November

So it's November already, how did that happen? It must have crept up on me and now it's only 6 weeks until Christmas and I haven't done a bit of Christmas shopping. I'm usually finished long before now and being all smug about it. Not this time though.

I have an appointment in Glasgow on Saturday so I should get a chance to make a start to it then. That's when the tricky part comes in to play - what do I actually buy for people? There's little point in buying useless tat. That makes me sad to think that the Earth's resources have been used to make such rubbish and I would certainly prefer not to receive anything at all than some mindless nonsense that has no purpose other than to tick a box on the gifter's to-buy-for list. This might make me sound ungrateful but every year I spend a lot of time and energy into picking a gift that I think the receiver will enjoy and whilst I may not always get it right, I do try. I don't like it when others do not show the same consideration.

That said, I have 6 weeks to procure 24 gifts for family members (and make some gifts for friends) and this year we also have the added challenge of DH facing redundancy.

DH told someone recently about his fear that he may lose his job to which the other person, unsympathetically, told him they were looking to buy a house and asked him for mortgage advice! Way to rub salt in the wound! We wouldn't even still be in this country if it wasn't for the same persons Special Event next year. So our lives are on hold because of them and they can't even try to empathise?

Wow, 2 rants in the same blog post? OK, better settle down!

Took my niece up to Grays School of Art at RGU last Saturday for the open day. It looked really cool, I want to study there! They have rooms full of knitting machines and others full of sewing machines - Heaven! I think she really liked it too and we hope that she will get accepted for entry next autumn. Aberdeen was beautiful and sunny as it usually is when I go to visit. Again, trying to seduce me into moving back there. Maybe one day ...

I won't mention Aberdeen drivers though since I've already had 2 rants.

On another tangent, I was reading some nonsense article in the Scotsman, which led me to the Oranges and Apples blog. This was a fun read and I'm thinking about doing something similar like posting my Outfit of the Day or maybe I will try and do the capsule wardrobe thing. Not decided yet.