The terrible price of a bargain

Happy new year, first of all. I hope everyone had fun getting smashed and setting themselves or other people's houses ablaze with fireworks.

So, what can I say about 2009? It's not 2008 or 2010, it's somewhere in between. It doesn't roll of the tongue quite as well as 2008 did, it actually requires articulation to be understood rather than 2008, which could be slurred and easily understood (rather helpful when drunk). Lots of stuff will happen this year, especially for me; I'll be leaving school finally, I'll have to adjust to whatever regional British accent I have to put up with, I'll have to struggle to make friends and influence people and I'll have to come to terms with the fact that my parents are actually more useful that I previously thought.

I got back from the UK a few days ago, and my god, what madness I experienced there, in that horrible, dark and soul-destroying world of the After-Christmas sales. I will never understand what exactly it is about sales that can turn even the sweetest old lady into THE INCREDIBLE HULK WITH A HANDBAG. I'm not kidding, by the time I managed to squeeze my way out of M&S in Birmingham, my ribs ached from how often I was elbowed around the shop. I wasn't even trying to browse (I hate Marks and Spencers and their old-women clothes), I was just elbowed while wandering aimlessly around the shop. Apparently on the opening day of the sales in the UK, there were countless reports of shoppers behaving less like humans and more like animals as they invaded shopping malls round the country. Considering the behaviour I saw when I was there, I can believe it. Even in M&S, there were clothes strewn on the floor that obviously had been picked up and deemed unsuitable for purchase by some permed middle-aged biddy and thrown to the ground in a flurry of coat hangers and tags. Spectacular, yet grossly disheartening at the same time. Sales, it has to be said, reduce the human race into rabid consumerist animals- like crack addicts desperate for that one quick fix- willing to do anything for something that costs just a few pounds less than before.

On the bright side, the areas of most shops that were not part of the sales were very quiet, so I managed to pick up some stuff. To be honest, I didn't see the point of venturing into the sales at all, as because of the current mess the British economy is in, the pound was worth much less compared to the euro, so everything was a bargain. Thank you America, thank you for the gift of brand new DVDs at 8 euros each!