Kids Hey? & more mince pies!

You have to have lived in a cave not to have read about those poor kids in the Connecticut school shootings, made all the more tragic that they were so, so young.  In the shop today a number of times I would see kids of their age getting all exited as Christmas gets nearer and in some cases getting on the edge of being a pain for their parents.  I looked into the eyes of one mother on the point of losing it with her daughter and just said, "kids hey", i think she knew where i was coming from. 

You have to imagine the pain for the parents over there, no one expects their kids to die before them but to lose kids in such a violent way it must be difficult to take it all in.  No doubt the presents are wrapped up and under the trees just like we do over here.  I wonder how many unopened presents will be kept for years with it being to painful to do anything else with them!

However, life go's on and as we rush towards the, "end of the world", did i just say end of the world? It appears the Mayan calendar which runs in 144000 day cycles ends on Friday 21st Dec.  This has been used to whip "some" people into believing that the world will end on that day. 

I read an article that shows up the old adage of "you can fool some of the people, all of the time".  In California there's a company selling and installing, for over half a million dollars a shelter that will let you "survive the end of the world" Think about it for just a short while!

Good news down at the shop, my blog of the 1st Dec talked about an elderly customer having to have her "maturity" gland scanned.  I saw her yesterday and it appears all is well with her!

I've also mentioned the chaos in the warehouse area of the shop due to us not being able to display and store some of the Christmas items on the shop floor.  Well on Sunday last one of my concerns came true.  As you can imagine with shoppers "in their Christmas buying frenzy", we are continually having to replenish the shelves. 

I noticed Sunday that our bargain "mince pies at 2 for £2" were going pretty well and decided to go fetch another box from the warehouse.  Now it would be too easy just to pick up the nearest box from one the various piles.  The idea however is to get the ones with the nearest "best by" date out first so we don't finish up having to "re-cycle them" 

I hunted around and eventually came across one box that shall we say, "should have been rec-cycled".  Not to be deterred i took it to the colleagues in the bakery who seemed to be generating plenty of custom offering items we needed to get rid of as "samples" to the customers.  The type of items i am describing here are generally ones that have been selling slowly and need a,"bit of a boost"

The mince pies were then displayed in all their glory alongside the other items and in true shopper enthusiasm, a bit of a scrum developed.  I left the shop soon after because my shift ended but was confronted by a smiling colleague on Monday claiming that the "tasting" generated so much enthusiasm we sold 3 boxes (36 units) in as many minutes.  Only 134 boxes to go then!

We had a period of pretty cold frosty weather a few days ago and it generated that wonderful hoar frost on the trees and landscape that makes you think you have switched your camera to the black and white setting.  So here are a few pics to view

A row of trees near the river

The view across the River Derwent

 



Our garden looking very cold!

 



 Finally then I see one of the policemen involved in the Andrew Mitchell "plebgate" row has been arrested for leaking details about the incident from his logbook.  I fear the ex ministers bicycle might be in custody by Friday before "the world ends!" 

Enjoy the day - - - give your kids an extra hug today!