I am often puzzled by modern life.

I'm not a real curry eater but I do put some curry powder in a slow cooked stew.
The dogs have always loved it, it's the cleanest bowl of all time afterwards but my dog only gets a taster.

 

When we were holidaying here in the 80s we went to buy a tin of sardines for a waif cat (may have been Gato my Sister took to Germany) I picked up ones in oil but the shopkeeper said No they prefer these and handed me a tin of ones in piri piri sauce! Ours were both born here but they eat normal cat or people food.

 

My mum's first dog chewed the furniture a little and they were advised, by a vet, to use something that it wouldn't like to stop it. They were told mustard would be good but the dog absolutely loved it.

 

I belong to an art website (although I must say I don't look at it very often)
and this year they decided to have a Christmas card swap - every one would paint a Christmas card and send it to another member of the site. So everyone got a card from someone. You were given the name of the person you'd send yours to.

I got my card a few days ago, so looked at the site to thank the sender, only to find that most members had received theirs, and they were eagerly waiting for mine, so that they could display them.
It's still November ! what's the rush !
I don't 'do' Christmas until December, so they will have to wait, and I've told them so

I find this over-excitement (if that's a word) that people seem to have these days, rather childish and silly. I won't be joining in with this thing next year, if they decide to have it.
It's one thing to be light hearted or 'young at heart' but childishness it a totally different thing, and there's a lot of that these days .

 

I do agree about Xmas "arriving" earlier and earlier but given that the postal system via Royal Mail gets worse and worse, perhaps they are concerned that their cards won't arrive until after the event ?

 

Xmas has a limit here as OH's birthday is on the 7th and, in Belgium, we had St Nicolas on the 6th for children's presents.

I don't mind sitting making Xmassy crafts from late November but I don't want cards and decs put up till as late as possible and the all come down on 12th night. We're all atheists anyway so a good clean in time for the decs to go up for the winter solstice is fine for us.

 

Can you paint a jar of humbugs Michael.
Just add a bit of holly to keep any gardeners happy.

 

Now that's an idea ! I'll have to remember it for next year ! Thanks @pete

 

On a slightly different topic, when/why did Black Friday actually come into being ? From what I've seen, it would be better called Black November.

 

It's a US thing linked to Thanksgiving and many having the Friday off, not sure when it appeared there. It leached over here roughly with the US Halloween.

 

They could call it what they liked (Eric day for example) it's just a marketing thing.

 

I think it's already peaked in the UK - a few years ago the news was full of reports of people fighting over TVs on Black Friday, now it seems pretty much a non-event.

 

It's a bit like the Boxing Day sales @Philippa but on the day after Thanksgiving which, apparently; innvolves presents as well as the turkey feast. In our nearly 10 years here it has now become Black Friday week so it does go on a bit.