this is turning into one of those Christmases, isn't it?

Life We have a Christmas tree. It's smaller than usual, but the largest of what was on offer from our usual source. The place we go to, on Smithdown Road, usually has many hundreds, but this year I’d say there were a couple of dozen if that. None of the trees have been particularly huge this year it seems and there are less scotch pines too. We reminisced about a few years ago when the trees were huge and still had snow on them. Still, covered in lights and baubles it’s still beautiful and at least this time we haven’t had to chop the top and bottom off so that it’ll fit in the room.

Walking home, I couldn’t help noticing the number of shops which have stopped trading, shutters down in the middle of the afternoon. Next to go is Micro Music, which I remember seeing open in the early nineties if not longer, one of those instrument shops which always seemed to be open even though it was rarely busy. I stopped and looked through the window to see what stock was left, perhaps a bargain cable, but there wasn’t much. I made eye contact with the owner and we acknowledged each other, but he looked very glum indeed.

Between environmental changes and the credit crunch this is turning into one of those Christmases, isn't it?