Today was the day I had not been looking forward to: Christmas shopping day… 

It went better than I had hoped.   I don’t think the rain kept too many people away but we were quite lucky with the queues.  Even the long ones went fairly quickly.  I think it helped that we did not have to go to Argos at all: it looked quite packed out in there.

Along the way we encountered some top-class customer service, over and above the call of duty.  Special mention has to go to the young girl in Game.  Jayne was on the phone to my sister to find out about a video game for one of her kids.  Jayne told me what it was – two different choices – and I scanned the shelves but couldn’t see either of them anywhere. “I can’t see them – what else can we get instead?” I was saying to Jayne, at which point a shop assistant materialised behind us holding both games out.  Even better they were being sold on a two-for-the-price-of-one deal so we didn’t even have to make a decision.

Most depressing was how I find that since last year I have turned into an out-of-touch fogey.  I thought that sort of thing would happen gradually over a number of years but I was wrong: it happens overnight.   Last year I could have looked at a list of games/films/music on a teenager’s wish list, or even a younger child’s wish list and would know what they all were.  Suddenly they were just a list of words.  Some of them I wasn’t even sure if they were a singer whose CD I should look for or a comedian whose DVD I should look for, or some brand of clothing.

OK, so I recognised one or two names but most just meant nothing.  Chris Brown?  I still haven’t a clue who that is.  I am now feeling retrospectively sorry for all those times as a teen that I blithely sent parents, uncles or aunts out to the shops to buy the new Yes album or something like that.   I have in the past helped out elderly ladies when I have spotted them looking lost in HMV clutching a hand-written list of death metal albums but now I look set to join their ranks.