The tree is up and dressed, menus for the day discussed and orders in and presents …. well, to be honest a few bought and yet to be wrapped. Point one – make a list. Sure as eggs are eggs you’ll get home and realise you’ve forgotten the one thing you went into town to get.
It may come as a surprise but according to a survey carried out by CompareNI.com 25% of us still prefer to visit shops with only 20% doing their shopping online. The rest fluctuate between the two. It’s impossible to turn a blind eye to the efficiency of online; I went shopping for particular notebooks at the supermarket which has stocked them for years only to find a new range which were not suitable for my uses.
Went to the company site on the Internet and found their notebooks were out of stock, They offered to email me once these were available with a note – Multi-buy 6 or more and save. Price per item £4.04. No sign of their email as yet.
Success
Then I noticed my notebook on Amazon. On Saturday morning I ordered four at £1.99 each plus postage and it came to a total of £12.55 and they were delivered at lunchtime the next day. So basically I tried to buy them in the shop, I tried to buy them from the manufacturer but only online could I get them and at a much cheaper price. Hard to argue with that.
It’s always chancy to order on line, how do you know it’s genuine?
Mary lives in the country and does most of her shopping this way and has some advice, especially at this time of year when pressure is great on both customer, provider and delivery firm. “If I see something on Facebook that I fancy I then go onto Amazon on the Internet to see if it’s genuine and only when I’ve read all the small print do I place my order and keep my email receipt. This has been recommended by a bank fraud department. Also I often find it’s cheaper on Amazon than in a brochure so It’s a good thing to remember. I also keep a bank account for on-line shopping with only a limited amount in it so if I am scammed there’s very little to loose. I also make sure there is a refund policy and a label for returns.” Still, be very careful when placing an order, if in doubt don’t bother. By the way, watch for recent phone scams, o2 asking for information and a text from my ‘son’ asking me to phone his new number. No thanks.
Travel Light
The CompareNI survey has also discovered that with a third of people travelling between 10 and 20 miles for Christmas shopping and with 82% admitting it takes them more than one trip to find and purchase all their presents this, plus traffic jams and a lack of parking places, makes for a very tiring and expensive shopping trip.
So CompareNI has come up with some tips to help cut down on the cost of travel, ideas like making sure your tyres are at the correct level of air which can boost your fuel economy by up to 3%. Strip your car of anything heavy to improve fuel economy – an empty roof box and an empty boot helps. Wash your car. What help is that? Apparently little or no debris on the body work means it can travel more efficiency. MD of Compare NI Ian Wilson has it sussed: “With the added milage and possible traffic congestion simple things like driving economically, reducing the weight of the car and planning the trip ahead to include the cheapest petrol stations can all help keep costs down.”
Good common sense but I know men who search out the cheapest petrol and then drive extra miles to get it! So the money you save is spent on driving all the way to the chosen petrol station. Where’s the logic in that? A woman wouldn’t fall for it, even as has been said, middle class women of a certain age!
Use Your Imagination
I’ve also worked out a plan for buying for friends and relations although not for sons and daughters or grandchildren, they get special attention; throughout the year I try to elicit ideas from them, in some cases paying towards car insurance or a fill of oil or petrol plus some little token wrapped in Christmas paper and under the tree. For children books make a good main gift. This year I’ve bought Jamie Oliver’s latest cook book Simply and yet again The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy, the most magical book to be enjoyed by young and old, For the rest I plan to go to one store and buy everything there or perhaps think of a variation on one item, two years ago I bought a dozen good quality kitchen scissors and they were well received. Another time it was scarves, silky, woolly, plain and fancy and for one couple two sirloin steaks, onions and a bottle of wine. Went down well.
Happy shopping.
I have received some very lovely books over the last few weeks. Achill Remembers Marie Howell brightened my day and inspired me to get the paints out again when Mary J Murphy sent me a copy of this 40th anniversary tribute to the Belgian impressionist painter. In her extremely informative book Mary charts the story of Marie from the day she arrived in Achill on 4th August 1929. She was emersed in the rugged beauty of the place and the people she met and the book holds many illustrations, paintings and photographs. For 55 years she held Achill in her heart and her paints reflected the deep affection she had for the place. Mary has witten a most compelling story and her own deep love of the island is evident. Published in August by Knockma Publishing.
La Fenaison Dooagh 1929. Achill Remembers Marie Howell
It’s a good time of year to delve into Emerging from the Mess. Finding Hope in Life’s Storms. Written by Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds takes the reader through the roller coaster of life, the ups and down, grief and the joy if you search for it. This is an easy book to read. Each chapter printed on its own muted coloured paper with relevant photos enhancing the words. Each chapter ends with a prayer and a scripture and the message in the book is to find hope in God. Whether you are a believer or not this book is of interest and positivity. Published by Messenger Publications ie.
The Cat Who Lost His Miaow is a lovely little book, beautifully illustrated, for children by Susan B McCarthy who takes the reader looking for the miaow, where has it gone? What does it look like? More at pegasuspublishers.com
Belfast woman Angela Graham has been at it again and has written 32 poems for the Christmas season under the title Star. We meet a young refugee girl having baby in an outhouse and a reluctant farmer drawn into the birth scene, his wife on the mobile phone the young father overwhelmed. The birth in Bethlehem re-enacted in December 2024. ‘Winter is senile,’ she write in another with a current comment ‘Because I have been complacent about climate change.’
There’s something of everyone including Welsh speakers, even Christmas Eve a poem in Ulster-Scots complete with a mention of ‘Marks an Spencers in Ballameena’! I love Angela’s work, it’s quirky, it’s relevant, it’s a delight. At the end she takes us into the New Year – “The god of new beginnings is the one for me since I hardly know what it is I’m doing – how much damage how much good – so I choose forgiveness and forgiven-ness and hope.” Illustrated by Matin Erspamer OSB this is published by Phil Cope at Culture and Democracy Press. Lovely book to have anytime of year.
It’s been quite a week on the international scene, the good, the bad and the unexpected. Only Prince Andrew gave us a little light relief. I met him once and although I had always disliked his character but I found him charming, easy company and I’m not surprised he can gain peoples attention and approval – but my social chat-up was fleeting. Don’t you just wonder what the week before us holds. Never was it more important than to live one day at a time.