Festive cheer running a little thin….?

This year I feel OK, perhaps even verging on smug, thanks to the proliferation of Internet shopping, I no longer have to troop around stores looking vaguely up and down the shelves for divine inspiration.  Many years ago, I remember going shopping in the nearest town, and going into Boots to get my Mums favourite, Fenjal oil bath.  However, on entering the store, it seemed everyone else had gone into slow motion; meandering up and down the aisles, some older folk completely unintentionally blocking them with baskets whilst gazing blankly at the shelves.  I can remember my sister and I becoming very irritated at this, we knew what we wanted, we would have given anything to just buy and get out of there.

In Switzerland, if we wanted to do Internet shopping, we either had to order really early from abroad, or go through the Swiss German sites, in which case you had to know exactly what you wanted.  Buying for our families whilst abroad also involved local buying ‘on behalf of… ‘as the cost of sending parcels overseas from Switzerland is astronomical.  Even a small gift can be about 13 CHF or about 10 GBP to send. It rapidly becomes nonsense to send low value gifts this way, as often the postage started costing way more than the gift.  It does tend to take the shine of Christmas, as I always like the giving part of Christmas, especially if I have thought of a good gift to send.

It could be that Christmas cheer is running a little thin on the ground here in the UK, due to the fact that Christmas run-up started back in August.  I noticed that my local Morrisons was stocking the biscuit tins and Christmas chocolate packs, back in the summer.  I used to enjoy the Swiss supermarkets at Christmas, they only started to really get the Xmas stock in when they had finished the Autumn marketing and Halloween campaigns.  Then early December comes Guetzli (Christmas biscuits) making ingredients.  I will miss making these this year, as some of my cookbooks and cutters remain in removal boxes.  Fudge; I will be making this year.  I made 4 bags for the girls’ teachers at the end of the school term.   It was pretty inexpensive to make, just requires a little patience and lots of stirring!

  I have noticed of late, there has been a distinct rise in the number of bickering couples in the shops.  I told Steve to shoot me the moment we start arguing over whether we should buy a flimsy Baco Turkey foil roasting tray.  I am not sure why this particular couple were having an issue in Lakeland, but the man, thought (all be it wrongly) that the tray would be too small for the turkey (I might add not sure why they would specifically market a Turkey Roasting tray if it was going to be too small for one, but there you go…).  The wife did not take kindly to this pearl of wisdom from her husband  (perhaps because the husband was invading her cookery territory), saying it would be fine.  Personally, I am not sure I would have worried arguing about an aluminium tray that cost 1.50 GBP and that is so flimsy it would need supporting underneath with another tray.  Besides, they must make Bisto gravy, as you cannot use the brownings in an alu tray like that…. I have an anodised tin that I put straight on the hob and make the best gravy from the brownings left at the end. If I am really lucky I get giblets too.  My mum was told last week in Tescos (after asking politely for the lady to move her trolley aside) to ‘JUST WAIT!.  My mum announced that she ‘didn’t wait for anyone’, especially when she was using most of the aisle up stretching across her trolley to reach something on the shelf. Last week, I was shopping and there were 2 customers waiting to be served.  A older looking man yelled.’ Where is the manager?’  ‘ I want to see the manager, we should not be waiting like this, these ladies should not have to wait to get served’.  The cashier tried her hardest to placate this man, ‘I suggest using one of the self check-outs Sir, if you do not wish to wait’.  ‘I don’t come in here to check out my own shopping, you’re meant to do that’. He continues in a loud suitably embarrassing voice;  ‘I want to see the manager, where is the manager? He’s never here is he?’.  A poorly suited man approaches, ‘Are you the manager?’.  ‘No, I am the deputy manager’.  ‘Where is the manager then?’.  The deputy manager does not think about how his answer could be misconstrued, he said, ‘He’s not in this morning, he had a late night last night’.  This did not go down well.  I am not sure how he managed to get this man placated, but in the end, they were having a more amicable conversation, and the man eventually got another checkout opened for him to speed him out the store.    Ahhh…Christmas, a time to think of others?  A time of goodwill towards men (or women : in the PC version)?

