I'd Have Made the Effort, But I Couldn't Be Bothered

You know the fuss everyone makes every year about how early the shops put up their Christmas decorations, how it's all just an exercise in crass commercialism, it's still October* for Pete's sake, yadda yadda yadda? Well today I was in a meeting about how much to charge for Shrove Tuesday pancakes. That's the 24th of FEBRUARY. For Pete's sake.

Christmas is in half swing at John Lewis. They aren't piping Christmas carols over the PA, and they don't yet have a real live reindeer parked outside the entrance (like last year. I kid you not.) but the Christmas Crap is piled in glitteringly inviting heaps all over the shop. Mind, I did rather like the chocolate Christmas trees, and the gingerbread forts. Well, houses are so last year. I'll take pictures next time I'm there. (It's John Lewis. Of course it won't be long.) This time, the excuse for a visit was a clapped out breadmaker, and now I have a shiny new one. I have to put the ingredients in upside down, it can't be opened fully while standing on a work surface because it's so tall, and the Automatic Yummy Bits Dispenser operates with a sound like a small pistol shot, but I STILL LOVE IT. Sorry, some inadvertent Caps Lock onnage there, but its true. I DO.

And a lurrvly new Salter 1051. It's so black, light just falls into it.

*I know. Really I do. But they were up in October, yes they were.