretty much finished and have wrapped up everything I have bought. Yes I am quite aware that it is still November but can anyone actually say they enjoy roaming round the shops mid December in the bustling crowds, everyone looking for what you are looking for. There is never anywhere to park and there is always huge queues at the tills and flustered staff serving you who are counting down the minutes and seconds until they can remove the fixed smile from their faces and go home to a nice chilled glass of wine and a bubbly bath. I can say that with complete conviction as I happen to be one of the afor mentioned staff.

I have managed to escape this hell by buying of the amazing invention the Internet. Where else can you get someone else to trawl the shop for you, package it and send it to you and all you do is provide them with the money and you can sit there in the comfort of your home and listen with joy to the tales of peoples weekends spent traipsing round shops looking for the same items you have bought, and you smile with more pleasure as you realise you got it for cheaper. Do you reveal your little secret and say "How much?, I got it for this amount and didn't have to queue for 3 hours and go to 4 different stores" or do you keep it to yourself as you realise that it doesn't matter anyway as that item you bought will be less than half price anyway on boxing day. If only the Christmas sales came before Christmas, but that would be a bit of a scrooge thing to do. However I do find it slightly irritating that the shops put the prices up on items just round this time just to squeeze the last bit of profit from each and every item. I kid you not that the price of a sprout goes up by 75p a pound.

Why am I being such a Bah Humbug, I love this time of year and I become the biggest snoop there is. I love finding out what everyone is buying each other. I also rather enjoy the crisp icy mornings snuggling down into your scarf watching your breath rise in swirls. This probably completely contradicts my last post but I suppose as the season draws in it grows on you and everything smells so fresh after snow or ice. The winter can never beat the summer though with its warmth and glorious happiness. I think that's why the end of October and beginning of November are always the times when people moan about the weather as it doesn't know what it should do so it rains all the time.

How time flies, my last post was the 1st and now its nearly December. Didn't realise it was that long.

Spent about 3 hours today washing and waxing my car, my girl racer tendencies coming out as we have to have our cars all spic and span. I have to say that I am slightly lying there as I am not a racer and don't really know anything about cars but I do have furry dice so I am well on my way into the club.

Have been oohing and ahhing over my rabbit as she is getting older and her legs are getting a bit stiff so she can no longer jump and hop about like she used to and it is really bad when you have to laugh when you see her trying to jump up a step about 10cm high and ends up trying to get foot holds to clamber her way up. It just seems to have come on all at once, I can remember when she was about 6 months old and bombed it about the garden and was a bugger to try and catch. Its getting bad, I am only 21 and am reminiscing about the old days.

The dark nights are drawing in and it getting to the point where you don't actually see day light. You travel to work in the dark and travel home in the dark, and you spend all day in artificial light as it not enough natural daylight not to have them on. It really is a deathly sad time of year with everything either dying or hibernating so nature goes to sleep waiting for spring to arrive again. It is not a surprise that people get Seasonal Affected Disorder.

How come when you have work done you feel a stranger in your own home. All these people walking about all the time they can be any where at any time and you have to ask permission to go into your own room. It is so weird that we let these people into our homes only for it to be taken over.

Home looks like a building site with floor boards up every where, wallpaper being ripped off and dirt and grime in every inch. Banging can be heard from every orifice of the house and all you get from these workmen types is "big job this missus". One tried to explain the meaning of truncated cables to me this morning only to have a completely no plus face look back at him. He probably guess what was going through my mind. If I knew what truncated cabling was do you honestly think I would be paying you the exorbitant price that I am, I would more than likely be doing it myself.

You try to sit in a tranquil place in the house with the puzzler and a broadband connection only to be surrounded and forced to abandon your refuse. I think its dinner time as all is quiet once again I expect in an hour or so hell will once again break lose.