Even the checkout lady in the supermarket was groaning on Friday.  I said that Christmas had not even started yet, and we were by no means in the worst week yet, yes the week before Christmas.  Last year, my mum said that she had the sense to steer clear of Tescos in the 2 days prior to Christmas.  A perfectly normal society breaks into a state of sheer pandemonium and ‘grab and go’ mentality. The first to go is milk.  Most people can get by on perhaps 6 litres of milk for the period.  But when the shops close for one day, it seems necessary to stock up perhaps with three times the normal required, whether it’s needed or not,  get there too late and you will see the shelves stripped bare.   Cars queue for spaces, snaking out of the car park and congesting the roads beyond.   All this, because the stores will shut, in some cases as late as 10pm on Christmas Eve, and reopen on Boxing Day some as early as 08.00am in the morning….! What makes me laugh is that because of strict Swiss Sunday trading laws, for the last 8 years, I was perfectly used to going upto 3 days with the shops closed over Christmas if the closure period fell over  a Sunday . Closure on a weekend is a weekly occurrence, so the Swiss are conditioned to shop closure  (except those close to the mainline stations in the City and service stations, these are allowed to remain open under restricted Sunday opening times.)  unlike in the UK.   This year most Swiss can shop til 5pm on 24^th and then will not go shopping again in a supermarket until 8am on 27^th, and guess what? People don’t starve.  Plus they can’t get 18 litres of milk, because they only come in 1 litre containers J.

Although we missed seeing our families at Christmas, I always used to secretly (rather selfishly, I admit) like staying in Switzerland over the Christmas period.  Reinach and Basel used to have this tranquillity fall over it, it was positively relaxing.  Most families went away for skiing and our development fell blissfully quiet.  We created the family tradition of going to the outdoor ice skating Rink at Margarethen Park, Basel, early in the morning on Christmas Eve, as most Swiss families are readying themselves for their main celebration.  The rink was never that busy, and it felt really festive and wintery whatever the weather.   With our Familienpass card, it was also 1 of 2 free entries too!  I am not sure the indoor rink at the John Nike Centre Bracknell is going to have the same kind of feel, or be free, but there we go!  The 25^th for the Swiss doesn’t hold the same significance as in the UK.  I hope to overcome the insane UK shopping frenzy by being organised.  Even on 23^rd December, the Swiss supermarkets were mildly bustling, but people always had a sense of purpose, no dallying, they just got on with it, and waited patiently as is festively possible at the checkouts.  The great thing was that due to the Swiss time keeping, you could accurately predict almost to the minute when everyone was going to do their shopping.  Outside Christmas, on a Saturday, most Swiss would head out at 10.30-11.30am to do their shopping.  I always went at 9.30-10.00am, my neighbours probably wondered why.  The shop was always virtually empty at this time.  At Christmas, everyone starts about 30 minutes earlier.  It’s great living with such predictability, as you can work around it.  


Histeria? 

Well, I think I will avoid that altogether, it just adds to the Christmas stress……………..

Donation Fatigue....

The sun is shining, it’s very cold (last night dipped below freezing) and today I was missing our cosy  underground Swiss shared garage.  I was spraying the screen with de-icer and my hands were turning to blocks of ice in the process.  I should be feeling good on account of the sun shining and all the great work we have done recently, but I reckon we are suffering from a condition I would coin ‘donation fatigue’. 

Relatively new to being back in schools in the UK, I started to whole heartedly get involved with charitable giving through the girls primary school, whether it be for the PTA (parent-teacher association) or for external charities.  When the first sponsored event came along a few weeks into September, I was not phased, so we duly roped a few family members in to contribute to the Maths challenge at school for the NSPCC.  It was educational, the girls had to answer as many of their set math questions as accurately as they could. 20 GBP raised.

I take all of Alices old summer clothes to Cancer research in Wokingham.    ? ? GBP raised!

