Small Beds and Large Bears

I’ve been trying with little success to buy a birthday card in Witney for my Granddad. The town has three card shops of note, not including gifty-wifty craft shops which sell cards with hand-affixed twine and sticks for the cost of a takeaway. You’d expect three shops to provide between them at least one card [...]

One of the tasks you have to attend to (desultorily) when you move house is changing one’s address with banks, utility companies and now the DVLA. Last night I had just finished addressing envelopes for both licence and car registration, when I heard on the radio that the postal workers’ strike would begin tomorrow viz [...]

As I haven’t written much here recently, my regular readership has probably dwindled to the level where it’s unlikely that anyone will remember, still less care about, our experiences with Ikea. Although they ended on something of a cliffhanger, the whole story is hardly so exciting that any other than the most obsessive fans are [...]

We’ve finally spent all of our wedding-gift Ikea vouchers, thank Christ. Not that we weren’t grateful for receiving them in the first place, of course: the final bill was reduced by an order of magnitude, which was a welcome surprise. And not that I don’t on one level like Ikea: the remarkably well laid-out showrooms [...]

Late last night I ran out of time and, fearful of the onset of a migraine, didn’t commit this to blog publication. Political bloggers far better than I— especially septicisle—have summarized events better than I might.
Much as feminism is first and foremost about equality and not about misandry, the anger at imported labour at Lindsey [...]

I console myself with the fact that she like others might not be an estate agent for much longer.
FALCO: Fuckall and Buyhard, Witney. Like dayglo colours and electronic music, the closure of estate agents is back in fashion.

An open letter to the staff at Rug Doctor:
Dear Rug Doctors,
Having just returned, boiling with rage, from a failed attempt to hire one of your carpet cleaners from the local DIY centre, I’m writing to tell you that you’re idiots.
I appreciate that one would require proof of identity and reliability before letting someone hire one [...]

Two days ago, I said to K:

Construction and financial firms have suffered so far, but the high street’s been unscathed. That’s what we’ve been seeing, and that’s why everyone you interview in voxpops about the credit munch always says “it’s not really affected me yet, although I’m sure it will, haha!”
My guess is that it’s [...]

… is present in the myth of consumer empowerment:
Capitalism is about power. That’s why so many elements of it are inexplicable. It is not, and has never been, about rewarding hard work. It’s about using a system that pretends to reward hard work in order to reinforce power relations between employer and employee. It is [...]

… otherwise I can’t understand why he would want their finances, their homes and their very way of live ruined by runaway climate change in the near future.
I’ve met a few people who, despite being reasonably aware of (and fairly comfortable with) the notion of social responsibility and responsibility towards others, still voted for Boris [...]