Seriously!! They've got decorations for sale in stores, Some even have started to hang them already - we have the Christmas sales ("buy now, save for xmas!") and people making Christmas plans.

IT'S SEPTEMBER?!?!?!??

I used to get annoyed when they started in October...

Is it just me, or does Christmas seem to come earlier every year?

omg!

i know!

it's fucking ridiculous!

i noticed it at the store and people were actually shopping the christmas aisles...

..so i can't really blame the stores.....it's the stupid fucking people!

we've only got christmas confectionary  in the stores round here...it doesn't say they're for christmas.....but you know they are...

look on the bright side....it won't be long before the easter eggs are out.

Blergh

grrrrrrrr.....

at least it's not only america..

There's always some season or holiday or something to sell for.

I think they just set aside "seasonal" areas in shops, then fill them with stuff for whatever the next event is.

In the same way as "back to school" stuff appears in shops as soon as schools break up.

what i'd like to see is when the first batch of mince pies goes on sale, no-one buys them....and they all go out of date before its even christmas......that would be funny....hehehe!

That assumes that mince pies will even go out of date.

*doesn't know what mince pie is, but it sounds similar to fruitcake, which is nigh on indestructible*

i think that mince pies are perishable......

.......unlike fruitcake......which, like dj said, would probably outlast both twinkies and cockroaches...

Yeah, mince pies are pretty long lived, but I imagine that eventually they would transform into penicillin/botulism factorys..

We had a homemade christmas pudding in one of those turkey bags for about 3 months. Maybe we even got it in july... It stayed there until December when, regretfully we ate it. And yes, it tasted fine. *sigh*

Put lots of Brandy/Rum in em, (only as a preservative of course)..

Or drink the brandy/rum and feed the cake/pies to the birds.

I hate fruit cake and mince pies,,,  In fact I hate most things about commercial Christmas, especially the shops starting to decorate up right now.

I like sitting at home with a smooth alcoholic beverage, watching Carols by Candlelight on TV. That does Christmas for me. Everything else can go to hell

Morgan, I noticed that when I was in Myers on Sat. I almost wanted to go and burn it all down.

It's only Sept. Totally ridiculous

I honestly think that Myer should be renamed "seasons"

Seriously. They always have sales on for new-season this or new-season that. Doesn't matter if its clothes, manchester, confectionary, decor, electronics, perfume, make-up, whatever... It drives me nuts!

You know, I wouldn't know... I set my brain to ignore everything Myer and David Jones by default

Can someone tell me why I'd feel the need to buy a 6 foot snowman, resplendent with dozens of lights, to put in my garden.  There is one (plus other garish tree/santa/sleigh type junk) for sale in a local garden centre.  It won't be long before the idiots in our area go and fork out a heap of money on that sort of crap and then make their front gardens look like a heap of illuminated shit.  Global warming here we come...

Cos global warming melted your snow?

But no, in all seriousness, I agree Mr Dent

yeah.....i just don't get it...

it's a completely foreign concept to me...

Very well, according modern consumerism, I can call this an early christmas present to myself: http://mogostore.com/proddetail.asp?prod=MG104-0102

In darwin every year, the power and water association (PAWA) hold a competition for "best decorated yard/lights/house/etc" and the prize is to win a years free electricity.

So what... they make more money on the back of all the stupid light-up shit on the "well decorated" houses, than they make in a year from one household? That sounds waaaay out, so it's probably more of "hey look at us" promotional thing...

That's pretty cool DJ, except I don't see how it works as a mouse?

SK, the lure of a year's free electricity is enough to make any grinch start decorating!

@dek: it's optical... somehow.

found a vid:

Oh... that's pretty cool....

Crappy ad, but cool mouse

It's not an ad (god, I hope not); I suspect it's some guy showing off his new toy, because that's what I'd do

Ohhh....

oops

@SK - the electricity rates are pretty cheap in darwin. I used to pay around $140 a quarter for mine

I think a family household would pay around $250-300 p/q

maybe.. thats really pushing it... it really is quite cheap

We pay around 200 - 220 /quarter. I suspect the 160 litre electric hot water system accounts about 150 of that. Soon we will be going Solar hot water which should cost about 150 / year with 70% heating from the sun.

Wrt Xmas, I was in David Jones about a month ago. I don't know why. I generally have no business there. It is scary passing through the doulton section with the kids. I noted one particular area was full of xmas trees. It was the one time I was encouraging the boys to willfully or otherwise inflict damage in a retail store.

hahahaha

I'd like to go on an excursion with your boys

that's funny...

yesterday i was with baby blue at the warehouse store...which now has a much larger christmas section..

she has already learned.......and started loudly proclaiming...."what! christmas stuff already?.....it is waaay to early for that....that is just ridiculous!"

brought a tear to my eye....i was so proud.

way to go baby blue!

did anyone stop and stare at her with bemused looks on their faces?

not as many people as i would've hoped.......

ah well....plenty more time...

HAHAHAHA

That's just sooooo cool!!!

You know, it has just occured to me that 'starting' Christmas earlier would be really unfair on kids, and as a consequence, their parents.
They'd have to wait sooooo long till it actually came around!

I was in a shopping centre sometime last week when I decided to do all my xmas shopping in November. There were just waaayy too many people there, and it was just a regular weekend! Forget Christmas!!

Yeah... Christmas is the reason I started shopping at night

it's amazing how much you can actually get done the day before christmas.

and the prices are usually dropping by then....

Oh yeah, if I can be bothered, then I go day before, otherwise I just wait till after. Everything is dirt cheap after that

Mrs Dent finished the majority of her Christmas shopping in the January sales...

hehehe The Jan sales are when I stock up on birthday items if I see anything worthy

I always wanted to do that, but figured I'd forget about anything I bought that long ago

I hate the january sales...there is always far to many things i want and never enough money to get them....