Next is the appeal for cakes to sell on behalf of the PTA at the school disco to raise money.  Cakes made, but found out that my 15 cakes although all sold (probably due to the rather bright sprinkles that adorned their tops) were only sold for 20p each.  I think someone does not realize that a pack of butter now costs 1.30 GBP alone. 3 GBP raised.

Next came Poppy appeal, we take our money in and the girls come back happy with their poppies. 70p raised.

Next came Children in Need, bring in your Teddy Bear and a donation.  Both girls managed to forget their teddies on that morning, so we did not donate on this occasion. 0 GBP raised.

Next comes the Christmas raffle tickets for the PTA Christmas Fayre, we bought 5 tickets, 5GBP raised.

Then we have non-uniform day, an excellent way of getting tombola gifts donated for the PTA Christmas Fayre.  Come in non-uniform in exchange for the gift.  I tell another mum a week back that I have been really organized and got my tombola gifts whilst there are half price offers in Morrisons.  I buy something that I would not mind winning  myself, a big tin of Quality Street and a tin of cheese biscuits from Jacobs.  The reply was, ‘ahhh….you obviously have not understood about the tombola…. Last year I spent 20 GBP and in return got a box of stock cubes, a value tin of beans and a half drunk bottle of wine….. what? A half drunk bottle of wine?  It is surely better to donate nothing than donate something that should have been tipped down the sink…?!  A similar story from another school where they managed to collect in a few packets of out of date biscuits, and….yes you’ve guessed it, a half drunk bottle of wine.  

OK, that’s 10 GBP donated in prizes.

It is double donation day, as they need more cakes for the PTA.  Well thinking about the pricing last time, I donate something that was quick to make, and easy to transport.  Thought everyone would give cupcakes, which are my usual specialty, but decided not to spend hours on fancy decs if they are selling for 20p a cake.  Make millionaires shortbread.  4 GBP donated in a cake costs.  Stick a label on the cakes saying , ‘please do not undercharge, these cost 15p a slice to make’.  Hopefully someone will get the idea of how high they need to go on the price.  It’s a little demoralizing to put in the time and not really get any more money than the cost of what it was to make back.  You can’t even get a value uniced cupcake in a shop for less than 20p…..!

Next week, I need to provide some savoury food, but think this will be minimal, as it happens about 2 hours after they have had their Xmas dinner at school.  It is for Year 3 Christmas party, then it's Year 6s turn a few days later, some food required for that too…..

This week was hunting through my packing boxes, and came across some printer cartridges, looked them up under http://www.eachonecounts.co.uk/

Found that my old HP cartridges could have value for our nominated charity, Guide Dogs.  This one was satisfying because these were things I thought I had thrown out in Switzerland, and was quite surprised to see them lying in the bottom of the box, plus they could have a new lease of life and be worth something! Upto 7GBP raised with giftaid added. 

Buckets will be rattled at the end of the Year 3 Christmas play next week, money will be collected for The Rainbow Trust  http://www.rainbowtrust.org.uk/. 

Buckets will be rattled again at the end of our Christmas concert, to raise money for the Mayors’ Charity in Wokingham.

There seems to be so many charities all vying for funds here in the UK.  Not a week goes by here in the UK without a prepacked bag dropping through the door asking for clothing for charity.  It was a lot less pressurized in Switzerland, perhaps they get more state support, I am not sure, but we were only ever asked every year by local school children to buy a 5CHF badge/chocolatecoin for Pro Patria : http://www.propatria.ch/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=10&sobi2Id=1152&Itemid=80   and support the Surbaum Treff where classes took it in turns to do a BBQ twice a year to raise funds for the Klasse kasse  (The class money pot).  We had a few clothing sacks to fill for ESB (local charity, clothes recycling). Apart from that, we were never asked for that much for charitable giving.

I now quake in anticipation as to what is in store for the Spring and Summer, and thanks, Veronica, for telling me it will get worse when Laura hits secondary school!   Don’t get me wrong, I love supporting my named charities, especially Salvation Army at Christmas and Cancer Research, but you can only give so much, and this last 3 months, I have definitely started to feel a little fatigued, the last 3 months have been expensive…….