Xmas Shopping Malaise

2004-12-20 at 11:35 p.m.

Just a quickie (as the bishop said to the chorus-girl). I have to pack as I am heading up north tomorrow morning. Well afternoon really as I have to go along to the delights of Employment Solutions beforehand. Mum has to go to the doctors first too, and then I'm going to leave the parents in the wilds of Tower Hamlets while I quickly apply for any old jobs so I can get away and start the truly wonderful six hour car journey that awaits me.

Today has not been a good day. Productive, but not fun. I had to sign on at half three, which was as normal - and I even remembered to renew my library books having forgotten to bring the stupid things along with me. Then I hopped on a bus to Oxford Street. This is not a good idea in the festive season - in fact I would say it is never a good idea, as Oxford Street is generally full of bewildered tourists who walk very slowly in front of me, when I am trying to get my shopping and get out. But sadly I had to go, because I needed to get those seashell chocolate things for my dad.

But before I did that, naturally I popped into HMV to browse. Having forced myself to suffer the ignominy of being seen entering the "Easy Listening" section of the store, I promptly bought a Marlene Dietrich CD and one of similarly old songs which I have temporarily forgotten. And a pair of headphones.

Does anyone else have the problems with headphones I have? I bought some just a month ago, and they are dead already! I end up either with seriously reduced sound, only being able to hear in one ear or having strange noises in my ears. I got some nice fancy headphones for my birthday - the ones that go round your ears - but it turns out that my ears are not designed for those things, and I have to cellotape them to my head in order to hear anything. And frankly, being seen in public with headphones taped to my head is a bit too embarassing for me.

That aside, I am pleased with my purchases. I actually bought more for me than anyone else today, partly because, on looking into my bank account, I discovered that I have considerably more money than I should have. Now whether this is my benefits being paid in early or a mistake courtesy of HM Government, I don't know. But I'm making hay while the sun shines.

Went into Selfridges to look for those chocolates and they had sold out. Obviously everyone else's dad likes the things as well. I did, however, find a bizarre pen which rumour has it is good for left-handed folk, which I bought dad. Then I went to Tescos and found the chocolates there, which only goes to show that you can be too fancy.

Then I walked down to Borders and bought a little book for mum, and a book on French for me (well I did do six years of it, and am now ashamed that I can barely swear in the language let alone speak), a book on travelling around Europe, and a couple of books of poetry. I wanted a book of poems from Iraq but they seemed to have sold out so I got one on French symbolism instead.

What I really wanted, however, was two books:

Alexandria, City of Memory by Michael Haag. Now, this has had some nice reviews, but I mainly want it because it talks about Cavafy, of whom there is a curious silence by most people. He is my favourite poet and I want to know about the city he mentioned in the things he wrote. However, Borders did not have this in stock and I think I might wait for paperback in any case.

The other book is Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter. We have a copy of this, an ancient old Penguin one. I abstracted it from my mother's bookshelves some years ago, and read it an awful lot. Not because I am particularly fond of de Beauvoir - I've never read anything else she's written and find it a wee bit bizarre that a woman famous for feminism should accept a second-class place to her lover - but because I am very fond of autobiographies. Particularly of people who lived in interesting places like Paris - rather than growing up in Whitley Bay which, for all that I am fond of it, is hardly exciting. Sadly I have just discovered that this book is out of print in the UK - though it is still in print in America. Which means that the next time dad goes off to his oil thing in Texas I'll have to ask him to buy me a copy. You see, the copy I have has died - the binding has cracked and the pages are coming out. This is the problem with glue-bound rather than stitched books, if they last thirty years you're very lucky indeed.

This has turned out to be rather a longer entry than I was intending...anyway, I really must go now because I have to pack. I may or may not be able to post over the holidays but I will certainly try to.

Merry Christmas!

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