Good thing I don't splurge before Christmas...

Morgan - my problem is the complete opposite. The moment I buy something for someone, I need to give it to them. It's very hard for me to hold it back.

Oh don't worry, I'm exactly the same. - my biggest problem is that I can't buy small gifts for people. I have to spend over $100 every time

Feel free to buy me a gift anytime Morgan...

I get great satisfaction in spending the least amount for the most useful present I can think of

I only ever buy practical presents.  I can't reconcile myself to buying something for novelty value.  Like USB toasters or similar battery operated widgets...

i'm looking forward to another pair of simpsons socks this year....

i wouldn't mind a USB toaster....just for something different....

I'd like one of those USB drink-keep-warmers. Those would be cool.

For now, I just got myself a USB keep-lappie-cool-tray thingy

And Mr Dent, yeah, same here. If I can't find something useful, I'll just wait till I find something

yeah...that drink warmer would be handy....i've got half a cup of cold tea next to me right now...

thankfully, i ran out of coffee so i didn't waste any of that....what a tragedy that would have been...

poor coffee

no....can't pour coffee...haven't got any....

I'm gonna have some!

*cry*

I'd kill for a coffee now

And I have just the right people in mind....

ooh..cranky girl on the loose

Sir M, if I'm forced to be awake, I need a coffee to go with it...

*backs away slowly, hoping there is coffee nearby*

*bounces in*

I has coffeeeee!!

Care to share??

me want coffee......

me need coffee.... me went drinkies last night

Pisspot...^^..

LOL!

Me drinking coffee right now!

You're all such caffeine addicts... 

No I not!

*she sez sipping her iced tea*

i managed to run out of tea and coffee yesterday....a most serious oversight

i just love coffee...

Had the crappiest coffee this morning. Bought a large too.... remind me never to get a mocha from that place ever again

oh that reminds me.. I need to buy more tea!!

If ever we run out of tea or coffee....  actually I don't know that we ever have.  Mrs Dent deals with the procurement of such comestibles.  Maybe we have run out and she cadged some from a neighbour.

Oh, I miss having neighbours I could run across to when I ran out of things...

These days, I just keep track of everything.

Actually, it's easier to do with only one person in the house. Adding people to the equation complicates matters

yeah.....i don't mind sharing what i have....but please don't finish it without me knowing....

I have my own unofficial rule on sharing: If I can't tell you borrowed it after you've used it, you may borrow it.

that's a great rule, dj.

I like it too, I'm actually going to use that>

Well.. that leaves food out...

I believe we've covered that - I'm a Uni student, I don't have any food that I haven't already eaten

ahhh... yesh

What's there left to borrow then?

Breathing space.

i had a college roommate.....when she moved in i told her she was welcome to use anything of mine...

she used to track me down to ask to use stuff.........it drove me nuts

one day she tracked me down at a friends room......to ask if she could borrow a paper towel!

wtf!

At least you weren't engaged in some root-ti-toot.  Imagine that. Door bursts open and she asks.  "Do you have a spare paper towel?",  "Er... sorry I won't know until we're finished here!"  LOL

hahahaha

Yeah, I've learnt to be less open about sharing from my days in uni.

It's not that I don't share - It more like I wait to find out how psychotic the borrower is first

mr. dent......i didn't actually say where i was or what i was doing....

You said you were in a friends room.  I just added a little bit of colour...

thank you.

you know i love a little bit of color.

So I don't have to confiscate the paints and crayons from Mr Dent then?

oh no!

please don't...

The unanswered question is, was my colourful scenario correct and if so did you have any spare towels afterwards...?

*covers her eyes*

no.....it was completely innocent........

where did you learn a phrase like that? i can't imagine anyone using it to describe anything relating to you

@Dek.  When you get to my age, you are only allowed to have crayons.  The paint was taken away a few years ago.

Awww.... poor Mr Dent...

Another one of the pitfalls of growing old eh?

Or even an advantage.  Instead of patches of dried paint on my clothes I only have dribbles of red wine, coffee and the odd blob of gravy stain down the front of me...

LOL!

at least you know what you had for dinner....

*takes notes*

Visual aids help take the strain off memory loss

And that's another thing.  I can survive on red wine, coffee and gravy.

sweet...must make your grocery shopping easy...no need to write a list....its right there...in(on the?) front of you..

hahahaha

It's a bugger if I put a clean shirt on before I go shopping...

Hey, at least you have an excuse for not getting your laundry done then...

I don't do laundry

I dump dirty stuff on the floor and the clothes fairy comes and launders, irons, hangs up in wardrobe or folds in a drawer ready for next use.  Amazing stuff!

I guess being married has some perks after all...

i wonder what Mrs Dent thinks of all that.

Don't feel sorry for Mrs Dent.  Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday a Mrs Phillips comes in and does for us.  If the Laundry was up to Mrs Dent I'd have new clothes every day and the dirty stuff would be binned...

I think you've just come up with the marketing strategy for the Salvation Army... and clothing lines too!

Is Mrs Phillips available on a Tuesday and Thursday?

In which case I can has Saturdays?

I expect she is.  Don't forget she'd have to be paid expenses and judging by the amount we have to pay her it won't be cheap...

I'd say a trip to Australia 3 times a week might make her a bit more pliable

The idea of having 3 trips to Australia every week means 3 trips to the UK.  And who in their right mind would want to go there.  Also it's near enough a 24 hour journey so the days would have to be extended and all that crap.  To be perfectly honest I won't even mention the possibility of work in Australia to her because I would possibly end up having to find another lady that does...