Where's My Medal?

I want a medal for today's efforts. It's now three days till Christmas and every single person who's left their shopping till the last minute has decided to shop at my local shopping centre. You know, the one that I go to every week day. Where I can sit and have a peaceful early morning coffee and do the Sudoku and crossword in the paper without distraction. The place where I can blissfully stroll unimpeded ... Well, that place has become a hellhole of Dante-esque proportions.

The parking wasn't bad. And that is the only positive I'll say about today's experience. My first task was to do my weekly shopping. I grabbed a trolley pushed it into the store and almost ran over a lovely, grey-haired nana who'd pushed her trolley in and decided to stop in the entrance. Good one Nana! Keep that up and you won't make it to Christmas.

But Nana was only the start. My path was blocked in every direction - wayward toddlers, wayward husbands and wayward dementia patients who had absolutely no idea why they were there (or at least that's how they acted). I started to go one direction only to make a quick dodge and slide to avoid fatal contact. By my fourth aisle I was ready to throw down my gloves and challenge the next impediment to my forward progress. "Cleaning Aisle in five minutes. Bare fists. No weapons. Yes, that walking stick does count as a weapon." I thought the cleaning aisle would be best if there was any blood - I'm thoughtful that way.

I finally made it to the end of my list and got to a checkout. I lied at the beginning when I said that there was only one positive in this shopping adventure. There were plenty of checkouts open so I didn't have to wait long. I could finally escape into the rest of throbbing, seething centre. I made my way up to have my coffee with my parents. We got around to discussing Christmas Day plans and apparently I'm hosting Christmas Day lunch. Might have been nice to know this before I did my shopping. It looks as though I'm going to have to face it all again tomorrow!!



PS I deliberately ran this morning to fill me chock-full of lovely, peace-giving endorphins. I chose to do a route that I hadn't done for a while and thought was about 12k. Turns out it was 15k, hilly (how did I forget the hills??!!) and it was pretty warm and humid (95%). If I did have any post-run endorphins, they were not strong enough. But my post-nap calm is upon me now and the kids are safe to approach without fear.